We spend so much time thinking about, shopping for and preparing our food here that I thought I’d dedicate a blog to food. Anyone that knows me well knows that I eat a ridiculous amount of vegetables, so trying to keep our little refrigerator full of veggies is almost a full time job. Luckily we have two market days per week in Lausanne, and the Lausanne market is AMAZING! The marché starts at Place St. François, and the vendors are lined up and down the steep, narrow, cobblestone pedestrian only streets all the way up to Place Rippone.
While Wednesday’s market is serious business, the Saturday market is like a fête!** Even more vendors and people, musicians on the street corners, tourists stopping at the Place Palud to see the animated clock tell the history of Canton Vaud. We stopped for coffee in the square today, and saw a little boy running past us toward the clock - ah, yes, it must be the top of the hour!
The apples are starting to arrive in the market, and we were surprised to see Gravensteins. We have 7 Gravenstein apple trees at our house in Sebastopol so we're extra fond of that variety. It turns out that Gravensteins have been around since the 17th century, most likely coming from Germany or Italy. Our Sebastopol apple crop was early and light this year, so after picking three bushels of our apples, our son Scott and his friend Cody found a local farmer who sold them 200 pounds of drops for $60. They're making hard cider which is now bubbling away in Cody's garage in San Francisco.
Some of our bounty!
When we ride out of town on our bike rides, we see so many well tended and fertilized fields around Canton Vaud (with lots of cows around for that ‘a la nature’ fertilizer). We regularly pass by a farm that has a self-service stand, and this week we stopped to see one with beautifully arranged fruits and veggies. We were excited to see that same vender, “la famille Hess,” at the Wed/Sat marché at La Place Palud! So we stopped by at today’s market and had a nice chat with them, after buying some of their veggies, of course.
Another food local food novelty we’ve found (again at a self-service stand) is pataclettes (https://www.pataclette.ch/), a cross between potato skins and raclette, advertised as the first fondue or raclette you can eat with 2 fingers. For those of you who might not know, raclette is is a semi-soft cow’s milk cheese but is also a Swiss dish (also popular in the French Alpes) that involves a machine with individual paddles that are put under a heating element to melt the slices of cheese. You scrape off the cheese over new potatoes, pickled onions or cornichons. As soon as the weather turns cold, the Swiss start craving this delicious dish, and so will we!
- * On ne vous raconte pas de salades = We’re not making this up
- **Fête = party
