Sunday Market

I’m just back from the Sunday organic market and, although I said I wouldn’t buy anything because I’m not around for meals the next few days, I still came home with a basket heavy enough to make me huff and puff my way up the stairs.  Of course, I didn’t buy anything that could make a “real” lunch, but I bought enough treats to make me happy for the rest of the week.

Here are a few of the things I just unpacked:

Raw milk, a liquid so exceptional it deserves a prettier name, maybe even one that doesn’t include the word “milk”, since it tastes nothing like the stuff we buy in the supermarket.  I’m not a milk drinker, never was, but when I can get this milk, I rush home, pour a glass, drink it as though it is an elixir and think:  so this is why the word “wholesome” was invented.

Lentillons, small brown – although they’re referred to as pink – lentils from the Champagne region of France. They’re notable for their color and sweetness, both a consequence of their famed terroir; I’m hoping they’ll be notable as an afternoon snack – I’ll let you know. 

Half a multi-grain bread (my friend Helene’s got the other half), a petit pain with raisins, which looks less like a roll than the little bread of its name, and couple of English muffins handmade by Michael, The Muffin Man.

And, cheese, of course.  I bought a soft, spreadable – spoonable, even – goat milk faisselle, a fresh cheese which has been drained of its whey, and an aged chevre with a crust that looks like it was plucked from some fossil find.  That’s it in the picture.  This cheese started life about ten months ago as a pyramid of soft, pristinely white goat cheese; sometime this week it’s going to finish its life grated over pasta.

Comments

[Mmm]

Your gushing over the pleasures of raw milk got me started on pursuing the study of why raw milk is not uncommon in Europe while extremely restricted and rarely and barely legal in the US. I'm new to the controversy, and quickly found out that it is a raging one! Between the two sides of the debate are the extremists (the extreme middle?) who think humans, or mammals, or maybe all animals, were never meant to drink any milk at all after being weaned from mother's milk. (I wonder if these same naysayers think humans were meant to eat oysters. But, alas, that's another discussion). Anyway, Dorie, you'll be happy to know that Connecticut is one of the few states where raw milk can be purchased in (some) stores (don't ask where; I haven't gotten that far yet). Then again, this saleable raw milk is not necessarily from pasture-fed cows, which would seem to defeat the purpose of bothering to locate it. But here's help in finding better milk -- raw and, if not raw, at least pasture-fed: www.realmilk.com/where.html.

[Helen]

I miss my milk! It just tastes so much different here in the US. I think I drink it non stop when I go home...so much so my parents start giving me the bill!

[Bonnie]

Thank you for the report on the lentillons. I have never heard of that type and I was intrigued. I wonder if I can find them in California.

[Dorie]

I cooked a small handful of the lentillons in water just to taste them and they were really interesting. They're not as full-flavored or as "meaty" as lentilles du Puy, instead that have a somewhat delicate, somewhat sweet flavor. The oddest thing was that as they were cooking, they smelled as though they were simmering in chicken broth. I'm looking forward to cooking them again, next time with some seasoning.

[Freya]

Lovely blog, I'm intruiged about the lentilles, I have seen them in the deli section of our local supermarket, and wondered if they taste much like Puy Lentils (which I love!). And raw milk - what a treat. A dairy up the road from us has just started selling upasturised milk.