Fruit
Blackcurrant, strawberry, cherry, mirabelle plum, currant, melon, blackberry, blueberry, nectarine, peach, pear, apple, plum, damson, apricot, fig.
Focus on: peaches
There are about 300 varieties of peaches available in France. Between early and late varieties, the picking season extends from June to September.
The white peach is delicate and fragrant while the yellow peach is more robust and slightly larger. The flesh of the pavie peach tends to cling to the stone, so this variety tends to be used for preserves in syrup. The vine peach is a late grower and has reddish skin and sanguine flesh.
The peach has been known in China for 500 years and arrived in France between the 15th and 16th centuries.
Under Louis XIV, who loved it, it was first cultivated in Ile-de-France before being concentrated in the South of France where the climate is more favourable.
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Recipe idea: Peach salad with star anise and basil
Infuse a star anise and sugar in 20cl of boiling water for 15 minutes.
Then sprinkle the fruit, cut into pieces, into this syrup, add finely chopped basil and mix. Put in the fridge for several hours and serve.
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Vegetables
Garlic, artichoke, aubergine, beets, chard, broccoli, carrot, celery, cauliflower, cucumber, courgette, watercress, spinach, fennel, green bean, lentil, corn, onion, peas, leek, bell pepper, potato, pumpkin, radish, tomato, lettuce.
Focus on: cucumber
The cucumber is a fruit vegetable of the Cucurbitaceae family. It has been cultivated in China for 7,000 years and in Egypt for 4,000 years.
Jean de La Quintinie, gardener of the Versailles vegetable garden under Louis XIV, cultivated it under shelter and made it lose its original bitterness.
It is one of the most consumed vegetables in summer for its freshness and ease of use: raw, grated, in balls, in salads, cooked and even in cocktails.
Recipe idea: A detox cucumber cocktail
Crush cucumber pieces in crushed ice with a pestle. If necessary, put them in a blender then add fresh lemon juice and cranberry juice, and serve.
Fish, shellfish and crustaceans
Anchovies, sea bream, haddock, herring, hake, pollock, mackerel, red mullet, sardines, pouting, albacore or white tuna. Crab, langoustine, mussels.
Sardines are fresh and abundant from June to September. In France, they are found in the Bay of Biscay, in northern Brittany and in the coastal waters of the Gironde and Loire rivers.
This fish is from the same family as anchovy, sprat and herring and takes its name from Sardinia where it was abundant.
It is a migratory fish that lives in schools and must be eaten as soon as possible after purchase, it must have a shiny appearance, without trace of blood.
