Saturday, June 16, 2007

Bio vegetables

The bio products are getting big in France. We joined a group call AMAP, to support the farmers who grow vegetables in smaller scale, and this one happen to be bio vegetables growers. They had to leave the land for 3 years before the soils digesting all the chemical products used on that land. We paid in advance (7.50 euros per week), to get bio supply each Thursday. The kind of vegetables we get depend on what are ready in the farm on that week.

These are what we got this Thursday.

Sometimes we got vegetable that we have never seen and don't know how to cook. Anyone knows what is this?

We visited the farm back in March.


One kind of lettuces.

The farmer and his daughter in this zucchini ground. Recently he distributes to us lots of zucchinis.

Tomorrow I will post our dinner using these vegetables.

17 comments:

  1. How neat - my mother does a similar thing here in the US with some nuns who have an organic garden.

    And I think the picture you posted is of a fennel (in English), or fenouil in French.

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  2. Bio veggies are also getting popular in Germany. I haven't joined any group but there are some stores that mark their veggies as "Bio". I think it is quite popular in many countries.

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  3. Anonymous5:45 PM

    Sounds interesting. I am actually trying to change my diet to organic foods.

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  4. Anonymous6:08 PM

    Samantha,
    Do you know how to cook the fenouil?

    j.t,
    Bio here is very expensive. I bought 6 bananas and 2 tomatoes and it costed me 7.50 euros.

    kuanhoong,
    Is organic foods really that good for the health compared to the normal foods? I do this only to support the farmer, not for health conciousness.

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  5. Anonymous6:24 PM

    Yeah, you are blessed now. Organic foods have less chemical e.g., pesticide and they are environmental friendly too. You are doing a good thing now. Keep it up :-)

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  6. Anonymous7:41 PM

    I love this idea...I wonder if we have such co-ops in Montpellier? Fennel is one of my FAVORITE veggies. It tastes a bit like cabbage and licorice. I've only had it roasted, so I found a roasted fennel recipe online:

    http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/001677roasted_fennel.php

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  7. BE,
    Organics of course is better, no chemicals.
    But a lot expensive.
    We have started organic a long time oleri, eggs/milk/veg/fruits, semua organic.
    Better to prevent than be sorry !

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  8. You know, I'm not really sure since I've never bought one myself (don't really like the taste). But my co-worker just breaks of pieces and eats it raw, so you don't necessarily need to cook it.

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  9. Hi Bee. Googled "fennel recipes" and guess what the first item on the list was? Fennel recipes from France. Hah! Here, plenty of ideas: http://frenchfood.about.com/od/fennelrecipesfromfrance/Fennel_Recipes_from_France.htm

    Organic foods here aren't so convenient to find but seem to be gaining popularity, especially with special needs people (like those recovering from cancer). Sad to say at the moment, its off the government's radar as an important form of produce... so, vegetables from Cameron Highlands are actually laced with too much pesticides.

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  10. Such a great idea with the biofarm. Bio products are really popular in Germany which is great to see as well!

    As for the fennel - I had a friend who just used to eat it raw in salads - I think it tastes a bit like licorice!

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  11. Mlle Smith,
    It's an association called Associations pour le Maintien d'une Agriculture Paysanne (AMAP), I found this one in Montpellier.
    http://alliancepec.free.fr/Webamap/france/languedocroussillon.php
    Thanks for the recipe, it seems easy to cook the fennel.

    Jamy,
    Ok now at least I know it's worth it to pay the high price.

    Samantha,
    I'm not tented to eat it raw, I will try it out with the baking style and see how it goes.

    Cirnelle,
    Thanks for the link. I just checked it out and appearantly it's a dish from Provence in South of France.

    I think sooner or later Malaysia will catch up with the organic foods, but be prepared to pay the price.

    colourmecrazy,
    Will let you know how it tastes like after I try it out.

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  12. just look at those lettuce. It would be nice to be eaten with "Jiu Hoo Char" aka striped turnip, carrot, lettuce, mushroom and squid :)

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  13. haha you are so Penang lang. I would have said "liu hee char" in Klang Hokkien. You got recipe to share?

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  14. Anonymous5:58 PM

    This is so great ! You know you're doing something good for you, but aslo for the farmer ;-)

    I buy organic food since I arrived in the US, and I ask the same question : is this really better than the regular ones ? But I really can taste the difference, then it's already a good reason to buy it.

    About the "fenouil", I give you a recipe that I like :

    - Couper en rondelles (éliminer la 1ère) le fenouil
    - Eplucher et couper en rondelles un gros oignon
    - quelques pruneaux par personne (facultatif)
    - un poivron rouge coupé en lames ou en dés (facultatif)

    - Pour assaisonner : une cuillère de poudre de curcuma, un peu de poivre, le jus d'1 à 2 citrons, 50 ml d'huile d'olive (un demi-verre).

    Je fais revenir le tout dans une poêle, mais tu peux aussi le faire au micro-onde (10 minutes puissance maxi et cela reste "croquant", 30 min, ce sera "confit" et fondant).

    A servir avec du saumon (cuit au four ou à la poêle).

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  15. Caroline,

    I personally don't feel the differences in terms of taste but it's good to get veggies supply every week, it forces us to eat veggies.

    Thanks for the recipe I will try it out. We don't use microwave so I will try out the one in oven and let you know how it turns out.

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  16. Actually I cook it in a stove, and the salmon in the oven ^^ But you can try what you want !

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  17. Anonymous4:03 PM

    Great work.

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