Par
Cédric Nithard
Published on
Oct 19, 2024 at 12:44 p.m.
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Sunday October 20 will be held in Vigan (Gard), the 30th Cévennes apple and sweet onion fair. The opportunity to honor and defend an exceptional heritage and rarely that make people live with passion local producers.
More than 15,000 visitors
More than 120 producers will be present at this large local market which has taken place for thirty editions in Vigan and brings together more than 15,000 visitors. Sweet onions, apples, including pippins of course, but also chestnuts, honey and other excellent products from the Cévennes are featured there. An edition sponsored by Nicolas Fontaine, executive chef of the restaurant Le Duende and the brasserie L’Impé at Maison Albar – Impérator in Nîmes, who will offer an original recipe to be tasted at the fair with the help of students from the Louis Defond educational and professional center . Among the numerous activities of the fair, you will of course have to count on the faithful brotherhood of the sweet onion of the Cévennes, chaired by Robert Carrière, who will stroll through the streets of the city in the company of around twenty national and international brotherhoods and an orchestra.
Among the new features this year, a village will be entirely dedicated to children and, installed on the square in front of the town hall, where the first “Made in Cévennes Exhibition” will be held. “I wanted us to highlight around ten innovative Cévennes companies which manufacture products known nationally and internationally, such as the Well company which manufactures the best-selling tights in France. It’s a great showcase for them,” defends Sylvie Arnal, mayor of Vigan, vice-president of the community of communes of Pays Viganais and vice-president of the Sud-Cévennes Tourist Office.
Another novelty, and not the least, a creative seasonal banquet served in the municipal council room and imagined by Florian Chekroun, chef of the gourmet restaurant Les Terrasse de la Borie in Mandagout, and the godfather Nicolas Fontaine, also with the help of students of the Louis Defond educational and professional center (single menu including an aperitif, food and wine pairing and five courses at €75, limited to 80 seats by reservation with the Sud Cévennes tourist office).
An exception in the agricultural crisis
In 2023, 4.9 tonnes of apples and 8.7 tonnes of onions were sold there. They will still be present in numbers this year despite a rainy spring which made growing sweet onions complicated. “We shook for a long time, then the weather improved, which allowed us to have a decent harvest of around 2,000 tonnes for the AOP”, testifies Gaël Martin, president of the association for the defense of the sweet onion from the Cévennes which will unveil a mascot during the fair. Behind this AOP, 91 producers, spread over 47 hectares and 2,500 plots, work to maintain a high-end product that can be found on the tables of great chefs.
“In the agricultural crisis, we are an exception because all the lights are green. We could produce and sell more, but due to lack of resources or because of a very finicky administration which discourages some, this is not the case. We are a culture that manages to sell with a very well organized sector, from production to sale, with customers in France and Europe. Unfortunately, we are unable to serve them because we lack the production and the resources to produce them in sufficient quantities,” explains Philippe Boisson, president of the Origine Cévennes cooperative which has around sixty members among the members of the AOP. . A cooperative which plays a central role in the fair, with a large stand and a semi-trailer at the entrance to the village for drive-through purchases.
Export opportunities
The great satisfaction comes from the pippin apples side since young producers have taken over an orchard. “We will be able to reinstate the pippin as a benchmark product of the cooperative. It remains an emblematic product that must be kept because it is a very old variety of which only around ten hectares remain,” underlines Philippe Boisson. Things still remain complex for sweet onions. “Two or three people found us to relaunch themselves in this culture. This is nice because it’s been a few years since there were very few new ones. Generational renewal must take place to continue this beautiful culture. The Cévennes without its onion crossings, they would no longer be the Cévennes,” he pleads. There remains the hardness of the work: “One hectare of onions represents 3,500 hours of work without mechanization. It is a noble, very fragile product, which must be handled with great caution. In the Cévennes, we are a bit like the agricultural museum.”
However, as has been said, the outlets are significant, particularly in exports which represent between 15 and 20% of sales. Switzerland has recently opened up to sweet onions. “This is why we must maintain production that can allow us to access these markets. The day it will be like the Reinettes, it will remain for the people of the region. Now our product is known internationally,” defends Philippe Boisson. Markets where prices can reach peaks, with an observed record of €21 per kilo in Vienna in Austria when it is between €6 and €8 in France. If inflation has also hurt producers, paid between €1.50 and €1.60 per kilo, as in traditional agriculture, the question of different intermediaries and margins causing prices to inflate remains an important problem.
And it is precisely to meet these people who keep these cultures alive that on Saturday October 19, if there is not yet the fair, the whole day is devoted to discovering the Cévennes terroir in the heart of the farms and livestock farms. through various activities directly on site: gourmet hikes, visits, workshops, exhibitions and shows are on the program (information and registration from the Sud Cévennes tourist office on sudcevennes.com or 04 67 81 01 72). “It’s a weekend very rich in meetings and discoveries of the good products of our Cévennes region in the friendly and festive moments that await us. You should never miss the fair, but especially this 30th edition,” says Sylvie Arnal, inviting Montpellier residents.
How to cook sweet onion
Chestnut cream verrine and candied pippin apple, pissaladière-style onion tartlet, onion compote with candied chestnut and raw ham, porcini caviar tartlet and Pélardon… installed in the heart of the Cévennes, the students of the educational center and professional Louis Defond obviously benefits from the products of this land. Kevin Fesquet, educator and chef at the center, who after completing his apprenticeship at L’Imperator worked for the last fifteen years on luxury yachts, gourmet houses… in the company of starred chefs, explains to us the qualities of sweet onion. “We can already prepare it in several different ways. Its taste is very mild and it sweetens naturally. We can make it fried, in compote, in confit… and depending on the preparation, the more you cook it, the more the juices come out and the more it sugars. By cooking it less, you will keep the flesh and taste of the onion soft, but less sugar will be released. If he advises to preserve them whole in olive oil, he also slips in a little tip: “It’s also special that you can put it everywhere. For example, I use it to bind my sauces with Instead of adding cornstarch or making a roux, I put a sweet onion in my sauce and when the broth reduces, the onion will disintegrate, emulsify and thicken my sauce, adding a little sweet taste. As for the pippin apple, “acidic while being a little sweet with very firm flesh”, it is also possible to cook it in different ways: “as a compote in a slipper, in a tart, in a salad, caramelized, roasted in the oven for accompany game…”. All you have to do is get behind the stove.
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