Saturday December 21 and Sunday December 22, 2024 at the Jeu de Paume in Blois, the Chamber of Agriculture Christmas market and Welcome to the farm are held. Among the exhibitors: a couple from Monteaux. Messaline and Damien Leveau, market gardeners established since 2022 under the name Les Saveurs du Val de Loire, have been offering rum arrangements (1) since September 2023 with aromatic plants that they produce.
“When you make people feel the passion plant…”
Their “Les Saveurs à Rhum’atics” range includes thirteen to fourteen rum preparations. From this activity, they derive 50% of their income. In their Monteaux workshop, they macerate – in artisanal “heart of heating” rum imported from the Reimonenq rum factory in Guadeloupe – surprising plants. Let us first mention this passion fruit-flavored marigold, a plant “so powerful that, alone, it is enough to give a lot of taste”. The couple has two more « best-seller ». First, yuzu rum – a citrus fruit native to East Asia “which grows well in our countries because it freezes at minus 20” – and at the bay of timut, “two very lemony products”. Then, a lemongrass and Sichuan bay rum, “plant with grapefruit notes, which comes from China and grows well here”. Among the other plants they work with are the licorice plant, peach leaf, mint, and even agastache.
Messaline and Damien Leveau offer 13 to 14 different rum preparations.
© Photo NR, Alexis Couturier
“We remove the plants after maceration in rum”explains Messaline. “And we add little sugar. We want people to discover the taste of rum and the taste of plants. » The couple is well aware of “change codes”. “It’s important to let people taste it. Or simply to make them smell the passion plant. » In December, the couple will have participated in fourteen days of Christmas markets (including this Friday, in Chaumont-sur-Loire from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.). “We want to give an image of agriculture that reaches out to people. »
Their goal is to develop their range of rum. “We will also soon offer syrups and infusions. » While making their vegetables, plants, aromatic plants and rum preparations available to the general public, particularly through markets and direct sales, the couple will continue to work with restaurateurs such as La Charbonnette in Veuzain-sur-Loire. “They like to flavor their products with our fresh plants. »
Unexpected reconversion
Both former social workers (2), originally from the department, it was within the framework of a retraining that these parents of four children aged 7 to 19, embarked. “Before going on sick leave, a colleague, now deceased, introduced me to Sichuan pepper,” remembers Damien Leveau. Blown away by the aroma, the couple became passionate about the species, then aromatic plants.
Messaline and Damien Leveau.
© Photo NR, Alexis Couturier
Damien already held an agricultural BTS. “But we still had to take a lot of steps and pass certifications,” underlines Messaline. On “a stroke of luck”, and after some difficulties, they were able to acquire a 6 hectare plot in the heights of Monteaux. “The operator Rediguère was a seller and was affected by our project. »
They were also helped and pushed by friends, family, Le Panier de la Jousserie, but also the former chef of Hauts de Loire Dominique Pépin, who also recently died. To give another dimension to their projects, they are now waiting for their Young Farmers bonus. “We don’t regret not having given up! “, they smile today, carried by their enthusiasm.
Producers’ Christmas market, at Jeu de Paume in Blois, Saturday December 21 from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Sunday December 22 from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Free entry. Information at 02.54.55.20.32. Alcohol abuse is dangerous for your health.
(1) Commercially, they are not allowed to use the term “arranged rum”.
(2) Messaline continues to provide replacements in institutions for disabled people.
At the producers’ Christmas market this weekend
> At the Christmas producers’ market, this Saturday and Sunday at the Jeu de Paume, nearly forty producers – some of them organic – mostly from the department, will offer their products.
> Among the sweets offered are cold meats, snails, foie gras, deer meat, truffles, Loire fish terrines, goat cheese, honey, dairy products, lentils, oil, jams, nuts, hazelnuts, infusion, saffron, cider, wine and rum flavors… An oyster producer will also make the trip.
