Les Salades

Appears in
top 1000Goose Fat & Garlic: Country Recipes from South-West France
Goose Fat & Garlic

By Jeanne Strang

Published 1991

  • About

PHILIP OYLER, WRITING in his second book about country life in the Dordogne after World War II, says ‘the peasants here JL like to have a salad every day of the year and appreciate a gift of lettuce or endive, when they are short of them, more than anything else.’ Sons of the Generous Earth (Hodder & Stoughton, 1963, p. 105).

This is certainly still true; we are often the recipients of one or two crisp lettuces, freshly picked with the roots and earth still attached. When the fine weather arrives, salads swell at an amazing rate and all get ready to bolt at once. Those whose plants are ready, pass them on to family or friends, and later the exchange is opportunely returned.