Growing up, my parents’ family house in the South of France had a small fruit and vegetable patch where I would escape to in the summer to pick and taste that summer’s berries. A couple days ago I rediscovered the pleasure of berry picking by visiting a little farm outside of Montreal. Seeing the farmers work the land brings up an array of questions surrounding what we choose to put on our tables everyday. I always catch myself when I’m at the butcher’s looking at the neatly packed meat and pushing away the thought that the meat was once part of a living animal. In an effort to better understand where our food comes from, I’ve made the necessary effort to confront the facts about the origins of our food. Even piking strawberries for a couple hours in the afternoon, in the middle of a farmed field, gets you thinking about the journey from farm to table.. and isn’t it always better when that trip is as close to your kitchen as it can be?
Picking your own vegetables (or fruit) from a trusted farm also gets you thinking about what we’ve been fed (pun intended!) to think about food. Tomatoes in the supermarket are generally perfectly round, uniformly red and as shiny as can be. Sure, this may fit our idea of what healthy, nutritious produce should look like, but it’s really not how nature intended it. Fruit and vegetables should not be perfect, they should have little bumps and imperfections and come in different shapes and sizes. I had fun picking out all the different kinds of strawberries I could find. The strawberries I used for the tart were all very “petite” (about the size of raspberries) which worked out well for individual tartelettes. I am planning on making a mixed berry granita with the rest.. although I must admit that at the rate we’ve been munching on them, I’m not sure I will be able to do so!
Recipe:
See here for my tart dough recipe (I added a tablespoon of cocoa powder to my paste sucree recipe this time), and my pastry cream recipe. At cooking school, we used to finish off all fruit tarts by glazing them with an apricot glaze. You can do the same at home by melting down apricot jam in a small saucepan with a couple tablespoons of water, and gently brushing the mixture on top of the fruit. Enjoy!
Ben
July 20, 2009 at 5:41 pm (15 years ago)Hmm strawberries! Such beautiful pictures 😀
Mary
July 20, 2009 at 7:30 pm (15 years ago)What a lovely color the cocoa powder gave your pastry. Your collage is beautiful and a space saver as well.
Justin
July 20, 2009 at 7:40 pm (15 years ago)your family had a house in the South of France? okay, i’m seriously jealous now
Veggie Belly
July 20, 2009 at 8:20 pm (15 years ago)what beautiful pictures!
Coco Bean
July 20, 2009 at 9:42 pm (15 years ago)SO where did you end up going, there are a couple other places I have been wondering about! Looks like you got a great bountiful.
I just finished reading “in defence of food” and am in the middle of “Animal, vegetable, miracle”. All I can think about these days are the farmers markets and buying locally. Sounds like we share the same view on that.
Chocolate Shavings
July 20, 2009 at 10:55 pm (15 years ago)Justin: I’m actually heading to the house in August.It’s really a food lover’s paradise!
Marta
July 21, 2009 at 10:44 am (15 years ago)I absolutely love picking produce. It’s the gatherer in me!!!
These tarts look perfect and the photos are very very very pretty!
Deborah
July 21, 2009 at 11:23 am (15 years ago)Gorgeous pictures! Makes me wish my little strawberry plant still had some strawberries on it!
Alejandra
July 21, 2009 at 1:12 pm (15 years ago)Wow! I love that berry-picking basket too. It’s adorable.
stephchows
July 21, 2009 at 3:00 pm (15 years ago)I love picking out all the weird shaped berries when I go picking!
My Carolina Kitchen
July 21, 2009 at 5:22 pm (15 years ago)I like the idea of the cocoa powder in your pastry. Thanks for stopping by my kitchen. It gave me the opportunity to see your lovely blog. How wonderful that your family had a home in the south of France. Where? We visited St. Remy de Provence a couple of years ago for two months. J’adore anything French.
Sam
Chocolate Shavings
July 21, 2009 at 5:24 pm (15 years ago)My Carolina Kitchen: I grew up in Paris, but my parents have a family home in the South Region of the Pyrenees. It’s a beautiful region!
chocolatecup
July 22, 2009 at 2:59 am (15 years ago)if only i could pick my own berries! jealousjealous too!
Donalyn
July 22, 2009 at 12:03 pm (15 years ago)I don’t get over here nearly often enough – this recipe is a keeper! Thanks for stopping by my blog and for your kind comments!
Aggie
July 22, 2009 at 1:22 pm (15 years ago)Beautiful photos!! I love strawberries and here in Florida we were able to pick our own back in March/April…now we have to go to the store! 🙂
Laura [What I Like]
July 22, 2009 at 3:16 pm (15 years ago)what adorable little strawberries! Nice to see normal sized ones rather than these gargantuan specimens in the supermarkets.
Cynthia
July 23, 2009 at 3:06 am (15 years ago)May I have 2 slices of that tart? 🙂
Irina @ PastryPal
July 23, 2009 at 12:09 pm (15 years ago)I just found your site and it is beeeaaauuutifuuulll. Will keep checking in.
Pamela
July 30, 2009 at 11:14 am (15 years ago)I would love to be at your table, having a slice of that amazing tart. I grew up in Oregon and every summer we would go to the u-pick farms. The “Hood” variety is an delicous strawberry from the Northwest.
Dawn
August 31, 2009 at 6:40 pm (15 years ago)strawberry season will soon be over 🙁
I must try one more strawberry tart; I want a choco base this time.
Gorgeous (as always) photos!