The crêperie Saint Thomas lets a small group through to the working side of its kitchen in Landerneau. The batter is mixed in front of them, the crêpes are turned, and the fillings are built from produce sourced nearby. A tasting closes the round. The house is known in the Pays de Landerneau-Daoulas for its Breton specialities, and it opens its doors here for the Semaines du tourisme économique et des Savoir-Faire.
Tag: regional-produce
Les Délices de Sillery: biscuits made by hand
The team at Les Délices de Sillery opens its kitchen at Douarnenez to a small booked group. Kouign Amann is folded by hand in four forms, plain, apple, chocolate and miniature, beside the day’s biscuits and gâteaux. The same bench turns out biscottes, some without salt, others made with blé noir, the buckwheat of Breton tables. Every ingredient comes from within a hundred kilometres, and a donation sends two euros fifty to the SNSM de Douarnenez.
Brasserie de Trévarn opens its brewhouse, Saint-Urbain
The Brasserie de Trévarn works out of a farm at Saint-Urbain, and it opens the brewhouse for the Breton tourist offices’ fortnight of company visits. The tour begins with the ingredients of beer, what each one is for and how it behaves. It follows the brewing itself and the styles that come out of it, then ends with a tasting and the chance to buy. The raw materials are mainly Breton and the beers carry the Nature et Progrès mention.
Armateurs de Rhum opens its rum workshop
At Saint-Jouan-des-Guérets, outside Saint-Malo, a family distillery opens the room where its liqueurs, gins and rums are made by hand. A guide takes callers along the production line, from the raw material to the bottling. The talk covers traditional methods and what a terroir does to a spirit, and ends with a tasting of the house’s bottlings. The house ages rum at sea, ships some under sail, and distils its gin from buckwheat and Breton seaweed.
Halloween baking at the Biscuiterie Ménou
The Biscuiterie Ménou gives this holiday session to the gâteau breton. The short programme around it also takes in a spider-shaped bread and a pumpkin brioche. The house has baked at Plougonver since 1879, three generations of the family have worked the bakery, and its range runs to palets, galettes and gâteaux bretons. The group is capped and booking is required. The boutique-musée beside the ovens carries two centuries of the craft.
Visite de la cidrerie du Penthièvre, Hénansal
Eva and Nathan opened this family cidrerie at Hénansal a year ago, and they now walk visitors through the whole of it. The round begins in the orchards, with the apple varieties and the blending, then moves to the vats and the press that draws the juice. Fermentation does the rest, turning the cider sparkling on its own with no gas added. The bottling line closes the circuit, and a tasting with the two growers ends the visit.
Visite des huîtres Le Cha on the Aber-Wrac’h
Hollow oysters raised in the Baie des Anges, beside the port of the Aber-Wrac’h, are the subject of this visit to the Le Cha oyster yard. The tour sets out how those cupped oysters are brought on, and a tasting follows on site. The farm also keeps a shop for oysters to take away, an oyster bar and a vending machine. It runs within the Economic Tourism and Craftsmanship Weeks, with the takings from the tickets going to the Brittany Heritage Foundation.
Ormeaux bretons at the France Haliotis sea farm
France Haliotis rears Breton ormeaux in open water at Aod Kerazan Vihan, on the Aber Wrac’h in northern Finistère. The farmers walk visitors through their trade, from the beds held out in the sea to the work done back on shore. The stock eats nothing but algues cut by hand along this same coast, and the holding stands as the only abalone farm of its kind in France. A booking is required, because the small team leads each round itself.
Fête de la Pomme by Avalou Plabenneg
Avalou Plabenneg, the orchard association of Plabennec, fills the Salle Marcel Bouguen with heritage dessert varieties, cider apples and organic fruit from the Locmaria orchard. Grafting and apple identification each have a booth, alongside displays and videos on fruit-growing technique. Outside, apple juice is pressed in the open and knives and tools are sharpened. A pie contest and guided circuits of the town’s orchards run alongside, with admission at two euros. Pruning and grafting at Locmaria, Kerangal and Kerséné occupy the association through the year.
Kig ha farz cooked by the FCLP in Lanhouarneau
Kig ha farz is the dish and the whole of this gathering at the Complexe sportif in Lanhouarneau. The village football club, the FCLP, cooks the meal with local ingredients and serves it in the hall. Those who would rather eat at home bring their own containers and carry a portion away. The commune keeps the meal in its own annual programme, alongside the Foire à l’artisanat and the Trail de la vallée des moulins.