Red fruits

Did you know that with 27% of the cultivated area in France, the Hauts-de-France is the leading producer of currants? Answer : no, of course not. Let’s face it, the Rhone Valley and Occitania do not have a monopoly on fruit! In the north, we know how to grow strawberries, raspberries and especially the blueberry-cassis duo which accounts for more than 50% of the regional harvest of red fruits. If we were to caricature the production areas, the Oise would be a blackcurrant orchard, the Aisne a giant raspberry orchard, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais a mosaic of strawberry trees – including the famous Samer strawberry – and the Somme a basket of all these.

As summer approaches, curious transhumances can be observed throughout the region. Short (between 5 and 10 km), frequent (every week) and always family oriented, they all converge towards the same goal: the free picking of red fruits at the market gardener’s. In the open field or in the greenhouse. Taking a wheelbarrow, filling it with trays of strawberries and raspberries, attending the weighing. This ritual, which is becoming more and more popular, shows just how closely linked red fruits and short circuits are. Stars of the stalls, red fruits embody better than anyone else the expression “from producer to consumer”. Markets, farm stores, Amap: fresh produce is harvested at the source, so to speak. And considering the craze it generates, we often come back to it…