Strawberry Tarts Forever

Today we trekked twenty minutes to the village of Nabirat for the 12th Annual Foire de la Fraise, a celebration of the strawberries of Périgord. The weather was disappointingly cool and damp, but our enthusiasm carried us through.

First we tried parking in a muddy lot on the edge of the village, but found that the nearly bald tires on our Renault Laguna couldn't gain traction and we feared being mired in for the day. Albert expertly maneuvered the car out of the boggy field and into a safer spot on a side street in the town. We wandered through the festival, eyed some junky odds and ends at the vide grenier tables, but managed to resist temptation.

The main attraction is a giant strawberry tart, over 25 square meters, put together by the bakers of Grolejac and Nabirat and 15 or 20 village volunteers who assemble the creation of pastry, custard, fresh strawberries and glaze. The powerful berry aroma from the tarte géante pervaded the town square, blended with overtones of roasting caramel popcorn and horse manure. Yummmmmm.

In 2004, strawberries grown in the Dordogne area achieved their own special IGP status (Identification Géographique Protégé), and along with that, the right to mark them "Fraises du Périgord." Similar to the AOC system used for remarkable French wines and cheeses, IGP protocol mandates that the strawberries must be proven to have specific organoleptic qualities, must be grown in very specific geographic locations under defined conditions, harvest must be made at optimum sugar levels, early in the morning under "fresh" conditions, and delivery from grower to market must be swift. The entire protocol is comprised of 60 separate conditions that producers must comply with, covering standards of culture, harvest, delivery, traceability and marketing. If you'd like to know more about "Fraises du Perigord" and the IGP standards, AND you can read French, click here.
It's French bureaucracy at its finest, yet it guarantees a freshness and quality that we don't see in those flavorless red objects we're so accustomed to in American supermarkets. Unlike supermarket strawberries, the varieties here are developed and cultivated for aroma, sweetness, flavor...not just for how well they ship and how long they'll last on the shelf. What a concept! The season begins with early varieties Gariguette and Darselect, followed by remontant strawberries such as Mara de Bois, Charlotte, Cirafine and Seascape. Growers strive for a perfect equilibrium of acidity and sugar.

We serve Fraises du Périgord every morning at our breakfast table. Only the best for our guests here at "La Tour de Cause B&B!"