This one comes at you from the southern French town of Antibes, a gem of a port town located between Nice and Cannes. Breath-taking on even the most dreary day, this is a must visit place, special in its own remarkable way!
Moving off our talk of the town of Antibes and on to the matter at hand -- cheese!
Every day in the center of the old town, there is an open-air farmer's market offering up for purchase and consumption everything from organic fruits and vegetables, picked the morning of the market to spices, olives, meats, both cured and uncooked, of course cheese and some regional specialities. It is the sort of place where buying produce and cooking it is so delish that you couldn't imagine going out to eat at a restaurant! Among the cheese vendors at the market, our reliable spy found the most outstanding stand -- the Farm called Scop Cravirola, a coop or collaborative 5 hours from Antibes, or 1 1/2 hours form Montpelier. It was founded by Germans who moved to France more than twenty years ago. At the time, they concluded that they had to be resourceful and come up with a way to earn a living; what did they decide on but goats, sheep and cheese making?!!? How could you go wrong there? It is all self-run, and has a camp ground and a guest house should you want to go visit, along with of course the cheese making facility itself.
Our cheese spy informs us that their goat and sheep cheeses are unlike any other cheese tasted the world over. The man who runs the stand, Anthony recommends a different cheese each day. Why you may ask? Well his recommendations depend on the weather, grasses the goats have eaten, production of milk the goats have delivered. On the day our cheese spy visited, he recommended a goat called "fermier", which is a slightly aged fresh chevre with a more highly developed taste. In this case the cheese was mild and savory, just less than pungent, it seemed to melt in the mouth. It had a soft outside that had turned slightly golden pink, in which much of the savory flavor resided. It would have been possible to eat this small roundel, approx. 2 1/2 inches in diameter in one fell swoop, but with restraint we managed to share the roundel over the course of two meals. This is a cheese one can eat with a fork or spoon. It requires no bread or pairing, it is extraordianry unto itself, a summer treat.
Scop Cravola offers fresh chevre and brebis (sheep cheese) along with fermier--medium aged--and aged cheeses. They also offer a cheese cake, not in the American style, but a cake made with their goat cheese, somewhat sweet, not cloying, a showcase for their soft fresh chevre. In addition they have tomme de chevre and tomme de brebis, harder offerings made at the farm. Finally, they offer a camembert like no other camembert on this earth. Scop is at the farmer's market three days a week and certainly sounds extremely hard to resist, doesn't it?
A few pics from their stand courtesy of our reliable cheese spy:
Have a good night folks and stay tuned for this week's GCF tomorrow!
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