Fish Brenne was set up in 2002, in the heart of the Brenne. This important wetland to the east of us is known as le pays des mille étangs, usually translated as 'the land of a thousand lakes', but which is more accurately 'the land of a thousand fish ponds'. In their workshops a small team of 13 people processes locally farmed fresh water fish such as carp, sturgeon, cat fish, pike, zander, perch, trout, eels and tench, as well as salmon. The fish is sold fresh or smoked and transformed into rillettes (a sort of paste) and mousse. For local customers who want to buy direct, the boutique is open
Tuesdays to Fridays, and on Thursdays and Fridays offers marine fish as
well as the local fresh water fish.
Beetroot dyed smoked salmon.
After beginning by working with specialist grocers and regional products boutiques, a couple of years ago they invested 1.5 million euros to build a facility which mainly focuses on producing an artisanal regional product for the big supermarket chains. They supply SuperU, for example, who chose them because the supermarket's customers are currently demanding distinctive regional products with low food miles. There is a particularly strong demand for smoked fish.
Fish Brenne is able to offer a guaranteed minimum price to its suppliers, who all come from within a 100 km radius. In the last two years their production has doubled and today their turnover is 1.8 million euros.
We happened to be passing one Thursday after visiting the dermatologist in Le Blanc, so we called in to buy some goujons of carp. I wouldn't bother to prepare carp myself, but if prepared by professionals like Fish Brenne I'm very happy to cook it and eat it. I was interested that there was a steady stream of clients -- as one client left another arrived, all keen to buy reasonably priced really good quality fish.
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10 comments:
$64,000 question... Why do they dye the Salmon with beetroot? We like salmon in all its forms but dyed! Does it alter the flavour?
C & E, that's a good question and I was going to ask the same thing. Is salmon more attractive if it looks like a piece of red meat?
Fish Brenne! Nowadays, if you don't know English, you won't understand French! Pity.
chm, exactly! As an English speaker, I've had a nearly lifelong, enjoyable struggle to learn French and it bugs me to realize that if I'd just waited, English and French would merge. Of course I don't expect the merger to be complete till five minutes after I'm gone.
Dunno. Didn't enquire and didn't buy any.
At least they are using it correctly and it's not a word that can be mangled by mispronunciation.
From the French business point of view, it makes them seem modern, on trend and switched on. They don't care about you -- you are not their customer. Their customers are local people who value the product first of all and are totally cool with a bit of trendy language play. Sorry, but from a French point of view you and chm are just showing your age :-)
Where the language is concerned, I say pretend to be a fish and go with the flow.
Haha! Very good :-) (Do we also pretend not to notice that French people struggle to pronounce 'flow' correctly? :-))
English spelling is very odd, when you come right down to it. Why are flow and now pronounced differently? It's not surprising that francophones would have trouble with the pronunciation of a lot of English words. In my opinion, it is easier to get the pronunciation of a new French word right than it is to get the right pronunciation for an unfamiliar English word. By the way, why do we have though, rough, through, thought, plough, etc?
I know. I have total sympathy for Francophones trying to get to grips with English 'ou' and 'ow'. Not helped by French adoption and pronunciation of 'clown'. If I was Francophone this would catch me out endlessly.
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