Almonds in France

 Almond blossom (March).

The French consume a lot of nuts, and three sorts in particular are grown in France - almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts. Almonds are especially widely used as they are one of the mainstays of the French pâtissier's art. All over France, almond paste, meal or powder appears in yesterday's croissant; as marzipan, macarons or nougat; and in biscuits and cakes of all sorts. In restaurants, almond slivers come swimming in the beurre noisette with fish. 

 

Homegrown almond, with its leathery green sheath behind.

Almonds are not much grown in the Touraine, which is walnut country, but almond trees are seen in many gardens to the south of us, in the Charente. The flavour can be sweet (milky fresh blanched almonds), moreishly nutty (unblanched dried almonds) or somewhat overpowering (almond extract). Excitingly, the flavour of almonds, like the kernels of other stone fruits, comes from highly aromatic chemicals which include cyanide. Almonds must be quite closely related to peaches, because on the tree, still clothed in their fleshy outer layer, the crop looks like rather poorly performing peaches.

 

Green (fresh) almonds from Spain in the supermarket at la Roche Posay (June). 

Once upon a time pastry chefs and confectioners pounded their own almonds to make paste for their goods. Almond paste had been a stock in trade of the patissier since Renaissance times. 

 

Organic locally grown almonds at the market in Preuilly (September).

Terraroma, in Provence, is the largest almond producer in France, with 20 000 trees producing top quality nuts which are much prized by confectioners (Fr. confiseurs). The sweet almonds are grafted onto bitter almond stock, and some of the trees are 200 years old. But most almonds used in France are grown in Spain. France simply can't supply the demand.

 

Organic almond orchard in Provence (June).