Top products to eat on the farm

Honey and its delicious range of products

In Sainte-Croix-du-Verdon, a little heaven in the land of blue lavender lulled by the chirping of the cicadas in the summertime, the labelled farm Le Rucher de Para Lou offers a panoramic view of the blue waters of the Lake of Sainte-Croix. You will eat easily recognisable flavourful white lavender honey, filled with properties, and also a panel of delicacies based on honey such as black nougat, white nougat and sweets… And a special Mention spéciale for their delicious spread! In Le Castellet, La Miellerie de L’Oratoire will help you become more familiar with the bees who make the honey you are just about to eat. Visit the beehouse, and you can observe a colony of bees in a glassed-in hive and see honey being extracted (in June, July and August). And of course, the best moment is when you discover their home-made products: garrigue honey, fir tree/forest honey (a rare food!), mountain honey, chestnut honey, heather honey… And we also recommend La Ferme du Verdoulet in Mondragon, for the best honey sorbets and ice creams!

Le Rucher de Para Lou – Sainte-Croix-du-Verdon

La Miellerie de L’Oratoire – Le Castellet

La ferme du Verdoulet – Mondragon

Wine, a family affair

In the typical village of Tallard, in the heart of the Southern French Alps, the Domaine de Tresbaudon is a family estate, where winegrowers respect tradition and the cultivation of vines. Pampered at an altitude of over 600 metres, on the banks of the Durance River, they experience high temperatures in the daytime and cool nights, which gives the wine all its flavour. In the tasting cellar of the labelled estate, you can try reds, whites and rosés from different rootstocks: viognier, chardonnay and Muscat à petits grains for the whites; syrah, cinsault, merlot and cabernet sauvignon for the reds and rosés. To enjoy its vintages means entering into the history of passionate winegrowers: « When you drink a glass of wine, you never imagine the work that has gone into it and the many possibilities offered by this product», Olivier Ricard, le vigneron explains. Le Domaine de Tresbaudon is also a family affair: each vintage bears the name of one of its members.

Domaine de Tresbaudon – Tallard

The sun-kissed fruit of the orchards

For three generations, the Orso family has been looking after its vast 15-hectare arboricultural farm labelled Bienvenue à la ferme. Peaches, strawberries, broad beans, salads, chard and even courgettes grow in this marvellous garden… while chickens, turkeys, ducks and donkeys flourish on the farm. Take a bite out of a fruit and discover the philosophy of the place: this nursery invites you to eat consciously in order to protect your health and the planet: no chemicals are used. They also sell vegetables, meat, cheese and honey from the valley’s producers. Change of scene: at the Verger Saint-Joseph, a family mountain orchard in the Mercantour National Park, you’ll find red fruit, pears, apples, cherries, figs and also flowers and aromatic plants, lemons and bitter oranges in winter. A festival for the senses! Nothing is treated and they produce in small quantities. Jams, cordials and fruit jellies reveal the wealth and authenticity of the French Southern Alps. And for organic fruit juices, head for Les Jardins du Portail Rouge in Cavaillon.

Pépinière Orso – Mandelieu-la-Napoule

Au verger Saint-Joseph – Saint-Martin Vésubie

Les jardins du Portail Rouge – Cavaillon

Goat’s cheese from our little goats

Do you know the Rove goats, a typical race of the Bouches-du-Rhône whose horns are in the shape of a lyre? Not many people know this, but they play an important role in the prevention of fires because they pasture in the hills, clearing hard-to-reach areas. At La Pastorale du Regagnas, you’ll just love their cottage cheese and cheeses (including the famous Rove brousse! ) made with their flavourful milk. This break on a traditional goat farm labelled Bienvenue à la Ferme is an opportunity to find out more about this friendly animal: behaviour, feeding habits, lifestyle, milking and cheese processing. And to go off on your own on the marked trails of the educational farm where you can see donkeys, horses and farmyard animals. And you can just succumb to the goat’s milk ice cream with cocoa and praliné, at La Ferme du Brégalon, where the herd is fed in food autonomy.

La Pastorale du Regagnas – Trets

La Ferme du Brégalon – Rognes

Wild boar meat

At the foot of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire, at Les Baumes, they have been breeding wild boar since 1979. They set up on several hectares of garrigue, around an 18th-century building. At the beginning, there were only three of them, and now they are 250. The place has a story to tell! And once you know it, you’ll enjoy eating the products even more. After having visited the farm and got close to the animals (no worries, there’s no danger), you’ll enjoy wild boar as saucisson, bacon, noix de sanglier and terrines, with a little glass of kirsch. Surprising and delicious!

Les Baumes – Venelles