Autumn at the Market

“How do you like to prepare them?” I asked the Flemish guy at my favorite produce stand at the Stockel Farmer’s Market. Their veggies and fruit seem the freshest and last the longest.

“Just cook them in a little bit of butter, not too long, that’s it,” he said. We were talking about the chanterelle mushrooms picked fresh from the forest and showing up at all the markets right now, along with walnuts, piles of figs, bunches of glistening grapes, even persimmons.

“These aren’t the ones that cost 79 euros, right?”

“No, that’s these,” he pointed to a fat mushroom patty. Whew. Little mistakes can be expensive in the mushroom department.

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He was right—the chanterelles were delicious cooked on the stove with a pat of my favorite French Marine Sel butter. I picked out the pine needles as I tossed the mushrooms in a pan. I paired it with a fall tartine: some toasted artisan bread spread with soft cheese and fresh fig. Another lunch I tried toast with cheese and thinly-sliced pear, a sprinkle of Normandy shallot sea salt.

Autumn food is my favorite, if you hadn’t guessed. Fall in general really, which is funny because winter is just the worst.

My family was absolutely charmed by the autumn chocolates from one of the seven chocolate houses walking distance to our house. They were gone quickly, so Chris and I picked up some more—chocolate hedgehogs, chocolate mushrooms, marzipan pumpkins, jelly pears, chocolate nuts. They didn’t last long either!