– Buckwheat, the new quinoa

After having fed the peasants of the Andean highlands for millennia, quinoa landed among European city dwellers in the 2010s, before being elected “plant of the year” by the UN in 2013. We got carried away for this little gluten-free seed, which now grows in Anjou. Until it became an object of mockery and symbolized the bobo, inevitably “eater” of quinoa… Replaced for a time by small spelled – this seed which gives “a peach from hell” in Mélenchon – it has given way to buckwheat. Gluten-free too, but with a more pronounced taste, the little seed that rises can be eaten grilled (kasha) or roasted; as a condiment (1), or as an accompaniment to meat or fish.

(1) Breton Gomasio de Rœllinger.

– Wild garlic, the new basil

Star of the summer, basil, this herb with a powerful scent of Indian origin, accompanies the stainless “tomato-mozzarella” and the pestos of large tables. But it has lately been in competition with a wild plant with long green leaves, reminiscent of lily of the valley. Wild garlic owes its name to the mountain bears, who make it their first meal when they leave their cave after their long hibernation. The plant with a garlicky taste (therefore), arrives in the undergrowth in the spring – at the same time as the asparagus, which it will coat with a sour sauce, for example.