Clash of the titans

... or two young kids trying to prove who's tougher.

(If you can't be bothered to read all this, skip ahead to the set of farm photos on Flickr.)

It was another lovely day, so after breakfast we headed off to the Montagne Noire for De Ferme en Ferme. This is an event that's been held annually for some years, where many small farmers in an area have open days, give guided tours, sell produce, and also lay on lunch.

We started out at a very small olive mill that isn't in the Montagne Noire at all, but is on the way. There wasn't much to see since the main olive harvest doesn't happen till December, but we had a tour of the facilities and bought some unpasteurized olives -- Lucques, a local variety shaped like a rugby ball. If you've never had unpasteurised olives, they are crisper and have a better flavour -- though of course they don't keep so well.

Part of the ferme en ferme experience is getting lost. The map provided is pretty basic, some of the farms aren't even on roads, and most places aren't signposted until you get to a point where you can see them anyway. But we found the Chèvrerie du Colombier quite easily. We enjoyed this visit most -- the farm is in a beautiful, remote position with fine views, and the lady who makes the cheese was delighted to explain all the ins and outs of it.

We hadn't planned to eat here, but we came out of the dairy just as the barbecue was getting going, and it smelled very tempting. For 13 euros each we had skewers of goat's meat, sausages, potato gratin, green salad, a large glass of organic apple juice, and goat's cheese with honey for afters. They'd set up tables outside and in a couple of large marquees, so we sat outside in the sun -- the only fly in the ointment being literally flies, inevitable when you keep livestock!

This is a small farm, but they had a very well organised system for service -- they were clearly going to feed hundreds of people, although it was fairly quiet when we had lunch, because it was early. We were glad we'd made this choice because after we left we drove around lost for a while till we found a pig farm that we hadn't intended to visit. The car park was so busy that finding a space was a bit like driving round the Etoile in Paris. Some people had arrived in style though.

We admired a few piglets on display in a van (no other pigs were in evidence), and then had a tour of the meat-processing facilities -- lots of salami and air-dried ham. They were doing lunch here too, and it was heaving with people, but they were eating in an industrial hangar; the whole operation seemed much more impersonal than the goat farm, and nowhere near as attractive. After that we stopped briefly at the sheep farm where we'd intended to have lunch, and then headed off home.

At home it was a beautiful evening, so we decided to continue the farm animal theme by going up to see Magali and her sheep. The lambing season is in full swing now -- about 40 lambs have been born in the last couple of weeks, and there are more to come. She found a very feeble-looking newborn, which lay limply in her arms while she tagged its ear, but when she returned it to its mother to try to get it to feed, it suddenly sprang to its feet and started sucking madly, to everyone's relief. We also saw the only set of twins.

It was a lovely, full day -- it's so nice to get out and about somewhere we don't normally go, away from computers, and the weather was glorious.