Spices and condiments of all colours

Red: Quercy saffron

A sweet touch of gold with a fruity and incomparable warmth: this is the miracle of Quercy saffron, a magnificent spice that has been cultivated in Lot since the time of the Crusades.
The saffron fields flower in October, creating little patches of purple around Cajarc and Saint Cirq Lapopie, a Great Tourist Site. Like all the operations involved in saffron production, the flowers are picked by hand. This process is a game of patience since it takes 250 flowers to produce just 1 gram of Quercy saffron. The spice is sold not as powder, but in the form of “whole and pure” stigmas, which range from bright red to garnet in colour, and have a strong, sweet and slightly bitter fragrance. 
Saffron is surrounded by an aura of prestige, and is the most accessible of the luxury products. One gram is all you need to colour and flavour more than 60 food servings.

Pink: Lautrec garlic

Lautrec pink garlic was one of the earliest examples of French produce to earn a Label Rouge quality mark. 
It is cultivated south of Albi, as its name indicates, in the vicinity of Lautrec, officially recognised as one of the most beautiful villages in France. Its silver-streaked pink skin, its delicate taste, its long conservation time (one year) and the way in which just one of its stems can enhance your cooking make it the prince of condiments. But this prince is a demanding one: at each stage of its production, it requires a large, skilled and devoted workforce.
Lautrec pink garlic has held the Label Rouge quality mark since 1966.

White: Lomagne garlic

To find this plant, take a trip between Beaumont de Lomagne and Saint Clar, two authentic ‘bastide’ towns, one of which is in Tarn et Garonne and the other in Gers.
Along the way, the sensual contours of the hillsides on which Lomagne white garlic has been cultivated since the 13th century will unfold. Its pearly white and fleshy cloves harbour a deliciously powerful smell. The natural qualities of this plant are cultivated by around 300 demanding producers and inspired merchants, who have turned Lomagne into an important centre for the garlic trade in France.
Lomagne white garlic has enjoyed IGP (Indication Géographique Protégée) status since 1994.

Violet: Cadours garlic

Cadours violet garlic, which has been cultivated west of Toulouse since the 18th century, is the first one to reach the markets.
It is harvested in June and sold on market stalls from July. This is an early, high-grade garlic with an unusual greyish white skin that has a violet tinge. Its full-bodied cloves thrill the taste buds with their piquant flavour, and once cooked prove so endearing that cast-iron casserole dishes become completely intoxicated by them...

Ivory: Trébons sweet onions

Trébons sweet onions, lovingly cultivated in Hautes Pyrénées, are a most unusual vegetable.
Their elongated bulbs, which grow to between 15 and 20 cm long, are noted for their sweet flesh, which is so tender that they can be eaten raw. This onion has been grown since the 18th century in family gardens at Trébons and in the surrounding area, near Tarbes. Now cultivated by around fifteen producers, the Trébons onion is a good example of the micro-production of a quality local product that is not very well known which underpins the richness of Midi-Pyrénées.