More about Jim the Champignon Champion

On Thursday we visited the mushroom caves of Champion Mushrooms at Loches.... now MPC [Mushroom Production Caves] where they are developing an organic mushroom business in the former production caves of Paris White mushrooms.

While the rain and wind walloped the walnut trees on the hillside, underground all was still. A hundred years ago, things would have been very different. "Le Champion" employed as many as 300 people, and were the first to apply scientific techniques to mushroom production. They perfected a strain of the white Paris mushroom that became a worldwide standard, and researched optimal growing conditions so that for the first time mushrooms could be grown on an industrial scale. They sold fresh mushrooms, but also supported a massive canning operation in Bordeaux, and produced packs of spawn for other growers.

Charles Gillard - Founder of "Le Champion" - in 1900

The temperature in the caves varies by only a couple of degrees, and the Japanese mushrooms now installed there grow without heating, but we saw a huge pit where the coal-fired boiler serving the Paris mushrooms once stood. There was underground stabling for horses, to draw the carts which took the mushrooms down to the railway station. There were dog kennels and even a bread oven. Phillipe Gillard, Jim's business partner, is the great-grandson of the founder of "Le Champion" and drives around the caves in a battered 2CV. Unfortunately we were unable to meet him today, but we look forward to learning more about the history of his family business.

"Your Subterranean Tour Taxi!"

In the meantime we have some of the history that was displayed in an earlier museum that was set up some years ago, as well as some shots of the new style of mushroom growing.
Mushroom growing was only comercialized on the Touraine region in 1854 when Charles Gillard [above] started growing mushrooms in the caves left behind by the quarrymen who supplied the stone to build Loches. There are [as mentioned] 30 hectares of caves on this site... hence the 2CV [and, one hopes, expert knowledge of the way around]

A potted history of mushroom cultivation in Touraine by Paul Gillard

This developed into a business that not only supplied mushrooms to markets but, quite rapidly, began to develope the growing mediums and cultures for successful crops. The poster below shows the growth of the canned mushrooms produced by Gillard and Co from 1902 to 1909. They were marketed as "Royal Champignon".

Growth from just under 500,000 to almost 4 million cans in seven years.

And these are the canners at work.

By the early 1990s they were growing and supplying medium for over a dozen different types of fungi including:

Shiitaké, Paris White, Shaggy Ink-cap [Coprinus comatus], different strains of Oyster Mushrooms [Pleurotus species] and Enokitaké. Some of these are pictured below with onginal pickers baskets.

A cornucopia of fungi

There has even been a Shiitaké beer brewed for a restaurant in Belgium.... apparently it tasted good. But this bottle was empty and I've only got the drinkers word for that.... but he likes a good beer!

Vide-etang at Le Louroux

To Le Louroux yesterday morning (via a deviation that took us twice as far as the normal route). Traffic was re-routed one way through the village to allow parking on one side of the road between Le Louroux and Manthelan. Traffic control was in the hands of a series of young ladies in yellow high-visibility jackets. The lake is emptied every two years to maintain the quality of the environment and to regulate fish stocks. There were huge queues for the fish and a TV outside broadcast team interviewed the enthusiastic buyers about their favourite recipes.

We were entertained by a troupe of wandering minstrels....

Do you know this one?

No! You play it and I'll improvise...

Meanwhile a hardy team of pisciculteurs from the Brenne in waders and waterproofs worked from the exposed lakebed and a small flat-topped aluminium barge with an outboard motor.

The net was laid carefully on the top of the barge, concertina folded so that it could be paid out again behind the boat to enclose the next catch.

Two or three men worked on the shore while the boat worked in a curve laying out the net. It stopped a few metres from the shore and one man waded out to pull the net in and close the loop. 

Starting to pay the net out.

 Having been carefully laid out on the barge.... The net is now carefully fed back off.

Begining to turn back to shore

Return run

The full circle

Ends are secured....

....and the net is slowly and carefully drawn in.

The net is almost small enough for the fishermen....

They peg the sides of the net higher than the waterline so that none shall escape!

But one tries.... but is heading the wrong way!

 
When only a small patch of water was left inside the net, the men pegged the net in place with metal stakes and started scooping out the fish with hand-nets into boxes.
 

Handling a large pike [left of picture] and filling a box [right of frame]

Excess net is already being paid back out, ready to be loaded. Meanwhile, yet more fish is loaded into boxes.

Struggling with a heavy net full of fish is tricky work... and it is inevitable that some escape...

but only back into the circle!

Meanwhile, a young man came to the fish traps behind the dam with a triangular net to fill his bait box with tiddlers.

Apart from the outboard motor and the metal barge, this scene has been played out for at least nine centuries. The lake is probably in a natural basin in mostly flat countryside, but it is by no means natural. The monks of the Benedictine Prieuré of Le Louroux re-routed and straightened streams, deepened the lake and built dams, so they could have fish on a Friday. Some of the fish sellers dressed in rusty brown robes to celebrate the historical links. I'm sure Brother Cadfael never wore trainers though, or went to collect bait on a motor bike.

There is more on the vide-etang at Le Louroux by Susan and Simon at Days on the Claise and there is more about the exhibition of fabulous macro photographs of insects by David Greyo on his Blog

The start of a story

Well, not exactly....
I've started this blog because of the object shown here >>>

 I had posted it on my flickr site and got 136 hits that first day! I was very surprised.

The object is a hammer stone with three working faces showing wear on all faces and a wonderfully polished area where the user had removed two chunks of flint to make it fit his grip.

It fits my grip comfortably  and the two 'hammer' faces are clear of my fingers. I am mainly right-handed.

Unfortunately the hammer stone was found out of context.
We have had a 'fosse touts eaux' [a septic tank] installed and this was in the spoil heap.

The altered areas on the grip are shown below...
the arrows point to the exposed flint, polished by use.

Also use polishing shows on the rough outer surface of the nodule.

The two 'hammer' faces are at different angles and show the most wear at the inner and front side of the 'flat' face [visible on the top picture] and the outside and bottom of the angled face. The 'handle' face also appears to have been used and a flake was removed from the top of the hammer, between the two hammer faces.
This also fits comfortably into my hand with the thumb resting down the concave face [visible in the top picture] and the fingers down the convex face [visible left].



The next picture shows the areas of wear on the hammer faces.

1 & 2 ] The areas of greatest wear are between the arrows...
the curve following the line of wear from blob to blob.


3] This face on the flat hammer is still sharply defined and appears never to have been struck.


I will return to this object once I have taken some better photos.