In recent years, new generation canneries have been opening almost everywhere in France. They are called “L’Econome”, “Bocalenvers”, “La cannerie mobile”… Associatives or cooperatives, often integration companies, they set up in third places – La Ringarderie in Aubenas (Ardèche), Le Talus in Marseille… – or play the mobility card, aboard fully equipped trucks. Regardless, the goal remains the same: to promote fruits and vegetables threatened with ending up in the trash by making artisanal preserves. Or how sterilization by heat added to a good pinch of culinary imagination transforms unsold goods from supermarkets, leftovers from the end of markets and especially surplus market gardening into small, appetizing jars.
“We make eggplant caviars with bergamot, thyme or rosemary, sweet potato hummus, sweet potato-vanilla-lemon jam”, cites as an example Julie Hermet, 32, co-founder of L’Econome, an associative canning truck which has been crisscrossing the Var department since 2021, supported by the metropolis of Toulon. It all started by collecting unsold goods from the markets, for distribution to disadvantaged families. “We met local market gardeners, they told us that a third of their fruits and vegetables were wasted, remembers Mme Hermet. So we had the idea of developing a traveling laboratory that travels to their farm. »
Parked at the end of the field, the truck connects to the farm’s water and electricity, but farmers do not have to give their time or invest in processing tools. They only have to market the jars supplied with labels. “The price of our service is calculated based on their cost price so that they can generate a margin of 30% by selling these jams, soups, sauces and aperitif spreads on their farm or at the market”, specifies Julie Hermet. The truck’s autoclave sterilizer is also regularly made available to low-income families who have a vegetable garden or a shared garden plot. In these times of high food price inflation, ready-made jars are precious. In rural communities, the passage of L’Econome is expected.
Unusual delights
“Local communities are increasingly asking us to set up a cannery on their territory”, testifies Héloïse Antoine, engineer responsible for the development of La Conserverie locale, located in Augny, in Moselle, near Metz. Since 2022, she “trained to make preserves that do not kill”. A rather laudable mission. “Producing stable and healthy preserves in a lab that respects health rules with competent staff, she summarizes, it is our hobby horse. If one cannery is responsible for a death, the entire industry will suffer. » The artisanal canned sardines responsible for the death of a customer in a Bordeaux restaurant in September 2023 are still remembered.
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