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Auvergne
An emblematic crop of the Limagne plain, Ail rose de Billom was once the “white gold” of the pays de Billom before becoming a niche crop, plaited by hand and sold direct.
Vegetable from Auvergne.
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According to the growers' trade association, garlic has been present in Limagne since the return from the crusades in the 14th century, thriving in gardens thanks to the work of monks until the 19th century. It was then grown in open fields by the farming community and marketed by brokers. Around 1860, it replaced hemp, which was then in decline in the area, and developed alongside sugar beet: this marked the beginning of Billom garlic's renown.
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Billom, a medieval town and the gateway to the Livradois, owed the marketing of this “white gold” to its fairs and markets. Between 1860 and 1960, INRA engineers selected varieties of pink garlic suited to the local area, and production reached its peak: 2,000 hectares of pink garlic, 5,500 tonnes a year, fourteen merchants in Billom, and 200 employees at the Rochias packaging plant, where garlic was bagged in packs of three or four heads, or processed into powder or paste. Part of the harvest was sent to Bordeaux and the South-West, where garlic holds an important place at the table, as in frottée à l'ail, toasted bread drizzled with oil and rubbed with garlic.
With the arrival of maize and cereal farming, garlic lost its predominance and became a niche crop, often sold directly from the farm or through short supply chains. From the 1980s onwards, cultivated land fell from 2,000 hectares to fewer than a hundred. To defend this emblematic crop, growers and merchants created the Fédération de l'Ail d'Auvergne in 1994. It conducts training, promotional activities, and support for setting up farms, as well as a project to obtain PGI status.
Story also has it that Auvergne garlic travelled as far as the British Isles during the Second World War: French soldiers stationed in England, lacking garlic, allegedly went on strike, and servicemen parachuted into Auvergne by night were sent to bring some back from Limagne.
Appearance
Pink garlic, sold in plaits, in bunches or loose.
Taste
A flavour described by the sector as “inimitable”, which it attributes, along with its long-keeping qualities, to the typicity of the terroir.
little irrigation, as the cultivated varieties have low water requirements, and mechanical weeding to limit herbicides.
pink garlic keeps for a long time, eliminating the need for anti-sprouting agents on the bulbs.
roughly half the garlic is sold direct by growers, the other half by merchants based in the area.
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Ail rose de Billom can be found in plaits, in bunches or loose, directly from growers, in delicatessens and farm shops, or at the Foire à l'Ail de Billom on the second weekend in August. Local artisans also process it: in Issoire, l'Yssoirien, a cheese made with Ail rose de Billom, is one example. In the South-West, where part of the harvest was once dispatched, the garlic is rubbed onto toasted, oiled bread—the frottée à l'ail.
No official quality sign (PDO (AOP), PGI (IGP), Label Rouge) is certified for Ail rose de Billom. The trade federation indicates that it has launched a project to obtain a PGI, using this application as an opportunity to set out the values it champions: little irrigation, mechanical weeding, and no anti-sprouting agents.
No producer is listed for this product yet.