In the heart of France's d'Agen prunes plums country
Our farm VIDALOU, is located in Pujols a small town 60 km from Agen . Pujols exists since the middle age and enjoyed a good position on the famous pilgrimage route st James Way which played an important role in religious and cultural exchanges during the later Middle Ages. This explains some of our architecture dating from the 13th century and the unique character of our village , preserved under the "plus beaux villages de France" (Most beautiful villages of France) label.
Plums and hazelnuts
We grow about 20000 plum trees (d'Agen prune plums variety) and hazelnut trees (Pauetet variety) . Lot et garonne, the district where we live , produces 40% of French hazelnut and in most cases, hazelnut tree growers are plum tree growers as well. Pauetet is an industrial (as opposed to table) variety of hazelnut and for the chocolate industry which selects hazelnut varieties for specific food applications according to their organoleptic characteristics, the Pauetet variety stands out as the favorite for the manufacture of praline.
Praline flavors
This praline like aroma finds its way into our hazelnut oil , unique and recognizable among many. And delicate for its taste . And cold pressed . And virgin . And processed using only fruits from our estate. In small batch. With no solvent. A real delicacy for those after a real taste and rich flavors.
From Pujols to Helsinki
Plum seed oil was first marketed in 2001 after the green light from both the French Food Safety body and the EU Novel Food Committee. We devised a technology to brake the shells and extract oil from plum kernels and are now proud to see our plum seed oil exported to food processors , cosmetic companies , restaurants and distributors in such countries as USA, Germany , Japan, Australia , Austria or Finland. They like the originality of our product , its strong character , its perfume and its healthy profile.
Our Plum oil received the Golden Medal at the 2002 SIAL Paris Food Show and Perles De Gascogne was honored by the Hubert Curien Prize in 2005 for its technological achievement and its contribution to a greener environment.
Slideshows
Plum stories