A carpaccio of radishes in hemp oil, or hemp seeds just pan-fried for a few seconds to make it rain on a good green salad. This is enough to occupy a good part of your next brunch with friends. Once you have discarded the jokes about the possible planing virtues of your cannabis preparations, since hemp seeds do not contain THC, you can talk about “their little taste of hazelnut or pine nuts”. “Hemp oil goes very well with balsamic vinegar and a drizzle of olive oil for example”, notes for example Emilie Capel, both creator and unique employee of
V21, a Toulouse start-up that prides itself on “putting hemp on your plates”. In the form of artisanal oil, raw, shelled or pounded seeds.
Nothing predestined this 35-year-old marketing salesperson to convince organic farmers in the Gers to adopt hemp. Its reconversion is due to confinement Internet browsing. “I knew that hemp was used in building materials but I discovered that it was eaten that it was rich in protein, fiber and it was a sustainable plant that does not consume much water and has falling leaves. nourish the soil, ”says the Toulouse woman.
“The rains were enough” for the first harvest
And even if it means getting started, we might as well “create a local industry”. Emilie Capel therefore took her pilgrim’s staff – finally her keyboard, in the middle of Covid. One of his emails landed in the box of Bertrand Bortoloni, organic farmer and president of Champs du Gers, a group of 14 growers. “She needed seeds to get started, material, and it kicked me to try something new,” he says. Evil tongues told him that the plant was “difficult”. He did the mule and last spring sowed four of his 180 hectares with hemp, “in a land well ripened because the seed is small”. He confirms the sustainable aspect: “The rains were enough, no need for irrigation. »No problem for the collection either. Just a few curious people attracted by a familiar scent and inevitably disappointed. So that on September 1, Emilie Capel and Bertrand Bortoloni were brewing their first harvest by handfuls.
The oil and the conditioned seeds of V21 – for 21 Vendémiaire, hemp day in the decidedly very bucolic revolutionary calendar and which corresponds to October 12 – are currently arriving on the stalls of fine and organic grocery stores in Occitanie to convert them. “Cannavores”. They are also available online. If Emilie Capel wins her bet, she won’t have a supply problem next year. “If more is needed, we will plant more,” promises his friend from Gers.