Perigord Walnut Orchard
— the sound of walnuts hitting the grass.
Not only on a wall.
“The orchards of the Périgord, noyeraies as the French call them. Rows of old Franquette walnut trees, leaves turning gold in October. The harvest comes in waves through autumn. The trees shaken, the nuts gathered from the grass, dried, sorted. Périgord walnuts have carried an Appellation d'Origine Protégée since 2004. Four protected varieties, a region that runs from the Vézère valley to the Lot. The oil mills still press the way they did a century ago. The smell of fresh walnut oil holds the place better than any photograph.
Perigord Walnut Orchard, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
The place, in three passes.
The Périgord is the historical name for the region centered on the Dordogne department in southwestern France, part of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The walnut-growing area defined by the Noix du Périgord Appellation d'Origine Protégée spans 614 communes across four departments: Dordogne, Corrèze, Lot, and Charente. The Dordogne river runs through it. The administrative capital is Périgueux, but the orchards are concentrated in the limestone hills around Sarlat-la-Canéda, in the area locally called the Périgord Noir. The region is reached by train from Bordeaux in about two and a half hours, or by car off the A20 motorway between Limoges and Toulouse.
Walnut harvest in the Périgord runs roughly from mid-September into late October, depending on variety. The earliest, the Marbot, comes down first; the Franquette and the Corne follow through October, with Grandjean closing the season. The trees are shaken (traditionally with a long pole, now often mechanically), and the nuts gathered from the grass within a few days to keep them dry. Drying happens at around 30°C until the kernels separate cleanly from the shell. The leaves turn through bronze and gold in the same weeks, then drop. By early November the orchards stand bare and the oil mills, the huileries, are running. Visiting in October catches both at once.
The orchards smell of two things in late autumn: drying leaves and pressed walnut oil. The huileries, small artisan oil mills found in many Périgord villages, press cold-roasted walnut kernels through stone or steel screws, yielding an oil dark amber in colour and rich enough to use a few drops at a time. The Moulin de la Tour at Sainte-Nathalène, near Sarlat, has milled walnut oil on the same site for over two centuries. Outside, the walnut leaves give off a sharper, almost iodine-like scent as they break down. Together, the smell of the season carries half a kilometre on a still morning.