Doyenne du Comice
My name is Doyenne du Comice but almost everyone simply calls me Doyenne. Oui, I’m French and my strange name comes from the place where I was discovered, in 1849: the Comice Horticole fruit garden of Maine-et-Loire, in the Loire region. Now I live permanently in the Po Valley but I love exploring new places and meeting people who can get to know me and appreciate me.
The most striking thing about me is definitely my unusual and let’s say original shape. I’m round, actually the roundest out of all my sisters and one of the largest. But this ruddy appearance shouldn’t fool you - I’m delicate and need to be treated with great care, especially when I’m completely ripe. I wear a green dress with lenticels that are sometimes rusty and very clear and reddish stripes that appear when I'm exposed to the sun. I’m juicy, nicely sweet and excellent to bite into from mid-September, when I’m harvested and for most of the winter, when I fill the coldest days with flavour.
