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vinegar for “verjus” (or “green juice”) the acidic juice any plastic bags we could use she was horrified. “Mon
of unripened grapes. Over time verjus was replaced dieu! No!” Plastic bags, it turned out, are disdained in
with white wine and, over time, Dijon’s spicy, savory, France. It took us a half day to even find a store that
tangy, slightly sweet mustard became the king of sold them. And when we did, they only had gallon sizes.
condiments. Which brings us back to smuggling.
The vineyard-mustard seed connection was symbiotic Before our final flight out two days later, we filled two
for centuries. Farmers cultivated rows of mustard gallon bags with our mustard bounty. One with our
plants in the Burgundian vineyards as a cover crop to favorites, the other with second tier favorites. Then we
help fertilize the grapevines. Nowadays however, most stuffed both bags deep in our carry-on luggage. If we
of Dijon’s mustard seeds come from Canada. And got caught, we’d offer up the second with apologies in
Dijon-style mustard is so well-known it’s become French. “Je suis tellement desole.”
generic. No longer an official designation, it can be Surely our attempt at bad French would count for
made anywhere. something.
But recently, Fallot and other area mustard-makers But as luck would have it, we never had to make
have created a “Burgundy mustard” designation that excuses or grovel in French. As we were boarding, the
means the seeds are locally grown and have been airline check-in lady told us the plane was completely
soaked in Dijon-area wines, not vinegar. booked and there was no more room for our little
During the course of the hour-and-15-minute tour, we wheelie bags. “You’ll have to check them through,” she
also learned about mustard-seed sifting, and mustard said. “And it’s free.”
seed storage-crushing-soaking-weighing-flavoring All our mustards were saved. And, since then, so were
and something to do with the seeds and centrifuges. all our sandwiches, roast pork glazes and salad
Through glass partitions on the factory floor, we dressings.
watched workers -- wearing white coats and hairnets
– as they stirred mustard in stainless steel vats. At the
end of the process, we saw filled mustard jars Best Wishes,
marching along conveyor belts. According to Baptist, John
Fallot ships its mustard to 50 countries. Canada,
Germany and the U.S. are one, two, three.
Like many tours, this one ended at a gift shop.
Surrounded by more tasting stations and walls of
mustard jars, we completely succumbed. By the time
we were finished, we walked away with two sets of
four mini-jars (one set a generous gift from Baptist)
and five medium-sized jars. All this to go with the two
other jars we’d bought at the original Fallot boutique
in Dijon.
Along with the classic Dijon-style, our haul included
mustard with black pepper, mustard with honey and
balsamic vinegar, mustard with smoked paprika, and
mustard with “piment d’espelette,” a kind of chili
pepper from France’s Basque region. We envisioned
mustard-smeared sandwiches, mustard-glazed roasts,
and mustard-infused salad dressings.
What we didn’t envision was the whole lot being
confiscated by the airport police, until we read the TSA
limits for carry-on bags: One quart-sized bag of
liquids, aerosols, gels, creams and pastes in 3.4-ounce
(or smaller) containers.
All our bags were carry-on and we were over the TSA
limit by one full quart bag of mustard (which counts as
a paste). Nor did we have the TSA proscribed quart-
sized plastic bags to put our mustards in.
When we asked the host at our Beaune B&B if she had

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