French Grape Basket

Every September the vineyards filled with pickers, and baskets like this one came down off the wall for the few weeks they were needed. Found in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, the basket is woven from willow in a warm red-brown, low and wide with an open lattice weave and a single bentwood handle bound across the middle. The shape was the whole point of a panier à vendange, kept shallow and broad so the grapes could be laid in and carried back to the press without crushing under their own weight. Sylvie fills it with cut branches straight from the garden and carries it through to the kitchen table, leaves and all.

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