Self-sufficient food consumption is still very common today in the Combrailles region of Auvergne, bordering on the Basse Auvergne. It is all the more worthwhile for those who have recourse to it as it combines less expense with the consumption of foodstuffs considered as superior both in terms of quality and taste. Indeed country people speak with considerable nostalgia of the former high quality taste of foodstuffs which were almost all produced on the family farm. The high quality taste referred to here is emblematic of a time when everybody was, or was said to be, self-sufficient. In fact this ideal situation was rarely attained as peasant families were obliged to sell their produce on the market without always having the possibility of consuming it themselves. Self-sufficiency might have been attainable after the Second World War as the result of more efficient methods of production and conservation. Though rural families wanted to produce their own foodstuffs, the need to integrate the market economy has implied greater specialisation and the abandoning of a number of rarer foodstuffs previously given over to direct consumption.