After the monument and the village, here is "The favorite farm of the French".
Stéphane Bern's new program, broadcast this Wednesday, March 3 on France 3, will feature fourteen French farms, including the Bec-Hellouin farm in Eure, which will represent Normandy.
“We did not apply, explain the owners, Perrine and Charles Hervé-Gruyer.
The production came to shoot two days this summer.
For us, the victory does not matter.
We are happy to be able to show France that other farms exist.
We show the passion for work, that the job is beautiful.
That a farm is not just a soil, a seed and it grows!
It is an environment, a love that inhabits you.
"
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The Hervé-Gruyers wanted to make their farm a sanctuary for biodiversity.
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Wedged in a narrow valley, in the shadow of the Abbey of Notre-Dame-du-Bec, founded in 1034, the farm was selected according to the three criteria of the show: family history, heritage character and environmental efforts.
Perrine and Charles Hervé-Gruyer only arrived here in 2003. Only a small farmhouse then stood on a few hectares.
Sufficient, initially, for a couple and children in search of “food self-sufficiency, with a very strong quest for health and the quality of food.
A little vegetables, fruit and firewood… there is a real lifestyle around this farm ”, summarizes the owner.
No hunting, permaculture and animal traction
But, very quickly, the former sailor-educator with several trips around the world to his counter and the international lawyer, specialist in Asian countries, realize "that they love agriculture!"
We decided to make a profession out of it ”.
In 2006, they acquired land and wood.
Today, as soon as you pass through the gate, you enter a small village with its alleys.
Several Norman buildings have joined the family farmhouse as well as enclosures, with a horse, a donkey, chickens and ducks, sheep and dogs trotting to welcome you.
“We now have twenty hectares, twelve of which are woodland above the abbey.
It is a reserve for heating, but above all a sanctuary for biodiversity.
Hunting was banned there.
Two kilometers away, on a little over two hectares, we have built permaculture terraces where sheep also graze.
Finally, on five hectares, the farm produces vegetables, fruits and eggs, part of which is processed.
Everything is worked only with animal traction.
We invented everything and are the only ones to do so in the region, ”explains the farmer.
The Bec-Hellouin farm only works with animal traction.
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Very early on, the clientele is there.
Activities are also increasing with an educational farm and a permaculture school: “In 2008,” says Perrine Hervé-Gruyer, “we discovered this technique.
Quickly, we acquired a certain technicality.
The farm has become a full-fledged ecosystem where everything has its place, be it hedges, embankments, ponds, birds and insects.
We want to produce with more resilience and in the longer term ”.
A return to the agricultural future
“Over the years,” continues the farmer, “the soil gets richer, turns black like that of a forest.
We even manage to create microclimates.
"After fifteen years, from the first confinement, Charles and Perrine find that" our society is at the end of its rope.
We find ourselves in an ubiquitous situation where we can endanger the supply of the territories ”.
They therefore decide to take a radical turn, with the end of training and visits to get started, in partnership with scientists, in research.
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“We're trying to figure out how the farm of tomorrow could function if everything collapses.
How can we feed a territory of 400 inhabitants like here?
How many vegetables, meat, flour if we plant garden wheat?
Should we reintroduce a forest-garden with nuts in order to obtain a balanced diet?
We are at the crossroads of ancestral traditions and technological advances.
We have to reinvent a way of doing agriculture.
Not to be alone lost on hectares, only guided by a GPS.
"
It is on the strength of all these arguments that the couple agreed to participate in the television show "Even if we do not have any (editor's note)".
