FERME BEAUREGARD - THE ROOTS

Posted on February 27 2018

Categories: #organic farming, #wwoofing, #vegetable farming, #homestead, #Bios, #ecoconstruction, #selfsufficiency, #bread making

Who: Jean-Francois and Annelyse, Lisa (mobile organic food shop and gardener), Marie (gardener)
What: Organic Farm Homestead & Collective
Where: Montbrun-Bocage, Ariege, France
When: 25 February - 17 March 2018 and 6-13 April

Website: https://app.wwoof.fr/host/1642

The Roots: Jean-Francois, most recently a furniture maker by trade, and his family (wife, Annelyse, and their kids, now grown) have lived for the past twenty years on their homestead Beauregard Farm, but was inspired by permaculture practices three years and now that he is ready to retire from his career in woodworking, has decided to start producing vegetables and fruits by forming a collective with two interested gardeners; Lisa (33) and Marie (60).

BACKGROUND

Jean-Francois arrived in Ariège in 1979 after leaving the suburbs of Paris during the 'back-to-the-land' movement of the 1970's, seeking a simpler and more self-sufficient lifestyle. One of his first projects in the area was to create a recycling center, where people would bring their waste/unwanted materials and he would do repairs and resell them. Before he started this business it was common that people would abandon their unwanted products by the side of the road, in the woods or at the dump. The business grew and developed a horizontal structure with the employees. They even had a collective cafeteria where any of the locals could join them for lunch for 5 euros a meal. However, after about ten years of business, other recycling companies began to emerge creating too much competition. Jean-Francois decided to change careers and started a furniture & woodworking business which he still does today but is planning to retire soon.

Jean-Francois lived in the Ariège region for numerous years before purchasing the 7 hectare parcel of Beauregard Farm in 1988. As Jean-Francois came to Ariège with the intention of being as self-sufficient as possible, Beauregard provided the land he needed to raise a few animals, maintain a large garden and experiment with greywater treatment, and renewable energy sources (mainly wood).

As he is preparing to 'retired' from woodworking, Jean-Francois has decided to start a new career, vegetable and fruit farming, and started renting a small tract of land in 2013 (about 5 km from Beauregard) to expand his production. This past summer, a WWOOFer named Lisa from the suburbs of Paris, arrived and decided to stay at Beauregard to help Jean-Francois in his new farming venture. Lisa has a side project/business called L'epicierie de l'ours (or The Bear's Grocery); a mobile organic grocery store she parks at local farmers' markets and villages in the area selling mainly bulk products (oats, rice, flour, lentils, etc.). Marie is another associate who loves gardening and recently teamed up with Jean-Francois and Lisa to work the veggie garden as a collective effort.

ACTUAL SYSTEM

Beauregard Farm is 7 hectares, and he maintains 4 additional hectares of his neighbor's land in exchange for using the resources. He has another smaller parcel, referred to as the 'Lower Garden' (8000 m²), about 5 km away to expand their vegetable and fruit production which they purchased in 2013.

Land & Soil: The Beauregard site is located on the ridge of a hill which overlooks a small medieval village (complete with a castle ruin!), the rolling foothills of Ariège and the Pyrenees Mountains. Of the total 11 hectares that he maintains, 7 are forested (the home is heated by wood stove and all of this fuel is harvested from the surrounding woods), 3.5 are used for pasture and haymaking, and the rest includes a garden, greenhouses, and numerous buildings.

The soil is very clayey, basic and dense. There are areas where the bedrock skims the surface of the pastures and other areas with deep reserves of this fertile, clayey soil. As Jean Francois has been gardening here for many years, the soil in the garden area is rich and dark with organic matter and has a wonderful soil structure.

The Lower Garden was an abandoned field taken over by forest for the past 20 years or so. Therefore, when Jean Francois purchased this parcel, the first order a business was to clear the trees, stumps and forest debris to create an arable area. Adjacent to this field are two other parcels that are owned by another farmer who uses conventional practices to cultivate alfalfa on one portion and corn? on the other. The first two years after clearing the land, Jean François planted cover crops to prepare and fertilize the soil. The first year he planted a mix of oats and vetch and the second year, alfalfa. Afterward, he started planting annual row crops, fruit trees and berry bushes and installed one greenhouse and one high-tunnel.

Originally, Jean Francois had intended to work the land with his mule and donkey until he was inspired by a permaculture course he took in 2015 to 'let nature do the work'. He sold the animals and decided to work the land as little as possible by using tarps, ground covers and the broadfork. However, he has a tractor which he uses for numerous tasks including preparing the land for certain crops (mainly potatoes, onions and carrots), making hay, etc.

Water: The main site is hooked into the public water supply. There is also a natural spring on site, but it is at the bottom of the property and therefore not energy efficient to pump it up to the house and gardens at this time.

The house has a phytoremediation system installed to filter both the gray and blackwater. The water first enters a holding tank where solids rest and are emptied periodically. Then the water flows into three different holding ponds, before flowing to the duck pond (about 100 feet away). This area is landscaped with water loving and filtration plants including banana trees, cattails and reeds which creates a humid and almost tropical feel in the summer. Over the years however, the banana trees have been multiplying (they started with only three small plants 6 years ago!) and this summer their root systems started breaking through the pipes connecting the tank and the ponds...Whoops! So now they are rethinking the systems design. They also harvest rainwater to use in construction projects, water the animals and water the garden.

The lower garden has no runner water, but has a small river which runs all year running adjacent to it. In order to irrigate the fields, Jean François installed a pump to use the river to fill a 1,700 liter water tower he built onsite. This is a gas system which pumps 100 liters of water per minute and so filling the tower in 17 minutes. It is then distributed throughout the garden irrigation system (drip lines and sprinklers depending on the crop) via gravity.

Animals: Jean François currently has 8 chickens, one rooster and three sheep for wool and meat. Before this past summer he kept 50 chickens (approximately 25 for eggs and 25 for meat), 1 male and 5 females which amounted to a flock of about with the ducklings (for meat), 1 or 2 pigs (per year) and kept a herd of approximately 10 sheep, one ram and 9 ewes who then had about 15 lambs per year (for meat and wool).

This year after having some health problems, he realized he needed to lessen his work load and sold most of the sheep and processed the rest into sausages, cuts of meat which he froze and dried, pâtés and other delicacies. He is still debating on whether or not he will purchase another feeder pig this year and possibly increase the flock of sheep again in the future. All of the animals are kept at the main farm where the house is located. Their meat products are all consumed by the family, friends and guests and are not intended for sale.

Vegetable & Fruit Production: Jean François, Lisa and Marie grow a great variety of vegetables over the course of the season and they try to utilize the differences in soil structure to their advantage; for example, planting carrots, potatoes and asparagus in the lower garden which has a sandy soil and lining the northern perimeter of the site with a variety of fruit trees (figs, apricots, apples, plums, cherries, etc.) while in the main rich clayey soil of the upper garden he has planted artichoke, rhubarb berry bushes (black currants and raspberries), tomatoes and cabbages. The main site also has a variety of fruit trees that Jean Francois and Annelyse have planted over the years including persimmons, apples, plums, 5 varieties of fig, quince, 60 grapes vines of

various varieties and lemons, oranges and limes (in pots).

Jean François was inspired by Permaculture about 3 years ago after doing a ten day Permaculture Design Course (PDC). This is evident in both gardens as well because he always uses multi and inter-cropping techniques. He tries to work the soil as little as possible and uses hay mulching and remedial woodchips where he can to lock in moisture, protect the soil from eroding, helping fungal networks develop, etc. He is also in the process of incorporating more perennial crops in the main garden to divide the annual beds, line pathways, etc.

At the main site, there is one seedling greenhouse (about 12 feet of bench space) and two tunnel greenhouses (about 70 ft² each). For the winter season, one was filled with composting sheep manure to increase the temperature for the plants inside and the edges are filled with sawdust insolation. Now it is home to the potted citrus trees and during the summer they will plant their tomatoes and cucumbers. The lower garden has 2 large greenhouses (each approximately 2,300 sf) and a tool storage area.

Seeding: Jean François purchases his seeds and starts his plants in their new seedling greenhouse. A recent addition to the greenhouse is a mass-heater seed bench where plastic tubes covered with sand are pumped with warm air (which uses about the same amount of electricity as a 100W lightbulb). This creates a warm mass structure that holds heat for longer. When seedling trays are laid on top, they benefit greatly from the bit of extra warmth during the cold winter temperatures.

Buildings: There are numerous buildings on site. The main home dates back to 1832 and has since been split into a two-bedroom apartment and one larger 4-bedroom home.

Across from the house is another original building that was a barn but currently houses Jean Francois's wood working workshop and equipment, the summer/preserving kitchen with a handmade, clay bread oven (Jean François was also a baker for a numerous years and makes a batch of over 25 kg (about 60lbs) of bread once every three weeks or so). However, now that the family’s 6 kids are out of the house, Jean Francois and Annelyse are renovating and converting the wood shop into their new home which they hope to finish in the next year. This will allow them to rent out the larger home for a bit of added income or for another farmer interested in joining their collective. There is one small wooden barn onsite for the sheep (and when they had donkeys), one large wooden hanger to store the tractors and engine repair/metal working equipement as another of Jean Francois's hobbies is engine repair and old tractor

restoration.

There are also 3 light construction homes at Beauregarde one temporary yurt (Lisa’s home) and one other small cabin where long-term visitors, WWOOFers and others stay.

SALES

Currently all of the veggies and fruits are eaten fresh or preserved by Jean François and Annelyse, stored for later and/or given to friends. This year, now that they have the help of Marie and Lisa in the garden, they hope to be able to sell a portion of their products as well. Lisa plans to sell a portion of their fresh veggies as part of her ‘mobile organic shop.’

FUTURE PROJECTS

As Jean Francois has had many careers in his life and this agricultural adventure which is just beginning is just for the pleasure of it, he does not have a long list of definitive future projects. He feels like it will depend on other associates who join their group depending on their interests and experiences. However, one dream he does have is to purchase one of the adjacent parcels of land in the Lower Garden to start growing ancient grain varieties for his bread making. The other future project which is taking up most of Jean Francois's time is renovating his and Annelyse's future home.

BEGINNING FARMER ADVICE

1) Make sure you construct your workshop before the house...otherwise you won't have a dry place to work while constructing the house and things you need, nor a place to store and protect your equipment.

2) Take a small house and not a huge old building that needs to be renovated because it is A LOT of work unless you don't mind leaving it unfinished until after you retire ;)

FAVORITE TOOL

'Swiss Army Knife Tractor' as Jean Francois has fashioned all sorts of attachments for the tractor himself based on his farm's needs

INSPIRATIONAL PEOPLE

Gandhi and his follower Lanza del Vasto