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Host rating
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Last replied
22 Jun 2021
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Description
We are a British family, Lucy, Geoff, Freya and John, who have lived in France as smallholders for around 30 years. The farm, 6 hectares, is used for a variety of existing projects, with plenty of enthusiasm for more!
Freya is an excellent florist working in various fields including set design for magazines, installations for weddings and events.
Lucy is a grower of great experience and is the oracle of all things propagation and seed.
Geoff is our resident DIY expert and if something needs to be built, he's the man. He also makes delicious cake!
John is our permaculture, regenerative agriculture man, having completed his certificate a couple of years ago. He does lots of work related to compost and soil amending and along with lucy grows all the vegetables. Design and plan for the food forest and is working to complete his permaculture diploma and become a certified teacher.
The land here is beautiful and has many wild and open spaces for walking and relaxing, huge populations of wildlife , especially birds, and there is a stream running through the centre. We have a good collection of buildings to house animals and a barn for social events.
Our principle operation consists of cut flower production and professional floristry, Including large installations and foam-free structures. With that comes infrastructure of propagating areas, polytunnels, several dedicated growing spaces and a floristry workshop. Our resident florist Freya runs workshops and courses related to this floristry.
This last year, we also completed the first implementation phase of a food forest and have planted most of the canopy layer and lots of fruiting shrubs. This spring/summer we will be looking to continue our work into the ground cover and the planting of many perennial vegetables.
We grow much of our food on site and have an extensive vegetable patch and dedicated polytunnel. We are also this year launching into mushroom production, on logs, in beds and in bags.
We are currently building a tiny house and looking to install it in one of the far fields. This involves plumbing, electricity and carpentry skills.
There are many spaces that we have been active in rewilding as well as allowing natural succession to take place.
We apply no-dig, living soil, permaculture and agroforestry techniques in the implementation of our growing operations, inspired and working towards regenerative agriculture. We harvest rain water and use solar pumps for our irrigation. We propagate as much as possible from seed saving, division, cuttings etc.
We use composting techniques including rapid hot compost, actively aerated teas, chicken tractors, biochar production, chop & drop, and worm cultures and are currently taking samples to test under microscope.
We also have a small flock of animals including 7 sheep, 2 ponies a donkey and around 25 chickens and work to close their waste streams as well as our own into compost and fertilizer. We use holistic planned grazing in their management.
Though a lot of our production is currently in annual plants we are working towards the highest standards of sustainability by building towards as much dependence on perennial systems as possible and are currently in that transition, as well as looking towards self sufficiency in compost and energy systems.
We are also looking to grow the project, extending our perennial growing into dedicated wildflower meadows and extending our perennial food growing and fruit trees.
We are at the beginning of a transition and are looking to make the place more dynamic and invite more skilled people in to run workshops and do community work. Looking eventually towards building the project into something that serves community and nature in the best way it can.
We want to start outreach programs, run courses from site on floristry, permaculture and agroforestry, run workshops and use the extensive spaces to facilitate creative work in artisan making, yoga, creative arts, or anything people are passionate about!
All of us have a keen interest in meditation and yoga, good healthy food and good conversation. We are all vegetarian or vegan.
Physical exercise is important to all of us, be it in the form of kinaesthetic training, sport climbing bouldering, mountain biking, walking or canoeing.
We are looking for enthusiastic and hard working people, committed to learning through doing; people that are in love with nature, that are creative, motivated but also independent. We sometimes need help for specific projects and things that are more creative or interesting but also need people that are happy to help with the day to day activities and running of the farm, mucking out the stable, helping with cooking and cleaning, turning compost piles, weeding etc. There is plenty of time, space and resources here for people to follow their own passions, whether it be cooking, writing, drawing, yoga, weaving etc etc.
We think a couple or two friends travelling together would be ideal.
The land and house is also shared with some co habitants, the house has two people renting in it, who are both lovely and the adjoining house is currently housing a family of 4 with a young baby.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Art Projects
Language practice
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
Here you can learn lots about growing flowers, vegetables, trees, shrubs and even mushrooms. Implementation of permaculture design, how to make soil amendments, compost, teas etc. Professional floristry and installation. We live a live that is full of good food, fulfilling work and close to nature.
Help
Help with the garden, general maintenance and running of the farm. Help with the animals. The work is varied and can sometimes be physical and sometimes more relaxed. As in the description there is plenty going on and the help with be related to those projects.
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
French: FluentThis host offers a language exchange
John speaks a little bit of Italian and Spanish. He once spoke Italian well but that was many years ago. Otherwise speaking and exchanging in both French and English is good and would be very happy to practice Spanish.
Accommodation
You would be in a shared house and have a private room (shared if you come as two). The house has John and Freya and two renters Alex and Cecile. The food will be provided for you but we would have a rotor system for cooking and washing up.
What else ...
We are in a in a small village with its own pizzeria. There is a collection of bikes available and we are surrounded by quiet roads and tracks, and we are about 40 minutes from the coast.
Just over half an hour away are the towns of St Lo, Bayeux (of tapestry fame) and Caen with its museums, and William the Conqueror's chateau. The WW2 landing beaches are 40 minutes from us. We live in a rural area where there are lots of nice walks, within a 25 minute drive you have forest for walking or biking. We sometimes go to our local organic veg growers to play basketball and you'd be very welcome to join us. John & Freya go rock climbing and there’s possibility for you to join them. Otherwise there is plenty of space and enthusiasm for your own pursuits and we welcome anybody that would like to share with us!
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
Hours expected
4 hours per day, 5 days a week
