Jardin Update Spring 2021
Spring-ing into Gear
This year’s planting season was a challenge. As some may know, in 2020 we had many plans for our regenerative farm that had to be delayed, and it seemed, up until essentially the last minute, that many of the same projects may need to be pushed once again into 2022. Thanks to some creative solutions and seemingly divine intervention, these projects not only will be possible, but we’ll likely be able to add some more!
For those that may be new to Maison/Made, our farm lies on a property that has been in our family since the 16th century. The garden in which we grow the ingredients for our skincare products used to be the land where the family would grow their food. Once certain modern conveniences appeared, like the local supermarket, the garden was left alone, abandoned, and became essentially a small meadow, until we decided to start Maison/Made. Utilizing the local regenerative methods of agriculture passed down to us, and applying the more rigorous practices of Biodynamics, this meadow is now a beautiful bounty of medicinal plants like lavender, calendula, raspberry, elder, roses, rosemary, thyme, valerian, and chamomile.
Think of Biodynamics as certified regenerative farming, the highest standard on the globe for agricultural products.
Coming back to the present, planting season is like a new puzzle you need to solve every year. What is the weather doing? Will we have another frost? What are the plants telling us right now? Will there be enough time to seed or should we bring in plants from the organic nursery (since we don't yet have a proper greenhouse)? What projects need to be completed before the others can start? It’s almost never ending, but somehow you always make it through to the other side.
We set out with 3 main goals for the season:
Complete construction of our drying room.
Grow and diversify our plant production
Design and implement an advanced irrigation system to maximize water usage.
While seemingly innocuous, these goals are longer term projects with several minor “problems” that need resolving in order to put our vision into reality.
Upon arriving at the farm, the first thing we always do is go for a long walk. A wet winter made proper boots necessary, the forest paths still very damp and muddy. Cooler temperatures meant more layers, but thankfully the sun still warmed the skin on our faces. An important facet of regenerative and Biodynamic farming is taking stock of the earth, plants, and weather (the terroir if you will) and is a very meditative, and quiet, experience for us. We walk slowly, and when we have something to say it's usually in almost a whisper, as if we’re trying to go through the landscape unnoticed. While the cool air fills our lungs, we fill our notebooks, taking note of the good spots to wildharvest nettle, cleavers, and lemon balm once they are ready for us.
We always end our walks in our garden. Here is where we see how much pre-work is ahead of us before we can even begin the things we have planned. This year, there’s more work than usual as the pandemic prevented not only us from getting there, but also all the people that normally work with us. Despite having a farmhand there full-time, his scope includes the rest of the property and not just our garden. That is why it was clear that the garden was left to its own proclivities, weeds having encroached into every nook and cranny possible, grass overgrown, compost unturned, and our perennials in need of some TLC. Our to-do begins to take up multiple pages…
Back at the house next to a crackling fire, tea in hands, we plan. Creative solutions begin to pop up (ie “It’s actually good that the grass is overgrown. Since it hasn't seeded yet we can cut it, collect it, and it’ll make excellent mulch.”). The days ahead begin to plan themselves and after a dinner provided by the local farmer’s market, dusk turns to night and we turn in.
The following day we meet the carpenter who has been helping around the house over the winter. Arnaud (which also happens to be Adrien’s grandfather’s name), a professional pastry chef, has been helping to renovate certain areas of the house, doing this work, a personal passion of his, while his restaurant is shut down during the pandemic. He tells us he has some free time and would be happy to help in whatever way he can - an offer we can’t refuse.
In 2020 we had also organized for some additional people to come full-time and help manage the farm, plans that were, of course, cancelled once we all began to see the world changing. During this time, however, Adrien’s younger cousin Aurelien, spending the lockdown on the farm, began to experience the same pull towards the soil that we encountered years ago. Once the lockdown lifted he left to continue his travels around Europe, however this connection with the soil and plants had become unbreakable. He found himself wildharvesting Chaga mushrooms in the Arctic regions of Northern Finland, and deepening his learning into Biodynamic, regenerative, and permaculture methods from the locals in these regions where working with Nature, rather than against it, was vital rather than simply optional.
So it came to be that during the winter of 2021 he expressed his desire to return to the farm and help us manage the garden for the season. He met us there, on the farm, ready to help us put our vision into reality. These first few days, as previously mentioned, were really focused on prep work, getting the garden in a position to be ready to be tended to. Without going too much into detail, this involved (among many other things):
Turning and “feeding” the compost heaps.
Mowing grass with a mower that collects the clippings rather than spewing them out to the side.
Weeding, weeding, and more weeding!
Collecting nettle to prepare our homemade Biodynamic nettle manure.
Design planning for where the new beds would be, what plants and trees would be added, and where.
Collecting the pigeon manure from the pigeonnier (dovecote).
Clearing out the new drying room.
Taking stock of our tools, fixing what needs fixed and purchasing replacement parts if necessary.
Preparing our homemade Biodynamic natural fertilizers and pest-prevention sprays.
So while we got to work on the garden, Arnaud began work on our new drying room. This room, for decades, was used for storage. Old TV’s, broken tables and chairs, cupboards, kitchen equipment, and various other forgotten items filled the room. After determining which items could be refurbished, reused, or recycled, the rest was sent away for proper disposal. A spring cleaning of epic proportions! With the room ready, Arnaud began laying tile upon the concrete floor, the first step to getting the room ready for its new purpose: drying our wonderful plants. Once the tile was laid, he began construction on the drying shelves and drawers utilising local pine from a lumber yard that only utilizes wood from local sustainable agroforestry practices. After about 10 days, Project #1 was complete!
Meanwhile, in the garden, a major expansion was under way. For Maison/Made, we had previously only utilized about 25% of the space, we only cultivated for what we needed and that had provided the plant material to satisfy the demand we had at the time. But with the business growing, and new products on the roadmap, now was the time to get everything in the ground that we will need later this year. When it comes to the design, we look to Nature - what plants benefit from being close to each other? What trees are good producers of skincare ingredients and also provide beneficial elements to the garden and local birds and pollinators? These kinds of questions dictated what we would plant and where. New to the garden this year we have: helichrysum, blue cornflower, echinacea, pomegranate, sea buckthorn, cistus, juniper, grapevines, wild malva, chickweed, red clover, and others, bringing the number of plants in the garden to over 50! We can’t wait for the first flowers to come and see the delight of the local pollinators. Project #2 - Check.
When it came to our irrigation system, last year we installed 4 1,000 liter (~265 gallons) rainwater collection cisterns so that we could utilize the best kind of water for our plants. While seemingly a lot, during the periods of heat and drought that this region is unfortunately becoming used to seeing due to Climate Change, we would likely need an additional source of water to cover our now larger selection of plants. During an evening apero with Adrien’s grandfather, Adrien was wondering aloud how previous generations had irrigated the garden. Grand-pere chimed in, “Why don’t you use the old well?”. The old well? What well?? Turns out that there is a well in the garden that is connected underground to the moat that surrounds the house and used to help level the waters during wet periods.
We were elated and grateful to those that came before us to have the good wits to put a well directly in the garden. The next day we giddily found the well and uncovered it. About 4 feet down it was full of mud… Not unusual for a well that hadn’t been used since the 1950’s, but still a bit of a bummer. Digging some of the mud out, it was clear that there is water there, however we need to bring in some external help to determine how deep the well goes and how to remove everything clogging it. For now, since it has been a wet spring, we’ll rely on the rainwater until we can organize to revitalize the well and pump up the water (France was on another lockdown until May 19th). Project #3 - Half done!
We could go on about all the other work that was done, however, as a recap, the above are certainly the most significant improvements that were made. Before returning to New York, we always like to spend the last evening savoring the effort and picnicking in the garden. As the sun begins its descent we watch the pigeons and swallows collecting their dinners, with the pleasant cooing and sing-song that goes along with it. The temperature is now pleasant and warm, only a sweater needed as the day closes. We look upon all the new plants in their new homes, the older plants already having grown in the weeks we’ve been there as if to show the new ones “how it’s done” and daydream about how the garden will look once in bloom. The sun dips below the horizon, we gather our things, and give each other a congratulatory hug before heading back to the house.