{"id":8213,"date":"2017-06-14T16:15:22","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T20:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/?p=8213"},"modified":"2018-02-09T17:02:28","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T22:02:28","slug":"miraculous-abundance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/?p=8213","title":{"rendered":"Miraculous Abundance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Before traveling to France, I had read about this years-long labor of love by a couple who gave up their careers as international lawyer (hers) and documentary-creating sailor (his) to raise their children in a healthy environment. In 2006 Perrine and Charles Herv\u00e9-Gruyer set out to create an organic farm (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fermedubec.com\">La ferme biologique du Bec Hellouin<\/a>) in a small Norman village, knowing zero about farming. At first they floundered (\u201cWe made many mistakes\u201d), but doggedly researched and experimented, discovering and embracing permaculture* as their underlying farming philosophy.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/6.14.17bFerme.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-8216 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/6.14.17bFerme-854x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/6.14.17bFerme-854x1024.jpg 854w, https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/6.14.17bFerme-250x300.jpg 250w, https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/6.14.17bFerme-768x921.jpg 768w, https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/6.14.17bFerme.jpg 950w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Today, from gardens totalling around 1500 square meters, they produce an abundance of vegetables, fruits, and herbs\u2014over 800 varieties\u2014without chemicals or fossil-fuel-powered tools, in an incredibly beautiful 20-hectare (49-acre) jewel of a farm that includes water features and tiny bridges, orchards, a greenhouse, flower-edged footpaths, and free-ranging animals. Their tremendous success has brought a stream of international visitors seeking to follow their model or just inform themselves and maybe buy some peas. This month Jim and I were among them, and my sketches fail to capture the magic of this place. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Miraculous-Abundance-Quarter-French-Farmers\/dp\/1603586423\"><i>Miraculous Abundance<\/i><\/a> is the title of their book, now available in English.<\/p>\n<p>The admirable larger goal of the Herv\u00e9-Gruyers: \u201c<strong>To nourish humanity while healing the planet<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>*FYI: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.permaculture.net\/about\/definitions.html\">Definitions of permaculture<\/a>, from the practical to the poetic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before traveling to France, I had read about this years-long labor of love by a couple who gave up their careers as international lawyer (hers) and documentary-creating sailor (his) to raise their children in a healthy environment. In 2006 Perrine and Charles Herv\u00e9-Gruyer set out to create an organic farm (La ferme biologique du Bec<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/?p=8213\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[107,80,36,176,122,17,3],"class_list":["post-8213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sketchbook","tag-cow","tag-farm","tag-france","tag-normandy","tag-organic","tag-penink","tag-watercolor"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8213"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8220,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8213\/revisions\/8220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}