In 2009, still a student in l’ENSAE Paristech (ENSAE Paris is known as the branch of École Polytechnique for statistics, data science and machine learning), I went for my first tests in vinegar. At the same time as I was working my first job, I created several vinegars that received encouragement and good reviews from my entourage. My desire to combine my two passions, gastronomy and winegrowing as well as my desire to go back and live in the South and do something “concrete” pushed me to change professions and devote myself exclusively to the production of vinegars. Therefore in 2013, I embarked on the Granhota adventure: to restore honour to French vinegar, a condiment of gastronomic tradition. I benefited from a family know-how in winegrowing but the first in the family to make vinegar with wines from the region of Languedoc chosen for their aromatic and organoleptic properties, ideal for vinegar. I create quality vinegars without the addition of colouring, preservatives, or sulphite. Then, from 2015, I started to produce mustard which allowed me to launch a range of mustards integrated in the continuity of our current know-how. Vinegar is a major ingredient in mustard, and I wanted to control the totality of the production by having my own seeds. In fact, 95% of the mustard seeds used come from Canada, China or India, while “*Brassica juncea*”, brown mustard, grows very well in our region. We have thus integrated this crop into our production : the Mediterranean climate does not allow us to obtain high yields, but the strong aromatic power is there! We control almost every ingredient, which is rare, and with the help of my friend Laurent Mahot, a mustard maker who refines the products. His workshop is located in Saillagouse about two hours by car from my workshop. This is important to us because we wish to work entirely local. We help him transform his vinegar and in exchange he takes care of our mustard seeds. Laurent is a real mustard lover and is a true professional. But by 2023, the idea is to manage 100% of the production directly from our base. From this brown mustard, which is stronger than yellow mustard which is more often used, we have created a range of mustard perfect for anyone’s tastes which you will find in your own personalised package. Several years have now passed since I started producing Lucca olives, the region's star variety, in parallel with my vinegar production. We now use them to produce condiments based on olives and vinegars, such as our olives preserved in vinegar and our olive paste with balsamic vinegar. The expertise of our partner Julien Dallens enables him to enhance the flavour of our olives, using artisanal processes. CrowdFarming is a platform with which we have been working ever since its inception, as we felt strongly about the idea it put forward. We personally believe that consumers should be able to enjoy easy access to artisanal, high-quality products. That's what CrowdFarming is all about. Since then, we have been working closely with CrowdFarming, and that has affected our organisation in several ways, starting with our stock management and our production rate.

“Granhota” means frog or small frog in Occitan. The name came to me when I was undertaking my first test of vinegars in barrels that had a frog engraved on it. The business is located in a former wine cellar at Coursan. That's where we take care of the vinegar, the mustards and the olives. The plots of land are located at Moussan, a village 10 km from the farm. Agriculture in the Aude is developed but remains an unstable and precarious sector. It is not a viable full-time occupation, for the most part, since the work is very seasonal. We have joined several other producers in launching a collaborative effort to create full-time jobs. More than 30% of the crops are dedicated to vines and wine-growing land. The olive-growing areas are very well represented, particularly due to the planting of a variety of olive native to the region, the Lucques. Our olive trees are largely surrounded by fields, scrubland, vines, caper plants and even arable crops such as sainfoin or barley. There is very little market gardening and fruit and vegetable production in Aude. In 2009, I set up my vinegar factory in an old wine storehouse in my native village, Coursan, between Narbonne and the vineyards. This cellar used to belong to a private individual who used to press and vinify his own harvests, as was the case with many families in the Languedoc region. But as times went by these cellars were abandoned in favour of wine cooperative. And the vinegar's history is not much different. Therefore, I decided to transform this old wine cellar into a vinegar workshop. Then, to diversify my activity, I also started growing mustard fields because it is directly linked to my vinegars. So, since 2011, I have been working with vinegar and vinegar products such as mustard and pickles. We have taken several measures to ensure that we are as environmentally friendly as possible. We reuse our cartons and bottles during production by recovering our customers' bottles and the cartons we use to store our products. We promote the transformation of batches of wines with volatility into vinegar. This process allows winemakers not to waste a product but rather to give it a second life in another form. We are currently considering the reuse of the vinegar mothers as organic compost. Our olive plantation is developing: the oldest Lucca trees stand alongside the 1,000 small olive trees that we planted in 2019, and, in a few years from now, our output will be 5 times bigger! But in the meantime, all year round, we cultivate olive trees that are already producing. The water for our olive trees comes only from rain. We have no irrigation system. Although we're not involved in organic production, no herbicide is employed: we use a plant cover or a clay cover and only apply chemical treatments to the trees during years that abound in pests. There are currently five of us at Granhota. The team started to form in 2018. Our approach to work is as follows: all the employees have defined day-to-day tasks, but most decisions and projects are carried out collectively. This flexibility allows us to be reactive in the day-to-day management of the company. It is true that the development and growth of the company's operations mean that we are experiencing delays in certain tasks. This is why we have been able to count on our apprentices in various fields of activity (food processing, commerce, design) for several years. They benefit from a fresh outlook on the company and are always proactive in improving our processes and our development in general.