I was born on the farm, and when I was little, I used to follow my father to work. I already liked nature, the calm of the countryside, the sunrises and sunsets, the sound of birds, and so on. What fascinated me was seeing the result of his efforts at harvest time. A lover of apples since day one, it came about quite naturally that I wanted to work in the same sector, especially with fruit. After studying agriculture, I did an internship in the United States in arboriculture for 3 months where I discovered a new vision of agriculture and how far ahead this continent was of ours in many areas, such as, for example, performing rigorous thinning of the trees to obtain a better quality fruit.
This experience helped me a lot, and in particular it instilled in me the desire to try new crops, even to become a pioneer in certain actions. In particular, I am very happy to say that we are one of the first in our region to cultivate pistachios that will bear their first fruits in 2 years if everything goes well. We have also just started a photovoltaic agri project by putting tilting umbrellas on an apricot field.
These great projects are possible thanks to a methodical organisation of daily life, whereby each member of the family has their work: I take care of the crops with my employees, my son-in-law takes care of the marketing, my son does the maintenance and my wife, with the help of my daughter, of the administration. They are also made possible because we know how to keep and maintain the tricks of the trade that have worked well for generations, like the orchards of several varieties that we maintain on the same plot. We also make use of gravity watering, which contributes to supplying the groundwater with water from the Durance, which is thus filtered and becomes drinkable.
What I especially like about this outdoor job is going off on a bike, equipped with a shovel, to monitor the orchards and especially their watering. And what could be more wonderful than to meet hares in our fields again (for they had disappeared)! Another proof that our way of cultivating serves nature well: insects are present in large enough quantities for swallows to continue to nest on our old workshop.