197: Perrine Herve-Gruyer on Miraculous Abundance.
Learning self-sufficient farming from scratch on an organic farm in France.
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Perrine has worked as an international lawyer and head of the legal department of a major company in Asia, and has volunteered with the High Commissioner for Refugees. When she turned thirty, Perrine radically changed lanes, and began taking courses in psychotherapy, specifically in relaxation therapy, publishing a book titled La Relaxation en Famille. Then with her husband, Charles, she created their Bec Hellouin Farm, inspired by permaculture principles. They both wrote Miraculous Abundance Published by Chelsea Green and lead experiments on their farm. In 2018, they will publish another book that is a summary of all the techniques they use to grow food….
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In This Podcast: Greg gets a chance to talk to Perrine, a delightful French organic farmer and permaculture enthusiast and hear how she transformed her life by ditching her career as a lawyer to start a self-sufficient, organic farm without any gasoline driven engines at all. Now, she and her husband are examples to others on how to successfully farm the old-fashioned way.
Listen in and learn about:
- How she got started in farming after being an in-house lawyer
- Her decision to stop traveling abroad and the pull to stay at home farming and how it took hold
- Why permaculture training changed everything for them
- How she recommends others to start farming
- What permaculture is to her
- Nature and its cycles – why that is so important to her farming
- Why the concept “the problem is the solution” bothered her so much and now it is important to her
- What she learned from slugs and how that improved her soil
- An introspection into abundance
- How her new book is a story of her and her husband Charles becoming self-sufficient farmers
- How they avoided using machines with engines, but needed help to learn early farming techniques
- Why there was a study on how well the farm was succeeding despite their avoidance of engines
- How the farm can have more productive space without tractors
- Finding the balance that worked for their farm
As well as:
- Her failure – how they love growing the produce, but they don’t love the selling aspect
- Her success – to still be farming, and how the farm is gaining notoriety and being an example of quality, successful organic farming
- Her drive – passion, and a bit of crazy, to fight for good causes; and a dream to be closer to nature
- Her advice – go for your dreams, even if you are alone – people will come join you afterward
Books written by Perrine:
Miraculous Abundance: One Quarter Acre, Two French Farmers, and Enough Food to Feed the World
La relaxation en famille (French Edition)
How to reach Perrine: