While producers from the southward of France are implicated about the drought , some vegetable crop in the Second Earl of Guilford of the land are jeopardize because of the excess rain , combined with a deficiency of cheerfulness and temperatures that are still too cold for the season . " I have been grow asparagus for 18 years , and this year is really untypical . Back then , the first asparagus used to be harvest at the origin of May . This will not be an ideal menses for usance since the French tend to turn away from Asparagus officinales in June in favor of more summery fruit and veg . Thanks to certain yield proficiency , such as cultivation under pocket-sized and large tunnels , we have follow over the years in bestow the harvest time forward to mid - March so as to harvest in the beginning and begin the season around the same time as the southern basins . The last few season were warmer because of climate variety , so we even increased our return . But this year , it never stopped raining , the sun never occur out much , and this morning , the ground was still frozen , so the Asparagus officinales have not arise . We just set about harvesting the first I this week , and we hope that consumption levels will be good in the next 2 weeks . For the here and now , we have almost no yields , " explains Olivier Thomas , who care the Ferme du Pont d’Achelles , near Lille , with his sister Françoise .
A wide range of a function of vegetablesFortunately , the edible asparagus represent only a part of the farm ’s output , which cut through 70 hectares . " We have been a family farm for 8 generations . Today , I work on with my sis Françoise , my wife , and my girl , and we pop the question a very complete range of veg . We have 15 hectares of vegetable crops and a pocket-size blossom department . We operate about 1 hectare of heated glasshouse and 3 hectares of tunnels . But in cattiness of these technologies , this yr ’s production of spring vegetables was still impacted by the lack of cheerfulness . The excessive rain also continues to penalize our work since the fields are unpassable , which prevents us from imbed . "
A sales model based on lineal salesBut the peachy specificity of the family farm is that 90 % of its production is sell directly from the manufacturer to the consumer . This historical choice was made at the metre of Olivier and Françoise ’s parent . " We sell most of our production directly at the farm . My wife also does 5 market a week and offers an on-line sales service . We were among the first to have a hawk automobile at the farm . " Besides fresh green groceries , La Ferme du Pont d’Achelles also offer canned solid food . " Here again , it is a historical bodily process since my grandparents were the ones who commence bring forth vegetables for the canning industry in the 1950s . For 20 years now , we have invested in a shop to process our vegetables flat on - site . But this is a secondary activity since our burden byplay remains vegetable production . "
Vegetable agriculturist : a go away profession?The absence of intermediary is , at first coup d’oeil , an reward for farmers who require to prise their merchandise , but Olivier and Françoise look the same job as other producers . " ingestion has been decreasing in this context of economic crisis . At the same metre , our output costs ( inputs , muscularity , labor ) are perpetually increase , but we can not easily come about those step-up onto our consumer prices . We just can not make inexpensively , and consumers like to buy at in the stores . This is the best way for us to operate , but it is not always easy . Regarding task , our production is so diverse that it is complicated to chance worker with all the necessary skill . Today , I am very worried because I feel that our beautiful professing has become more and more complicated and seems to be on the way out . "
For more entropy : Olivier Thomas et Françoise ThomasLa Ferme du Pont d’AchellesTel . : 03 20 48 60 43[email protected]https://www.lafermedupontdachelles.fr
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