Saint Pantaléon, Sunday, february 16, 2014. Afternoon.

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We arrive on-site: two wide smiles : Caroline and Valentin welcome us regardless of the cold and damp month of february sur le lieu. Two honest smiles, delighted to meet us and share their dream, the one they're trying to make into a reality.

As soon as we step onto the path to their home, nestled between two hills, we begin to chat with ease, as if we already knew each other a little. Surely we take this moment to share dreams, fears, questions? Obviously we share a motion, towards a future we're dreaming of, for which each of our participants might already made the hardest move: to step out of one's endless questioning and act, make. To go and meet those people who dare fulfil their dreams and contribute to a fair and harmonious future.

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Then they tell us their story:

"Developing a wide range of skills is a good thing. For 15 years our relatives questioned it but it has allowed us to gather the skills needed to develop the project today. In agriculture one must be a jack of all trade."

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3 years ago, Valentin and Caroline bought 5 ha of hilly land with 3 ha of forest.

"Having studied the field, Caroline knew working as a farmer on her own would be very difficult". So they chose to start a project they were both passionate about instead: wild plants, aromatics and herbs.

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One year later, after working with the association Altair and help by a knowledgeable neighbor, they began to grow aromatics, herbs and other plants with good salability (thyme, salvation,rosemary, hyssop), raw or as processed products: herbs, herb salts but also cosmetics, spirits and syrups, they were full of ideas and they could probably make a living out of it. For the "wild plants" part, they consider harvesting rosehip berries, hawthorn, juniper and roots. As for outlets, they sell at AMAPs, farmers markets and purchasing groups.

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It didn't take long to create their business, however the active is growing bits by bits. As they were wanted to remain free in their decisions and keep an organic pace their chose to refuse a juridic status which could get them money to ease the installation process but with constraints. That's why Caroline is a "cotisant solidaire" (solidary contributor), a juridic status that fits their situation the best, whereas Valentin has no status, no legal recognition.

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Somebody in Arriege told me that wild plants contained "a thousand times" more nutrients than cultivated strands. Would coming back to a hunter-gather lifestyle be yet another alternative to the deficiencies implied by sanitized processed food? To now be able to "hunt" for my meal sure sounds appealing and links me to my immediate surroundings, more "animal" in a way. However to fit this within my current lifestyle would take efforts from me: learn to recognize plants and herbs, move into a more natural, unpolluted area and adapt my schedule, work and hobbies to this new set of practices!

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This project also relies on their wish to make more off less, to live with sobriety. Without water or electricity, the pair lives in a rut they built on themselves. Thanks to the help of a ... they were able to dig a well to cover their need in water, for their daily use and their crops. They made sure to also be able to access a reliable water source and the hamlet's water tank, just in case.

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They guide us around their dryer, 200 hundreds meters away from the yurt: quite a tall building, which they are building themselves out of local material... and the help of a few friends. Quite an interesting opportunity for a building project.

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Several discussions, smiles and contact exchange later and it's time for us to head back to the big City, the weekend has come to an end. On the way back we share various impressions:

The pleasure we had meeting people on their way to a different, more meaningful and freedom-filled lifestyle, and high-spirited regardless of the ambitious project they are taking on,

Our surprise after acknowledging the many struggles their are facing, smile first,

And how impatient we are to carry on with our learning experiences, to write our own personal story thanks to the references they gave us: "Bio-indicative plants" - Gerard Ducref, Altaïr site, the Simples's syndicate.)

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A few month later, we were happy to hear Caroline had given birth to a beautiful, natural baby from the wild...