Rufaux†™s farm, the organic we need!

France, Rouen (76) La Mare des Rufaux

Let’s accelerate the development of an attracting biological micro-farm in the heart of Normandy, with Linda and Edouard who are full of ideas!



Rufaux’s farm

We created Rufaux’s farm 4 years ago now, starting with a grassland, i.e. nothing. Today, it is a biological micro-farm in agroecology of 2,8 hectares, located in the Haute-Normandie Region, 20 minutes away from Rouen, and producing vegetables (mostly of old variety), fruits, and a few in agroforestry, aromatic products to recreate a pharmacopoeia and organic eggs from old breed hens.

We only use short sale networks through AMAPS who supported us since the beginning, and sale at the farm during summer, at a school, at local gastronomic restaurants and in committed shops in Paris. An orchard of 300 trees has been planted, nesting boxes and birds perches set up, 4 greenhouses built, and we don’t till soil (so it stays alive!). We set up hives and insects shelters all around the farm, sow flowers for pollinators and we make sure to create shelters for wild fauna. According to a LPO statement from 2015, more than 50 birds’ species came back to our place thanks to our preservation and life development efforts. An oasis thus raised up.

Who are we?

Edouard Stalin

A thirty years-old man from Normandy, got nursery/landscaper and an environmental educator courses. He worked among children and adults on themes such as waste sorting and observation of the living in a municipalities community for 7 years. Passionate about Nature, he wants to dedicate himself to agroecology while developing an educational aspect for children. He is in charge at the farm of the soils fertility and rotation, cultivation and follow up of the plants’ health, coaching of the student-trainees, management of the site and of the farm’s design. He is really involved in the LPO and wants to pass his passion on to the greater number. 

Linda Bedouet   

A thirty years-old woman from Paris, formerly working in real estate, started a course about sustainable management and short cycles. She invested herself a lot in the associative sector (Amap, Terre de Liens, Colibris…) and then met Edouard during a permaculture course in Bec Hellouin. Together they created the farm 4 years ago. Linda is in charge of marketing, communication, administration, varietal choices, planning, seeds reproduction and help for the harvests. She is working on an installation manual for micro-farm to transmit their experience and help project leaders.     

Why crowdfunding?

It’s the first time we call for donations. We really wanted to show that with a low investment, a lot of efforts, a brain and some help, it was possible to succeed without banks’ credit (and thus move forward without pressure!), and that’s what we managed to do until now. But we have a lot of ideas and projects for our farm, that ask today for more than what the two of us can give. That’s why today we ask for your help, you citizens and consum’actors, friends of the farm and even friends of friends, to give us a hand to take this big but optimistic step forward, which will allow us to finally be “settled”, for good, and ready to roll up our sleeves in good conditions, to offer always better products, to keep our pedagogy with the families, to keep taking care of biodiversity in our oasis of life, to keep training young people for the job, to offer opportunities for those who wish to join us, to develop our farm concept and our ideas for tomorrow!  

What’s the money for?

The main project of the year is to finish our multifunction agricultural building, which will include:

  • A producers shop at the farm, in order to promote our products and our bio friends! Until now, we were selling our production at the farm in a wood shed and only on sunny days.
  • A workshop for Edouard so he can prepare and build what we need to develop the farm (today he is tinkering outside, and with Normandy’ weather, it’s often complicated!)
  • A laboratory to do transformation so I can cook delights and thus promote our production, to extract, harvest, clean the seeds…
  • An office so we can finally get our living room back after 4 years (equipped with recycled furniture, of course!)
  • Storage so we can produce more and thus offer our production all year long.

We have budgeted with our savings and a regional aid but we are already beyond the budget despite our careful attention to what we buy and our site manager, specialist of the crafty and cost-saving market (we even have dismantled the remaining of an agricultural building owed by Edouard’s grandfather to rebuild it at our place and save part of the wood!). We still miss from 5000 to 10 000 € to make the most urgent and be ready for spring with the opening of the shop! 

From 10 000 to 15 000 euros, we’ll have enough to do our semi-buried cellar, finish plumbing and electricity and finish the mobile home installation in the wood to be able to welcome people at the farm!

From 15 000 to 20 000 euros, we’ll have enough to continue with the setting up of a greenhouse for plants! In our autonomy research, we’d like to keep controlling all of our profession’s processes, from the seed to the plate and through the production of our own plants. Today we are supplied by professionals for almost half of our plants, which represents a cost, but as we are not correctly equipped, we unfortunately can’t include 100% of this step today.

More than 20 000 euros? That would be crazy but we love you! This would allow us to hire a part-time employee with a subsidized contract who’d help us develop the farm. Thanks for him/her! 

We really want to offer some compensations and include you totally in our farm project, so we are not only asking without exchange. Kind of a barter!

Find out more

www.fermedesrufaux.com

About the different courses offered, see the tab « Documents ».



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