Following on from my online PDC with Geoff Lawton and two sort courses at la Ferme du Bec Hellouin, I wanted to get some serious experience of working the land, along with a proper global look at organic farming. I chose la Ferme de Sainte Marthe because they are associated with la Ferme du Bec Hellouin (a number of courses are done parallel, or take place in different stages at the two farms) but also because they have a very long history in the organic movement. In fact, the founder of the farm, Philippe Desbrosses, is the last surviving member of the creators of the organic label in France. He is also known for his defence of heritage seeds (the farm shares their lawyer with famous seed producer Kokopelli) and for having resurrected a number of different varieties of vegetables and fruit.

The course I took, entitled "Agriculture Bio et Filières" (organic agriculture and related industries) was a two and a half long look at all aspects of organic agriculture (administration, bee-keeping, biodynamics, gardening, market gardening, permaculture etc.) and was divided into two parts: class before lunch and practice afterwards. For those who wanted to (me and a few others), there was the opportunity to stay on after official hours and lend a hand to the two on-site professional market gardeners, as a way of getting more experience and testing other strength! The final project was a thesis on a subject of our choice (I chose alternative agriculture in Japan), a presentation and a few exercises designed to get us to think outside of the box and challenge orthodox views of agricultural, business practice and statutes.

Just after my PDC, this course undoubtedly made the deepest impression on me: not only did it allow me to determine whether I was actually physically capable of doing the job I want to do, it really made me look at things differently and develop my growing "anarchistic" view of life and "work!" If you're French (or just speak French - they'd love to have more foreigners) I thoroughly recommend it: you'll learn so much and never forget the people (Yohan, Katia, Alessandro, Jean-Yves etc.)