La Ferme des 8 vaches is a fascinating new project here in the high Corbieres. Maëlle Sirou arrived in Les Corbieres in 2010, she worked as a nature guide and holiday centre manager for Canton of Mouthoumet at the canton’s development association ADHco centre at Borde Grande where she met and worked with Annaig Servain and Mathieu Vaslin as they set up La Rove des Fa, an organic goat herd from which they produce cheese, yogurts and meat in the commune of Laroque de Fa.
She has been looking at various projects to launch herself and after 18 months of working through ideas with ADEAR, the development association linked with the Confederation Paysanne, has finally settled on raising a small herd of organic Ferrandaise cattle. The Ferrandaise race is a cow of French origin, predominantly raised in the Puy de Dome and ideally suited to the Mouthemet environment, like most traditional varieties it slowly disappearing from farms in France.
Maëlle will transform the milk into cheese using the same workshop as La Rove de Fa, as well as selling veal meat and calves to other producers.
Maëlle has already locates 70 hectares of land in the canton of Mouthoumet, 50 rented from the commune and 20 hectares of privateky owned land. The idea is to start with a small herd of 8 cows and slowly build up the size as the business grows.
What she needs now is some investors to help her with the set up costs. To that end she has launched a crowd funding initaitive to allow interested folk whereever they may be to add their support to the project. If you speak French all the details of the project can be found at http://fermedes8vaches.weboo.org/index.php/le-projet/ including a detailed budget for the farm des 8 vaches.
After writing on the sad development of Lezignan Corbieres it is great to see refreshing projects such as this. The High Corbieres in recent years has seen a number of new projects, from wine growers converting to organic production, market gardens, mushroom raising, honey makers; safron growing, sheep and goat herders, organic bread makers, even organic herb growers. There are now small local summer markets at Laroque de Fa, Solagté and Montjoi, a local producers shop in Villesrouge – Terménés and a local producers shop in Lezignan. There is a real sense that things are moving in the right direction.
Part of the responsibility for these positive developments is the work that the small team at ADEAR have put in helping turn ideas into reality, another is the very emptiness of the High Corbieres. Land here is some of the cheapest in France which helps cut down start up costs.It feels like we are slowly aproaching a critical mass allow us to build up the infrastucture so sadly lacking. That is not to minimise the problems of an unhelpful State, a Chambre d’Agriculture stuck in the last century, or isolation from profitable markets but on the whole I feel things are picking up. So good to to the Ferme des 8 vaches project and all the other ideas that are slowly turning into real agricultural start ups.
