2023-08-09 16:20:00
To stroll in the gardens of Sébastien Maes is to enter into symbiosis with nature. The plots of this Gembloutois market gardener are located in the heart of the woods and countryside of the hamlet of Ferooz. A rural place where it is good to walk and harvest your vegetables.
Because that’s the whole principle of the Jardins de Symbiooz: for an annual subscription, pickers have free access to Sébastien’s land, full of seasonal vegetables. At the moment, it is the tomatoes that are causing a sensation, even if since last week, mildew has been wreaking havoc. “I have a lot of work”, confides the gardener, who must be extra careful in the face of this disease which affects tomatoes during rainy summers. “The summer season had started well, but the last three weeks have been particularly wet. To choose, I prefer that to the drought.”
Although growing vegetables is now part of his daily life, Sébastien Maes has not always been a market gardener. With a long experience in associations, this sociologist-anthropologist was in charge of food issues at Oxfam-Magasins du monde, before working for FUGEA, an agricultural union. “Four years ago, I decided to launch my market gardening project, as a complementary self-employed person. But I have been fully dedicated to it since 2022, he says. harvesting vegetables. But last year, I offered my customers the opportunity to pick their own. Since then, they all come to harvest their vegetables themselves.” What lighten the workload of Sébastien, who still has to manage three plots of 20 to 30 ares each.
38 subscriber families
The market gardener offers its customers a system of annual subscriptions, at the price of €385 per adult. “During my years at Oxfam, I had the opportunity to work on the fair remuneration of producers. I realized that the subscription model was the most stable way to be remunerated, he explains. For At the moment, I make around €1,500 net from this activity. I supply 38 families, which corresponds to around seventy adults from the age of 15. Children under 15 pay €27.50 multiplied by their age. My ideal would be to get to 100 adults.”
Note that Sébastien diversifies his activity by renting a tent characterized as “unusual accommodation” and by accepting renovation sites, depending on his availability.
About 40 vegetables per year
At the Jardins de Symbiooz, subscribers can pick their vegetables from sunrise to sunset, as many times as they wish per week. “It’s really their vegetable garden. I maintain it. They supply themselves in sufficient quantity, while avoiding the surplus. Every week, I send the list of vegetables available, on a Whatsapp group, he continues. In this moment, there are about ten, but over a season, I have about forty. This information is also written on a board hung in a small shed, near the plots.” This shed acts as a reception area for subscribers, who find there all the tools necessary for their harvest, as well as a plan of the gardens. In short, everything is organized to allow pickers to have a good time.
An educational approach
Through this project, one of Sébastien’s wishes is to offer quality vegetables to a range of inhabitants of the region. “These are people who live ten minutes from here at most. They are mostly families with small children. I also have older subscribers, including people who have a vegetable patch of their own, but which come depending on the season. For them, I can adapt the season ticket.”
Among the regulars, there is Etienne, Gembloutois wishing to eat more locally. “The notion of a short circuit is very important to me. Then, the taste of the vegetables is not the same as that of supermarkets. This initiative allows you to maintain a relationship of trust with your market gardener, he says. how he works, what his difficulties are, where the vegetables come from… We also realize the impact of the seasons on crops. I make my children aware of this. They come from time to time to harvest with me. “
“People see the reality on the ground, adds Sébastien. I like this educational side. On site, I put pictograms with small cards explaining how to harvest a vegetable. On the Whatsapp group, I also post didactic videos. The idea is to guide everyone. In general, it’s going very well.”
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