Description
Alexia Olagnon is a young farmer and medicinal plant picker in Provence. Located in a small village of 400 inhabitants, between Aix en Provence and Cannes, crossed by a beautiful river and where olive trees are the main crop, she runs alone for over ten years her farm called “Les jardins des lauves” exactly like a famous Paul Cézanne’s painting. This name refers to the “Lauves” in Provençal, meaning “lauzes”, which are large stone slabs. The place is so called because the bedrock is outcropping and not far away, which is why the ancients built dry-stone terraces to allow the land to be cultivated. Alexia irrigates using a traditional canal running there for over 500 years, bringing water from the river by gravity, and which she maintains collectively with the local people.
(Le jardin des Lauves by Cézanne, 1906).
For over ten years, on her farm of one hectare covered with medicinal plants, fig and pomegranate trees, and another hectare with olive trees (so 2 hectares in total), she’s been growing, picking and drying verbena, mint, lemon balm, thyme, rosemary, rose, lime and many other plants for the herbal trade.
She works alone in her gardens, which are laid out in these traditional terraces called “restanques” in French. These dry-stone terraces allow the plants to benefit from a micro-climate, but don’t allow mechanised cultivation. All her work is done by hand, whether she’s cultivating, picking in the wild or sorting he plants. Her main tools are the sickle knife for harvesting, the hoe for working the soil, and wooden sieves for sorting. After harvesting, the plants are taken to a wooden dryer and dried at low temperature under optimum conditions, preserving their aromas, colours and very high quality properties.
She’s always worked with organic farming, but gone even further. At Les Lauves, they protect and cherish biodiversity. The soil is alive, there are no weeds, the trees have their rightful place, as do all the living creatures that cohabit in this little ecosystem. Absolutely no treatment is used, even those authorised in organic farming.
