Samuel Lewis, British “peasant-artist” based in Brittany, poses on April 2, 2024 in Duault, in Côtes-d’Armor (AFP / Fred TANNEAU)
At 37, Samuel Lewis has never been to school or employed: this British “farmer-artist” living in Brittany lives almost without money, growing cereals and vegetables by hand for “his basic food”. A quest for self-sufficiency that he shares on the internet or during free courses.
“Real wealth is good land and everything it gives us,” he says, with a big smile on his lips, as he shows us his “corner of paradise.”
Three hectares in a hamlet in Duault near Callac (Côtes d’Armor), divided into 35 plots: with his father Gareth, of Welsh origin, he cultivates rye, buckwheat, beans, potatoes, fruits and other vegetables. from the vegetable garden. For family consumption only.
Samuel Lewis at work on one of his plots on April 2, 2024 in Duault, in Côtes-d’Armor (AFP / Fred TANNEAU)
“The goal is to make my basic food,” he summarizes. The 500 trees he planted provide him with apples to make his cider or wood for heating. Vegetables and cereals make excellent soups or salads, bread, pancakes.
Here, neither tractor nor tiller: he works “the old-fashioned way” – and only in the afternoon. His favorite tools are the hoe, the sickle or the flail, bought second-hand or made in his workshop. Older neighbors taught him how to use it.
“I am the only one in Western Europe to cultivate cereals by hand,” he proclaims with a strong cross-Channel accent.
Homemade wool sweater, wooden clogs, long, sparse hair, red beard braided under his chin, Samuel Lewis, with the look of a bard from a fairy tale, sits in front of a wood fire. He recounts an atypical journey, on the fringes of a consumer society that he rejects.
– “I don’t sell anything” –
In 1994, the Lewises left the north of England and settled in Central Britain. There they bought a ruin at a low price which they will renovate “to have more space” for their two daughters and their son.
Self-taught, Samuel never went to school, learning to read with the help of his mother, now deceased.
With adolescence comes the time for questions.
“Everything we do as a job degrades the environment,” he believes. “Already at 16 I was attached to my garden. For me it was not possible (to work) in a building all day!”.
Samuel Lewis works on one of his plots on April 2, 2024 in Duault, in Côtes-d’Armor (AFP / Fred TANNEAU)
He prefers to cultivate this garden, his love of the land, to lead a simple life, respectful of the environment. Don’t depend on money to live.
“What I do is the antithesis of modern agriculture, I don’t sell anything,” he says. “We killed the land with modern agriculture!”
He does not reject comfort or modernity, sharing the house where his father and sister live, for meals or the internet. But he prefers to sleep in the small building next door, without electricity or running water.
This “peasant-artist”, as he describes himself, has been drawing every morning since he was little. His favorite character, Tim the gardener, is at the heart of a book, co-written with his father and recently published by Ulmer Editions, “The Simple Life”, combining philosophical reflections and an illustrated gardening guide.
His only income comes from this book and the monthly magazine that he writes with his father and his sister Bethan, the “Central Britanny Journal” intended for the British community in his region and with a circulation of 2,500 copies. He refuses social assistance.
Samuel Lewis shows one of his works, a book that he made himself, on April 2, 2024 in Duault, in Côtes-d’Armor (AFP / Fred TANNEAU)
“We can’t do without money,” he admits. But there is no question of “chasing money”.
– The recipe for happiness –
The little he earns allows him to help his father pay the bills, the rare groceries for the household, and fuel for the family’s two old cars. Or go for a drink at the local bar or fest-noz with friends.
Samuel Lewis says he buys almost nothing or second-hand clothes or tools found at flea markets. A lifestyle, he concedes, made possible because he has access to the amenities of the family home.
He wants to make this “simple life” known, particularly on social networks, Instagram or Facebook. A video that the online media Brut dedicated to him was viewed 1.3 million times.
Samuel Lewis poses on April 2, 2024 in Duault, in Côtes-d’Armor (AFP / Fred TANNEAU)
Since 2022, he has regularly organized open days and free training on his food farm. He does not necessarily want to convert visitors, but at least show, especially to younger generations, that another path is possible.
“When I was young, I was made to feel guilty about the life I wanted to lead,” he remembers.
“Everything we need, the earth gives it to us. If we know how to cultivate it, we can live in a magnificent environment (…) eat good food, make a good fire to warm up.” The recipe for simple happiness, according to Samuel Lewis.
