The Argenteuil-sur-Armançon mill, which housed the village dairy, comes back to life through the market gardening activity launched there by two former employees of the prestigious Center Pompidou.
“We were looking for an old mill,” confides Mélissa Massardier. She and her husband Jean-Gabriel fell in love with the Argenteuil mill, the village’s former dairy. They moved there a little over two years ago to start market gardening. A real challenge for the couple who until then worked in Paris at the prestigious Center Pompidou (or Beaubourg). He was a works manager nearing retirement, she was a developer.
Caught in the game
Their desire for change is embodied in their new place of life, surrounded by omnipresent nature, between the reach, the river, the orchard, the vegetation. “We bought it after the health crisis, and it’s true that it was difficult to take a place like this without having plans,” indicates Jean-Gabriel. Initially, their ambition was to live self-sufficiently. But slowly passion won out. Melissa trained, and over the seasons, the sowing, the first tests and the first harvests, a real professional and personal project was put in place at the mill, which became the Moulin d’Argenteuil farm.
Last October, Mélissa set up as a market gardener. At the end of winter, the first seedlings are ready. The couple set up greenhouses before spring… And the day after Easter, the water rose, with a magnitude which surprised them all the more since a first flood, three weeks previously, had had no real consequences. Not this time. “We had 60 centimeters of water in the orchard and greenhouses,” remembers Jean-Gabriel. We almost started from scratch. »
Whatever. They take their courage in both hands and relaunch their organic garden where the plants complement each other, where biodiversity combines with aesthetics. Even the old orchard has regained its beauty. Seasonal vegetables and small fruits, jams produced on the farm, vegetable plants and herbs are part of their production, and for several weeks, Mélissa has been selling at the Ancy markets on Thursdays and Noyers on Wednesdays. The one in the medieval city had been without a market gardener for several months. “We’re starting slowly. » The Massardiers also launched a store on the farm, open on Saturday mornings.
A dojo on the farm
In parallel with the art of the garden cultivated every day, Jean-Gabriel has set up a real dojo in one of his barns. Tatami mats arrived from the Paris region. The aikido enthusiast, teacher 3 e dan, decided to continue practicing his art, but this time on the farm. Courses are already planned and a few people have come to discover this martial art which allows you to build yourself in practice with others.
The market garden will open its doors to the public on Saturday June 29, from 10 a.m. Aperitif and concert are on the program.
