An icy wind hits the visitor this Thursday morning. In the middle of the Vexin plain, in Gouzangrez (Val-d’Oise), around fifteen teenagers get busy with music to give their heart to the work. They arrived at 9 a.m. from the Tour du Mail vocational high school, in Sannois, to harvest butter beans from a farmer that he was unable to market. Objective: to donate it to two food aid associations, Restos du coeur and Entraide protestante d’Enghien, which also mobilized volunteers.
They know in advance that the day will not be enough to get to the end of this plot 400 m long and 5 wide. But it’s always a win. “I think they will reach close to a ton,” estimates Hervé Delacour, the owner of the land, exploited by his daughter and a producer from Oise, who has to find new plots every year since we cannot Do not sow beans two years in a row in the same place. Only he couldn’t harvest them in time. “And then people no longer eat a lot of butter beans,” notes Hervé Delacour.