PORTRAIT. At the Strasbourg Christmas market, this couple gives a second life to fruits and vegetables from abandoned orchards in the Vosges

At the Strasbourg Christmas market, a couple offers for sale a multitude of products in jars, the fruit of their commitment to giving a second life to abandoned orchards in the foothills of the Vosges. An article written as part of the partnership between France 3 Grand Est and Strasbourg Capitale de Noël.

At the foot of the cathedral, a Strasbourg Christmas market chalet filled with jars displays its local and committed products for passers-by to see. This is the chalet of Agnès Divoux and her husband, a couple at the head of Arbocal, a cannery committed to the preservation of Vosges orchards. On this stand, all the products come from orchards in the Vosges foothills, which their owners can no longer maintain, or from unsold produce supplied by local market gardeners. A way to limit food waste, while protecting the orchard ecosystem, a true shelter for biodiversity.

After years spent in a production company, Agnès Divoux put an end to her career in audiovisual to devote herself to a new, more committed activity. Through the window of her house in Weiterswiller, she saw daily the abandoned orchards on the outskirts of her town. “I had had the idea for a long time of doing something for the orchards of the Vosges foothills, without having a precise idea at the beginning”she explains.

“I told my husband that I wanted to open a cannery, and he had the bad idea of ​​saying yes”

Agnes Divoux

creator of the L’Arbocal cannery

It was in 2021, supported by her husband, that she finally took the plunge and decided to train to launch her cannery. “I told my husband that I wanted to open a cannery, and he had the bad idea of ​​saying yes”she jokes from her chalet on Place de la Cathédrale. Both are today involved in the company's activity, which produces nearly 30,000 cans per year.

To source fruits and vegetables, Agnès Divoux and her husband have set up a system of partnerships with orchard owners, often too old to maintain them, as well as with market gardeners from the Northern Vosges. In return for the fruits and vegetables harvested, they pay the partners and undertake to maintain their orchards, by pruning broken or damaged branches, ridding them of mistletoe or even replacing dead trees.

According to the Chamber of Agriculture, “lhe high-stemmed orchards are a vital space both for animal species that are still common and for those that are threatened. More than 1000 species of insects, arachnids and myriapods have been counted in the orchards.. By establishing partnerships with the owners of the plots, Arbocal is committed to maintaining the Vosges orchards, and thus to protecting the biodiversity found there.

In their chalet at the foot of the cathedral, Agnès Divoux and her husband offer their products to passers-by, tourists and Strasbourg residents throughout the duration of Strasbourg Capital of Christmas. After a first experience at the Strasbourg Christmas market in 2023, they decided to renew their presence in 2024. “What’s great is meeting locals, who discover artisans at the Strasbourg Christmas market, but also tourists who enjoy discovering what’s local on the market”she explains.

And to prolong the pleasure, Agnès has found a new use for a plant species toxic to fruit trees, but very popular during the end-of-year holidays: hanging from her chalet, two branches of mistletoe delight lovers who They kiss as they pass under the leaves, participating, against a backdrop of the cathedral and sweet smells, in the magic of Strasbourg, Capital of Christmas.