Review
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Miraculous Abundance offers one of the most readable,
visceral blueprints for earth-healing abundance I've ever seen.
Absolutely captivating. Only true-blue practitioners, hands in
the soil, can offer the kind of eclectic synthesis combining the
best of all the earth-healing traditions and technologies
discovered on this permaculture microfarm. A fantastic book with
iconic potential. I couldn't put it down. --Joel Salatin, owner ,
Polyface Farm; author of Fields of Farmers
Can farming a tiny quarter-acre piece of land be sustainable,
economic, and fulfilling? In Miraculous Abundance, Perrine and
Charles Hervé-Gruyer tackle that very questions and answer it
positively in the affirmative. This fascinating book describes
the evolution of their farm from its beginnings in 2004, when the
authors knew little, over the next ten years as they discovered
biointensive agriculture, permaculture, forest gardens, and more.
The authors are passionate about small, human-scale farming and
the role it can play in the future, and they envisage a future
with numerous small farms, enabling many more people to live on
the land and lessening the effects of climate change. Their farm
in France now attracts farmers, chefs, and scientists and also
hosts a school to teach how a diverse edible landscape can be
created to both earn a living and make a beautiful space and a
fulfilling life. --Martin Crawford, author of Trees for Gardens,
Orchards and Permaculture
This book will be a source of inspiration and guidance for those
striving toward an agriculture that is not merely sustainable but
also regenerative and rewarding. Charles and Perrine are
trailblazers, courageous visionaries who have drawn inspiration
from sources as varied as 19th century Parisian market gardeners
and ian tribes people. As their method is a fusion, so too is the
book; practical, historical, and philosophical in tone, it shows
us how practicing agriculture as part of the ecosystem is not
only economically viable but also spiritually fulfilling. We need
people like the Hervé-Gruyers to show us what is possible in
reality rather than just theory, and in sharing their journey,
they tell an important story for the future of humankind.
--Caroline Aitken, permaculture teacher and consultant at Patrick
Whitefield Associates; coauthor of Food from Your Forest Garden
About the Author
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Perrine Hervé-Gruyer has worked as an international
lawyer and head of the legal department of a major company in
Asia, and has volunteered with the High Commissioner for
Refugees. When she turned thirty, Perrine radically changed
lanes, and began taking courses in psychotherapy, specifically in
relaxation therapy, publishing a book titled La Relaxation en
Famille. With her husband, Charles, she created Le Ferme du Bec
Hellouin. Perrine also serves as a Green Party representative
with the Regional Parliament of Haute-Normandie, where she
oversees a committee focusing on agriculture. Charles
Hervé-Gruyer has been passionate about the relationship between
humans and nature since childhood. He circumnavigated the globe
for 22 years while operating a floating school focusing on
ecology and indigenous cultures, the subject of many of his books
and documentaries. Charles then directed his research to
exploring our inner world, studying psychology, relaxation
therapy, massage, and yoga instruction. Anxious to explore the
most environmentally friendly farming practices, Charles created
Le Ferme du Bec Hellouin with his wife, Perrine, in 2003. The
couple then began an experiment merging various small-scale,
intensive, , and natural agricultural techniques that
would pique the interest of European agencies planning
food-security strategy and raise awareness about permaculture in
France. The farm also operates a permaculture school. Eliot
Coleman has over thirty years' experience in all aspects of
farming, including field vegetables, greenhouse
vegetables, rotational grazing of cattle and sheep, and range
poultry. He is the author of The New Grower, Four-Season
Harvest, and The Winter Harvest Handbook, as well as the
instructional workshop DVD Year-Round Vegetable Production with
Eliot Coleman. Coleman and his wife, Barbara Damrosch, presently
operate a commercial year-round market garden, in addition to
horticultural research projects, at Four Season Farm in
Harborside, Maine.