Rewilding 20 acres in Burgundy, and teaching people how to belong to land again

A year ago, 194 of you helped us begin rewilding 20 acres of wild prairie and forest at La Ferme du Cerf Bleu, our 18th-century farm in Burgundy, France. You gave $12,093. Thank you.

Here is what has grown on the land so far. More than 500 native trees, shrubs and plants. A truffle oak orchard. A medicine wheel herb garden. Five pollinator beds. A spiral of 150 grapevines. 57,000 liters of rainwater storage for our long droughts. Solar panels on the old barn roof.

The work is far from done. This next phase has three parts: rewild, protect, teach.

Rewild

Around us, industrial agriculture has pulled out the hedgerows and left the soil bare. Pollinators are disappearing. Summers bring up to four months of drought, and winters still drop to −15°C. We are turning this land back toward wildness, one hedge, one tree, one patch of prairie at a time. The wild prairie stays wild. The hedgerows come back. The bees, birds and small animals get their home back.

Protect the water

We learned something that changed how we see this work. Our farm lies within the close protection zone of the village's drinking water source. Rain that falls on our fields soaks through the limestone and becomes the water our neighbors drink. Every root we plant here helps filter it. Every bare field we cover helps keep it clean.

That is why we are building two things this year.

An edible forest of 5,000 to 10,000 m², with the Association Forêt Gourmande, a Burgundy forest garden founded by Fabrice Desjours in 2010. It is the oldest forest garden open to the public in France, with more than 1,000 food species tested. Fruit and nut trees, berry shrubs, perennial vegetables, herbs and native hedgerows, planted in layers. A forest that feeds people and wildlife and keeps the soil covered all year.

A biodiversity pond. On dry limestone, open water is rare. A pond brings back frogs, dragonflies, birds and bats, gives animals somewhere to drink in August, and slows the rain so it soaks in gently.

Teach

A forest planted by one family is good. A forest that teaches people how to live with land is better.

La Ferme du Cerf Bleu is also home to Sacred Paths, our school of animist teaching. Students, guests and visitors will learn on this land with their hands in the soil: how a forest garden works, how water moves through a landscape, how to read the seasons, how to plant for the grandchildren. Rose, a trained educator who founded Oak Rose Forest School, has spent more than a decade teaching children through story and nature. Angell is a trained veterinarian and beekeeper. The land itself will be the classroom.

How your gift will be used (€35,000)

Edible forest with Forêt Gourmande, €15,000: design, trees, shrubs, perennial plants, soil preparation, mulch and water for young plants

Biodiversity pond, €20,000: earthworks, waterproofing, native water and edge plants

Why this matters

The old villages knew that the forest, the water and the people are one body. We forgot. This farm is our way of remembering, and of passing that memory on to whoever walks through the gate. A tree planted over a village's water protects people who will never know our names. The frogs will come back to the pond whether anyone thanks them or not.

We are still a small family doing this by hand. No corporation behind us. Just Angell, Rose, our kids, the bees, and a lot of mud on our boots.

How you can help

Give what you can. Sponsor a tree. Share this page with someone who cares about wild places, clean water or the next generation. If you want to offer skills, tools or time, write to us.

If you already gave, thank you. You planted the first roots. This is the forest that grows from them.

With roots and reverence,

Angell & Rose Deer