Preserving a unique collection, growing it with respect for living things, harvesting it for flavour and passing it on: this is what guides our work every day.
Preserving and enriching citrus diversity
Our orchard is first and foremost a living collection of more than 800 citrus varieties. We are constantly enriching it through exchanges with collectors from around the world. No other fruit family offers such diversity of flavours, sizes, shapes and colours: preserving it means keeping the field of flavours open for the cooks of today and tomorrow.
We also carry out varietal creation. Citrus hybridises very easily: our crosses, whether spontaneous or the result of our own research, are 100% natural and fertile. Creating a new citrus takes twenty to twenty-five years: the crosses we sow today will become the flavours of the next generation.
Growing with respect for living things
As soon as we arrived in 2017, we began converting the estate to organic farming, an obvious choice to protect the land, the people who work it, and those who enjoy our fruits. Since September 2021, our harvests from trees planted in open ground have been certified organic (AB).
Observing, understanding, working with nature rather than against it: we master every stage of growing our citrus, from seed to fruit, and refine our techniques every day by closely observing the trees. The result: fruits that can be used in their entirety, from peel to pulp.
Water management.
A major challenge for agriculture today and tomorrow, water is managed with the utmost care. We benefit from an ancestral network of canals dug into the mountainside, and our trees are watered by controlled drip irrigation, providing only what is strictly necessary. The plantings are mulched to keep the soil cool, and watering is adjusted to the trees' actual needs.
Beneficial wildlife.
We practise biological pest control, which relies on the natural enemies of pests, insects or birds, to protect the trees. To welcome them, we plant hedgerows and care for the orchard's surroundings, which provide shade and shelter for all this biodiversity.
Harvesting for flavour
We pick our fruits by hand, according to their ripeness and the precise needs of each chef. Many citrus fruits can be used at different stages of development, offering fascinating aromatic variations.
With hundreds of varieties, each with its own balance of sweetness, acidity and bitterness, plus the timing of the harvest and the micro-terroir, cooks, professional and amateur alike, have at their disposal, like painters, an almost infinite aromatic palette. Members of the Collège Culinaire de France since its founding as a Producteur Artisan de Qualité (Quality Artisan Producer), we share its principles.
Acting locally, shipping with care
Local roots.
The estate lives in harmony with its surroundings. We open it to the general public and welcome school groups and local training colleges. Our on-site shop, our involvement in local events and our work with nearby craftspeople, from processing to printing, tie us to local life. We also sit on the board of the ASA des canaux, the association that maintains and manages the valley's ancestral irrigation network.
Packaging and shipping.
Our fruits travel in cardboard boxes, with natural padding and recyclable packaging. They are shipped on the day they are picked and delivered within 1 to 2 days depending on the destination, so they reach you perfectly fresh.
Passing it on
Sharing the diversity of citrus is also a way of protecting it. We share our knowledge with the chefs who explore each variety with us, and with the public we welcome at the estate for tours, workshops and gastronomic events.
We also travel to lead workshops away from the estate: schools, care homes, specialised education centres or any other organisation wishing to introduce its audience to the world of citrus.
