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Les Jardin des Mondoux is an organic vegetable and egg farm on the edge of a quiet town called Les Mondoux set in the historic Limosin region of France. During my free time I was able to check out the local castles as I was right next to the Route of Richard the Lion Heart.

The farm consists of 2,000 square meters of vegetable plots including 2 large poly-tunnel green houses for season extension, and a smaller for starting seedlings. In the slower winter and spring months they keep 100 chickens in a mobil chicken coop surrounded by easy to move plastic electric fencing. In May they buy in an additional 100 chickens to keep up with the increased demand for farm fresh organic eggs due to local tourism.

The mobil chicken houses are a great example of how intelligent design and efficient management can minimize energy inputs to maximize the profits of the outputs. Not more than an hour per day is required to tend to the chickens, this includes feeding and egg collecting. The hybrid variety of chickens that are kept here have a high egg output being approximately 70-80 eggs per day per 100 chickens. The houses are moved to a new part of the pasture every 3 weeks to keep the chickens from over-grazing the area. This has the added function of controlling weeds and fertilizing the soil.

Vegetable production is kept efficient and economical by reducing the amount of work involved with production by the use of innovative and time saving tools, and using logical techniques to maximize the effects of ones work. One example of these techniques is the “Stale Seed Bed”. In which the seed bed cultivated and prepared at least 2 weeks in advance to let any disturbed “weed” seeds have a chance to germinate so that they can be destroyed at the time of actual planting. The result of the technique is a drastic reduction in the amount of weeds that end up intermingled with the desired plants.

The larger vegetable plot is also an orchard. The various fruit trees are spaced far enough apart to allow enough light down to the vegetables planted between their rows to maximize the usage of the soil. The second and larger orchard is inter-sown with cereals. The 10 meter spacing between rows allows for the proper equipment to come through the orchard to sow and harvest their crops.

A rare breed of sheep known as Forest Clunn were kept here for meat and wool production, and used in an effective form of rotational pasture management.

Bees are also kept here for honey production, but there being only two hives it is just on a hobby scale.

I spent about 6 weeks here with Gitta and David the owners and my hosts. I think I would have to say that they have been my best WWOOFing hosts yet. I feel very fortunate to have stayed here with them. I learned a lot of very valuable things here at Les Mondoux. Some of the most important of them were energy management and the role that it plays in being economically viable in today’s backwards agriculture world.