Miraculous Abundance
One Quarter Acre, Two French Farmers, and Enough Food to Feed the World
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Miraculous Abundance
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Narrated by:
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Tim Bruce
About this listen
When Charles and Perrine Hervé-Gruyer set out to create their farm in an historic Normandy village, they had no idea just how much their lives would change. Neither one had ever farmed before. Charles had been circumnavigating the globe by sail, operating a floating school that taught students about ecology and indigenous cultures. Perrine had been an international lawyer in Japan. Each had returned to France to start a new life. Eventually, Perrine joined Charles in Normandy, and Le Ferme du Bec Hellouin was born.
Bec Hellouin has since become a celebrated model of innovative, ecological agriculture in Europe, connected to national and international organizations addressing food security, heralded by celebrity chefs as well as the Slow Food movement, and featured in the inspiring and COLCOA award-winning documentary film, Demain. Miraculous Abundance is the eloquent tale of the couple's evolution from creating a farm to sustain their family to delving into an experiment in how to grow the most food possible, in the most ecological way possible, and create a farm model that can carry us into a post-carbon future when oil is no longer moving goods and services, energy is scarcer, and localization is a must.
Today, the farm produces a variety of vegetables using a mix of permaculture, bio-intensive, four-season, and natural farming techniques - as well as techniques gleaned from native cultures around the world. It has some animals for eggs and milk, horses for farming, a welcome center, a farm store, a permaculture school, a bread oven for artisan breads, greenhouses, a cidery, and a forge. It has also become the site of research focusing on how small organic farms like theirs might confront Europe's (and the world's) projected food crisis.
©2016 English translation copyright by Chelsea Green Publishing (P)2017 Chelsea Green PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"A chameleon with language, British narrator Tim Bruce clearly enunciates the many French words in this visionary audiobook. He captures the ameliorative tone of this tribute to micro-farming and the organic life. His considerable ability adds authority to a globe-spanning work that asks the listener to conceive of a future of tiny market gardens replacing vast tracts of corn and soy. The authors left their previous lives to go back to the land to create a multifaceted project--a small but successful working farm (market garden) that also functions as a center for research and a site for agritourism. This is an audiobook that can benefit anyone with an interest in the land, the methods of miniaturizing agribusiness, or just maximizing a minimal garden." (AudioFile Magazine)
What listeners say about Miraculous Abundance
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Stefano
- 08-07-19
excellent and inspiring
loved every minute and such a great lead to other great books on and around the topics.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Roger Swain
- 25-09-20
One by one we can save the planet
Following the experience and guidelines of this incredible couple their small farm in France could provide the solutions our endangered world requires. I am inspired and we have started our own micro farm to follow on from their pioneering work.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 21-07-20
very interesting read
well researched. fascinating insight into less is more and permaculture. first two thirds are the most interesting.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- A. Davis
- 28-05-20
Absorbing and hopeful
Well narrated, a clear and persuasive account of an alternative to conventional fossil fueled agriculture. I want to believe it's possible.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- TMos
- 08-01-18
Good horticulture book
The book explains the basics of horticulture and organic agriculture in a very simple way
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- John
- 16-06-21
Repeating a bit to much.
Good story a bit to much repeating throughout but the story highlighting a couples discovery of regenerative agriculture.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Yikes!
- 08-03-20
Essential reading/listening (endurance test?)
Possibly the most interesting and boring book to which I have ever listened.
The content is vitally important to this world, and must be heeded. The presentation of the ideas, however, was extremely repetitive and tedious! The narrator tried his best, perhaps, but his intonation was weird and I found it very annoying.
Despite my difficulties with the tedious presentation of the information, and the irritating style of narration, I persevered to the end of the book. It may read better in French, yet the book could do with a huge amount of editing... Cut, cut, cut... Hard pruning!
I may sound overly negative, so have to come back to my main message, which is that the essential content of the book is invaluable - a vision of how agriculture MUST start to change in order to save both the planet and humanity.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Mr M
- 29-12-20
Philosophical rather than practical.
This book is an inspirational read. It is given to promoting the virtues of Permaculture offering a vision of the future where people work the land producing crops to be consumed locally with minimal miles attached. This book is ecologically based whilst bestowing the updates of a Utopian future. It is a good read, both reassuring and certainly motivating, but contains very little guidance to the gardener or smallholder.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Fonetic-About Languages
- 24-11-21
Valuable for Change but Lacks Any Practical Advise
The information is valuable enough to make you want to change how gardening is done. I began to have and still do have aspirations of running a small permaculture garden for the benefit of the local population, restaurants and stores.
However, I purchased to title to learn what permaculture is and to the practices of permaculture. This book provided very little practical information. Although I was able to use my existing knowledge to consider what the authors may have done to decide what I can do differently.
I was listening to the book and kept wondering when the practical advise was going to start with a bit of annoyance. When I realised that the book was a story and not a how-to book I wanted to stop listening and return the book but I continued to listen because the story and the journey of the authors intrigued me enough to so that it held my interest.
I'm still looking for a practical replacement and I'm not sure if I am happy to have read the book or not.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Gary Ward
- 22-01-21
Automated Voice Ai rubbish
It’s read by a computer. It’s absolutely terrible. I listened to 5min on x0.5 speed to it sound half human. I’m furious this is available to buy!
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2 people found this helpful