Mas La Devèze  

Contact:
Charles en Léonore Veenstra-Folmer
Tel: +33 (0)4 66 45 25 92
Email: info@ladeveze-cevennes.com
Web: www.ladeveze-cevennes.com

Specialty: Slow food and shepherding
Region: Languedoc-Rousillon
Languages spoken: FR, NL, EN

Le Mas La Devèze, a 30-hectare organic farm with Ecocert label is located in the heart of the Cévennes National Park (altitude 1.000 metres). The house which dates from 1789, has been entirely renovated by Leonore Folmer and Charles Veenstra. The family speaks French, Dutch and English. Visitors can stay in the cottage or the hikers guesthouse.

Visitors are welcome to help on the farm: harvesting shiitake mushrooms from the oak logs on which they grow, a bit of shepherding, picking the various red fruits that they grow – depending on the season.

Harvesting shiitake mushrooms: Shiitake are delicately flavoured mushroom of firm consistency originally coming from Asia, grown on their property on 10,000 oak logs. Known for its tiredness-fighting and revitalising properties, a number of scientific studies have shown that consuming shiitakes lowers blood cholesterol levels, reduces blood pressure, and stimulates lipid accumulation in the liver, thereby sequestering fat from the circulation.
Visitors can learn the principles of shiitake production by participating in the daily routine:  Léonore and Charles soak everyday the logs in water for 24 hours and place it in the Salle de Culture. Then they cut the mushrooms produced. The mushrooms are ready for harvesting within one to two weeks after the soaking process. During 3-4 weeks in May, visitors can learn how to graft the mushrooms. Some time is also spent in putting the mushrooms in jars with olive oil and producing vegetarian paté, both sold on a farm shop in Florac.

Picking various red fruits: Visitors can learn about growing red fruits by participating in the production process of raspberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, red-black hybrids and lots and lots of strawberries. Three, 50-metre rows of raspberry bushes give them nearly a ton of raspberries per annum. They turn most of this into juice to mix with apple juice for the local market. They also produce raspberry vinegar. Red fruits bushes are cut and attached in Sept/Oct/Nov. Fruits are picked from the beginning of July to the beginning of November. Making jam and vinegar constitute a large part of Léonore spare time; she rent one time per week in November a workroom to produce juices.

Shepherding: the English Clun Forest sheep is a robust breed well adapted to the mountainous landscape with its changeable weather and meagre pastures. A handsome animal with her black head held high, the Clun Forest was originally a moor breed but it has since evolved to give both good wool and succulent meat.
Visitors are welcome to help finding back the sheep everyday in the 15ha pasture and feed them. Shearing is in May or June. Owners will teach you how to card and spin the wool (using the carding machine and spinning wheel). Lambing is between April and June.  

Green building: the owners plan to build soon a sheepfold and finish building the Gite d’Etape using traditional and local wood. Nearby there are several GR paths (Grandes Randonnées).

Dates: see above, it depends on the activities you are interested in. 

Prices: Long-term volunteers can stay for free.
For others, price for the 2/5 person cottage range from 295-395 euro per week.