The Rantoy farm, in St-Ost in the Gers, opens the doors of its market to the public on Saturday July 22 at 4 p.m., but most of the “Love is in the meadow” farmers who participate arrive the day before. “We have an evening all together because for us it is an opportunity to see each other again. It’s a family, a collective. This show is a great experience and it creates a bond between us, ”rejoices Claire (season 10), who met Sébastien, her husband, after the M6 show. Emeric (season 13), Pierre and Fred (season 7), Virginie (season 9), Thomas (season 13), Cathy (season 15)… In all, around twenty farmers known to M6 viewers, plus a few local producers will be present.
Receiving them at home obviously involves real logistics: accommodation, catering, etc., nothing is left to chance. “We take care of everything,” she explains. We already have a cottage to accommodate those who join us and then we do some camping at home. We try to accommodate almost everyone. Sébastien adds that they also call all the bed and breakfasts in the area.
Four to five hour drive
For catering, Claire insists: “We make food for everyone. Twenty-five friends come to help us because there are also two large meals open to the public. People come to eat well, enjoy a good atmosphere and see the farmers of “Love is in the meadow”. In fact, it’s party time on the farm for a whole weekend. » The opening of registrations to participate in the Saturday dinner and the Sunday lunch dates back to the beginning of this year and it is clear that people come from afar to join the farmers. “I look at the postcodes on the reservations: Châteauroux, Limoges, the Vosges, Montpellier… Some will drive four to five hours. In fact, people leave for the weekend to come and meet us,” notes Claire.
The market is an opportunity for the couple to offer their rillettes, foie gras, pâtés and other confits. People come to stock up on farm products, but not only. “We take a lot of photos and they ask us a lot of questions about “Love is in the meadow”, about Karine Le Marchand: how is she? is she really like on tv? says Sébastien. Claire enjoys meeting on this occasion people who know everything about them. “They follow us on social networks so they ask us how the little ones are doing. [ils ont deux enfants]. They are kind to us.”
The evening meal offers a new opportunity to discover the work of the farmers. “On the bar menu, we have champagne from Virginie and Thomas [saison 9]rosé from Pierre and Fred, Médoc wine from Cathy [saison 15]and this year we are going to do an oyster bar with Thomas [saison 13] “, welcomes Claire. These evenings where we “chat” sometimes lead to new ideas, such as using Pierre and Fred’s Armagnac in Claire and Sébastien’s Gascon pâtés. “We are all farmers, we want to try a lot of things”, underlines the host of this weekend “ADP Tour”.
Carry the values of “Love is in the meadow”
The association “Agriculteurs Dans Le Pré Tour” – a registered trademark – brings together around thirty former M6 candidates. Frédérique – who met Pierre in season 7 – explains: “Something informal is formalized today because we want this spirit of camaraderie, of benevolence, these ADP values that we carry, not to be overused. by anyone, a town hall, a department, or other”. But, for Pierre, the “ADP Tour” spirit already existed long before the creation of the association. He first evokes 2013, when Karine Le Marchand, receiving the Order of Agricultural Merit, brought together three seasons at the Ministry of Agriculture, considering that she owed this distinction to the programs presented in 2010, 2011 and 2012. “C t is the first time that the seasons have been mixed, observes this cereal farmer and producer of Armagnac. From there, we realized that we could have different ages, be breeders or others, but we had a common base”.
Add the story of Laurent (season 14): in 2020, facing financial problems, he opens his farm to the public for a weekend of solidarity. Other farmers come to lend him a hand. Peter was one of them. “We said to ourselves, ‘What do we do? Do we let him save his farm on his own? Do we sell our products for his benefit?’ We went there and, in three hours, we had sold everything. The ADP Tour spirit was founded around this event. We understood that we had to work together. »
5,000 people at the Christmas market
But it is the cancellation of the Agricultural Show in 2021 that will prove decisive. “We were sad because it was the moment when we all met, confides Frédérique. I said to Pierre: “ADP farmers can’t come to us so we’ll go see them!” We took Claire and Séb with us, and we called it the “ADP Tour”. In three days, we did 3,000 km, we saw about six or seven farms, we covered it on our social networks, we made films on each farm where our friends presented their productions, their products to us. They created the hashtag #ADPtour2021 and organized this event at Claire’s, then at Virginie’s. That year, the Christmas market moved to Emeric and brought together 5,000 people in Pleyber-Christ, in Finistère.
To join the ADP Tour, whose vocation is also to facilitate the work of the person who receives at home, it is obviously necessary to have participated in the program but not only. “People who will criticize Karine Le Marchand or the show do not join the association. It rarely happens but it does happen, notes Pierre. Then if, for example, a farmer does not want to take a photo with someone during these days, we will explain to him that it is not the spirit. After the market on July 22 and 23 at Claire and Sébastien, the ADP Tour will stop at Virginie and Thomas on November 11 and 12, then at Emeric on December 2 and 3.