The Zerodig philosophy
Les Jardins de Kermeur were born from a simple conviction: living soil creates healthy food, and healthy food creates a healthy community.
Living soil contains a vast and diverse universe of microbes (bacteria, protozoa, fungi, nematodes, etc.), earthworms, and insects (spiders, beetles, centipedes, etc.) that work together to nourish our plants and provide them with a soil structure in which they can thrive and withstand the increasingly frequent climatic and weather-related challenges.
We have chosen gentle, no-till farming to support and encourage the soil microbiome, restore biodiversity, reduce our climate impact, and feed the community with tasty and nutritious food.
This project is not only a place for producing good healthy food but also a place for learning, innovation, and sharing an agroecological micro-farm model.
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Our project
We are a couple of market gardeners, Jean-Christophe and Anne-Camille. We believe in small-scale farming, focused on soil health, respect for nature, and the quality of our produce.
Each harvest is the result of careful, patient, and deeply committed work.
We follow agroecological principles.
Our philosophy: less disturbance, more life in our soils equals more nutritional value and flavour in our crops – all while letting nature guide us and follow its course.
02
Living Soil
If we feed the soil it will feed the plants that will feed us.
It all starts with the soil. We cultivate rich, vibrant ecosystems beneath our feet, supporting a world of microorganisms that work in symbiosis with our plants to nourish them.
The foundation of our living soil is an environment rich in organic matter—in the form of compost and wood chips—which helps maintain the soil microbiome. Plants share some of their photosynthetic products in the form of root exudates with microorganisms and receive the nutrients they need in return. A perfect system that has evolved over 400 million years.
Bacteria, fungi, and other soil animals—especially earthworms—play a vital role in creating a soil structure that allows plants to thrive and withstand extreme weather conditions and drought.
A living, well-structured soil ensures that harvested plants are full of flavour and highly nutritious.
03
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is nature's immune system. It's what stops pest and disease spreading through ecosystems. By providing plenty of diverse habitat we can build natural resilience in our plants.
The vast diversity of a living soil is complemented by diversity above ground. Not only do we plant a wide range of vegetables, fruit and herbs but we also plant flowers to attract pollinators and other insects that will also attract birds.
The above ground diversity also serves as a habitat for beneficial insect predators that help maintain a healthy ecological balance in which our plants can thrive.
Restoring nature in this way improves biodiversity and the yield of our crops.
04
Ecological succession
« Ecological succession » describes the development of different communities of plants and microbes over time if left undisturbed. Ecosystems are generally trying to push themselves towards diverse communities of mostly perennial plants which are much more resilient and stable.
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By understanding, encouraging, working with this process and basing our fertility on undisturbed communities of plants and microbes we can grow food regeneratively with less work to prepare the soil and weed.
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Cover crops
A living soil needs to be fed. Keeping living plants in the soil at all times is the best way of doing this. We plant cover crops over winter and leave plants in the ground until we are ready to plant the next set of new crops.
We also mulch with compost and plant residues to give our soils the best chance of staying alive over the winter and ready to feed our spring plantings.
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Nutritional density
Plants will only contain high levels of micro-nutrients - especially key minerals - and phyto-nutrients if they are grown in biologically active soils and exposed to a certain amount of environmental stress.
We need a diverse and high level of micro-nutrients to maintain a healthy and fit lifestyle. We need a good supply of diverse phyto-nutrients to maintain our immune systems and fight off illness.
Above all, we need a diverse and rich source of food high in micro-nutrients, phyto-nutirients and fibre to maintain a healthy gut biome.
All of which helps give flavour to our plans, make us happy and feel alive.
07
Carbon footprint
Plants growing in a living soil; will help mitigate the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by fixing it as soil carbon over time.
As a result of photosynthesis, plants take carbon dioxide out of the air and fix it in the form of sugars. Plants will then exude up to 60% of these sugars through their roots to feed the soil microbes and fungi. The soil microbes and fungi will use the carbon from these exudates to grow and proliferate producing new compounds such as glomalin. Over time the carbon will be stored in the soil as more stable carbon compounds such as humic and fulvic acids.
As long as the soil remains undisturbed, the process will continue and carbon will be taken out of the atmosphere and sequestered in the soil.
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Food kilometers
Growing locally and following the seasons we can reduce transport, waste and packaging. We can also ensure that food is fresh and made available efficiently.
This approach also further reduces the carbon footprint of Les Jardins de Kermeur.
We often harvest on the same day that our produce is available for you to taste, eat and enjoy.
