In the Cévennes Lilas Delclos, farmer

In the Cévennes valleys of Saint-André-de-Lancize, Lilas Delclos grows much more than chestnuts. At the Mourènes farm she founded in 2010 at an altitude of 900 meters, she combines a passion for mountain farming with a love of horses.

Assisted by her husband Guillaume, Lilas Delclos divides her time between agricultural production and equestrian activity.

For the past two years, her chestnut-based products have proudly carried the AB, AOC and AOC labels Esprit parc national. In 2012, we took over a rural lease on a 3-hectare chestnut grove in Grattegals, in the commune of Saint-Laurent-de-Trèves. It took us three years to breathe new life into this ancient orchard, overgrown with broom and birch. The chestnut trees were nowhere to be seen. These hundred-year-old trees, most of them wild, are suffering as elsewhere from climate change, but are coming back to life year after year. In the early years, we harvested 300 kg of chestnuts, and last year we reached 1 tonne.

The harvest is sold both fresh and processed, after passing through the CUMA workshop at Col du Pendédis. Barbudes, Coutinelles, Pelligrines or Dauphines become chestnut cream with cocoa, syrup, purée, flour, or natural chestnuts, sometimes flavored with aniseed or Provencal herbs.

We produce chestnut cream with cocoa, jam with pieces, syrup, flour, purée, natural or flavored chestnuts...

Sales are made at the farm, at markets, in producers' stores and at numerous fairs across France, where the couple fly the flag for their region.

We put the Esprit parc national plaque on our stand. And we often find that people don't know enough about the area, so we systematically promote it.

Very involved in local life, Lilas Delclos is also an administrator of the Parc national des Cévennes, on behalf of the inhabitants of the heart of the National Park.