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What is your name and what is your job?
My name is Stéphane Mille and I have been a market gardener for nearly ten years. It hasn't always been my job.
Is it a conversion?
Absolutely ! Before I was a salesman, I was also a pastry chef for ten years. And it's my taste for nature that led me to this. I work alone. I have about one hundred and fifty to two hundred varieties of different vegetables, of all colors and almost all year round. I rest for a fortnight in winter, no more. It is a period when we clean and empty the greenhouse to restart a season from zero at the beginning of the year.
Why settle in Madelaine-sous-Montreuil?
I fell in love with the area and bought a house here. I am lucky to be near a small town where there are a lot of restaurants, around forty within Montreuil. I have been working with La Grenouillère and in particular Alexandre Gauthier, who has two stars, for two years now. I work with a dozen very good restaurants and organize a direct sale here on Fridays with individuals.
What do you find at home and not elsewhere?
I do some exotic vegetables. Of all kinds, like young shoots that are quite trendy. My favorite vegetable is mainly tomatoes. Tomatoes ! There are twenty thousand varieties, I grow about thirty here. It is little but it is already a lot. I thus offer customers different colors and tastes.
If you had to give 3 words to characterize your greenhouse, your products?
The priority is really quality. Freshness of course. And finally, the desire to please others. Sharing what! Moreover, many customers have become friends, locals mainly within a radius of twenty kilometers.
What do you do to unwind? What is your method?
My children. When I have some time for myself, I spend it with them. I take care of it of course, family outings are also a good way to recharge my batteries. They go to school here, but in the summer I don't see them much: I can be gone from morning until evening. We meet sometimes. I take advantage of a few weeks of vacation all the same to take full advantage of them.
A good plan in Montreuil-sur-Mer?
No several! The essential is the tour of the ramparts of course, or visiting the abbey. And then visit my restaurant friends.
So you recommend La Grenoullière?
Yes La Grenouillère, Château de Montreuil, Froggy's, L'anecdote, very good restaurant too. There is also the Clos des Capucins on the square. General de Gaulle is a very good restaurant, you will see, there is plenty to do, see and eat!
Montreuil in a nutshell?
It's complicated when you live there like that. It is a historic city.
If you had to eat one vegetable for a month, which one would it be?
There is a product that we consume a lot here in the North of France, it is the potato. So potato diet!
Which vegetable makes you the happiest?
In vegetables, I would say everything that is pumpkin, pumpkin, pattypan squash, all the gourds. There are so many colors, different shapes, it's always interesting.
Is there a vegetable that you find really very beautiful?
I find them all beautiful! For example, a thousand-year-old cabbage with morning rosé is super beautiful. We are going to arrive in a fairly cold period where we are going to have Brussels sprouts, a little pearly or frosted, it's super nice too!
Do you have an ever more responsible approach on a daily basis?
We are very careful in the family and we teach our children to do the same. Selective sorting of course, compost of course. We also pay attention to what we buy, not to buy but rather to repair objects.