At the Grand Marché of Pays-de-la-Loire, in Nantes, this September 12, Pauline Dominicy will come to taste her edible flowers.
An original and little-known production that this 48-year-old Vendée cultivates and defends with great determination.
She wants us to "rediscover the taste of our childhood on our plates ..." As part of the Voyage à Nantes, the Nefs des Machines de l'Ile de Nantes will be transformed on Sunday into a gourmet hall with the Grand Marché des Pays-de. -la-Loire. Among the headliners: Pauline Dominicy, 48 years old. This Vendée will have a stand of edible plants and flowers and herbs. It intends to titillate the taste buds of visitors with, for example, "blackcurrant and pineapple sage", "Hollywood verbena" reminiscent of the famous chewing gum, or even "fennel flowers" with the strange taste of Ricard.
In her 2,700 m2 farm located in Coëx, Vendée, Pauline pampers her edible flowers.
Every day, she cuts, sows, waters and monitors her production.
More than 350 varieties of plants grow in her, "with many variations for each plant".
"For example, there are more than 50 basil", specifies this enthusiast while explaining that this herbaceous plant should not be pruned "with scissors but by hand to keep 100% of the taste on the plates".
Pauline doesn't grow her edible flowers just for fun.
“I created my paradise,” she admits.
But, it also had to bring in money ... "
"As a child, I never ate Haribo sweets, but fuchsias ..."
Since 2019 and the creation of his small business, “it has been going very well and I am making a profit every year”. About thirty restaurant clients in Loire-Atlantique and Vendée, some of whom have starred, enhance and decorate their dishes with its production. Four days a week, helped by Nathalie in training at her side, Pauline picks in the morning then delivers in the afternoon, crisscrossing the roads from Nantes to Cugand via Challans and Brétignolles. A daily life that makes this mother of a family happy, who fell into the pot of edible flowers during childhood. Pauline smiles: “My grandmother ate a lot, and I've been tasting it since I was little. I have never eaten Haribo sweets, but fuchsias, primroses and pansies… ”
A passion that turned into a project to create a company late in the day and especially following dramatic circumstances.
In 2012, Pauline, a trained horticultural landscaper, was responsible for the flowering of the city of Aizenay in Vendée.
His life is turned upside down at his workplace.
She accidentally hits the head with a shovel.
A blow so violent that she was predicted that she would never be able to work normally again.
During her stay at the Brétéché clinic in Nantes, she allows herself a few trips to the Nantes MIN.
She discovered with amazement, and even "disgust", arrivals of edible flowers from Morocco, Israel and Spain in particular.
No French production and a fortiori local.
A long fight to make his project credible
From that day forward, she has only one thing in mind: to grow edible flowers and rare herbs herself. Another fight begins for Pauline. “Nobody believed in my project. A disabled woman over 40 ... I was told it was not viable. I fought for almost five years. I was living with 358 euros per month of disability pension and I was told that I had to manage with that… ”His fight is marked by pain linked to the accident, but also periods of“ doubts ” . His idea of edible flowers seems absurd to many people. Pauline does not surrender. His leitmotif: "As long as we are not screwed, we move forward!" "To make her project even more credible, she wrote a book entitled" Osons la fleur edible dans l'Aiette ".
On April 1, 2019, his dream came true.
This is the birth of her company, called "Les Jardins de Pauline", where everything is arranged so that she can work without straining her bruised body.
Two years ago, it was she who also pushed for the creation of an economic interest group bringing together ten producers in the West.
Pauline trains them.
It also provides mother plants.
A necessarily organic production.
"No phytosanitary product is used, we have used so many in our previous lives," says Pauline and Nathalie together, all smiles.
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