"Here, what is eaten? Everything around you": Fabrice Desjours sweeps away a lush vegetal chaos made of tangles of lianas, plants and shrubs, dominated by trees with surprising origins.

"This dogwood from Japan makes quite amazing fruits, which will be consumed," explains Fabrice Desjours pointing to a tree with beautiful white starry flowers. "Yes, it's -20°C," adds the founder of the Forêt gourmande.

"This is a sasa bamboo. We eat the small shoots. Jumped, it's just delicious... That's a mahogany from China, we make super pestos," he says, making the doubtful visitor taste rusty green leaves that actually give the delicious impression of crunching into a slightly nutty onion.

Then, pointing to the ground lined with plants: "It's Rhodiola taken over, a super vegetable. And there, the aralia, an Asian vegetable. Restaurateurs like it a lot."

More than a thousand species are cultivated on the 2.5 hectares of the "FoGo" (Gourmet Forest), planted in the Burgundian Bresse at the sole initiative of Fabrice Desjours.

Worn straw hat and gardener's hands, this former nurse passionate about plants "since childhood" appreciated finding in the forest the "calm" that his job refused him.

The president of the association La Forêt Gourmande, Fabrice Desjours examines one of the trees of his gourmet forest near Chalon-sur-Saône, on May 22, 2023 in Saône-et-Loire © JEFF PACHOUD / AFP

Globetrotter, he discovers, during his peregrinations, that agroforests still feed populations of Sumatra, Costa Rica, Comoros ... "The inhabitants would go into the forest and come back ten minutes later with baskets full of delicious things. It was the abundance of food," he recalls.

No irrigation

"I also wanted to create my oasis": in 2010, after being trained in agro-forestry, he bought a few hectares of desolate meadows and planted his gourmet forest with the strength of his arms and finances alone.

"The idea was really to make a forest to eat, without soil erosion and without treatment," he told AFP.

The president of the association La Forêt Gourmande, Fabrice Desjours examines one of the trees of his gourmet forest near Chalon-sur-Saône, on May 22, 2023 in Saône-et-Loire © JEFF PACHOUD / AFP

Apart from the first years of planting, no irrigation is required. Because FoGo is planted "with varieties that resist drought" but also because it "conserves water in the soil" thanks to an assembly of specific plants that strengthen biodiversity, explains Fabrice, his voice covered by birdsong.

Initially a dream of one man, FoGo has become a laboratory of "forest gardens" that "all" want to imitate. In Normandy, Lille, Toulouse. At altitude or in the plain. In flood or dry areas, the non-profit association created in 2018 to support the gourmet forest now advises about fifty projects per year and trains "5 to 600 people".

"There is a lot of enthusiasm," confirms Geneviève Michon, FoGo godmother and agroforestry expert at the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD).

"It came to us from the tropics," says the researcher. "It happened in Europe thirty years ago, first in the UK. In France, it took time: when I wanted to do research on this, in the 80s, I was told: agroforestry has no future!" she recalls.

"Today, we are rediscovering the idea that we can eat the forest. It's an oil stain because you realize the enormous cost of industrial agriculture."

Suddenly, in his edible jungle, Fabrice Desjours launches an appetizing "at the table!", his arms loaded with a "super-salad" of white pebbles, resumed orpin resumed, glechome ..., accompanied by a puree of Chinese yam and, finally, a gingerbread of acorn flour. All washed down with a herbal tea of roses from Japan.

The president of the association La Forêt Gourmande, Fabrice Desjours examines one of the trees of his gourmet forest near Chalon-sur-Saône, on May 22, 2023 in Saône-et-Loire © JEFF PACHOUD / AFP

"Starter, main course, dessert," he says with satisfaction. "Yes, with the forest, you can make a full meal."

© 2023 AFP