Oh I did reach out to many of them but no one bothered to respond. But the farmer at Grenoble was an awesome chap, very helpful even though my French wasn’t great and drove me around to show me his trees, his processing plant and explained to me what all is involved and even gave me a book to read about walnuts. And his lovely wife picked me up from Lyon airport and drove me all the way to Grenoble and back.
And his words, walnut is a very hardy plant. Initially it needs help to grow but will survive very easily with a bit of care.
@BruceWayne is this a wind up?
clearly you must be/have been a farmer as owning 100 hectares is not usual for the man in the street.
How have you managed the land to date?
As others have said the walnut harvest looks like being badly affected this year. You would need to be in a cooperative to sell the amount of nuts you will eventually get. Beware that planting a walnut grove is one thing but it will be 10 years or more before there will be sufficient walnuts to harvest.
Then it gets serious with all the kit and labour needed to tend them.
Chestnuts are a better bet as the trees mature quicker so an earlier return on your investment.
I am no stranger to walnuts as for the last 10 years we have averaged 600 kilos per season. Recently it has got increasingly difficult to sell the harvest without being in a cooperative. We have produced walnut oil via a local mill but was very time consuming.
We are in an area of many commercial walnut growers who farm far less than 100 hectares.
They have grown walnuts for generations and work hard to keep ahead of the weather and all other things thrown at them.
Have you seriously costed your idea?
It is commendable but I I could think of many safer projects to enter into in retirement.
We are all different.
The last farmer used to rear sheep so it is all grass at the moment. 100 hectares is the total land, not sure I will create an orchard on all the 100 hectares and I don’t think all of the land is suitable too. I costed the whole project hence it is going to be 15-20 years exercise or something around that. I am mid 40s so I have time to continue with the project.
I muted this thread, then thought better of it… so here’s my last input:
Learn French as quickly as you can…
At 40 you are young enough for the brain to take it all in… hurrah.
Contact your Mairie, introduce yourself and explain your plans/hopes and ask them what Planning Permissions you might need from them…
“Notary” is not a word I know… Notaire I do know… so I suggest you use the word Notaire (no matter whether using French or English)
You mentioned fruit trees… so I didn’t think of walnuts… you need to be very specific about trees as there will (probably) be different requirements for different species…
Glad you’ve made a friendly/helpful contact in Grenoble… but… as already said… you need to make contact with locals (possibly introduced via your Mairie) and the AOP Perigord will be important for any future fruit/nut/ business
and I reckon the Forestry Agency if you are doing any woodlands…
