When Patrick Duler took over Saint-Géry 33 years ago, at the age of 24, he breathed new life into his 50 hectares family estate which had been lying empty for 20 years.

Although self-taught, he immediately decided to create a restaurant, La Petit Auberge, which quickly became a watering hole for the regions epicureans. He then started to expand the farms produce to supply his restaurant and some of best restaurant in France: ducks for foie gras in 1987, Gascon pigs and wild boar in 1988, truffles in 1989 (there are currently 12 hectares of truffle oak trees), wheat and other cereals in 1994, aromatic plants for distillation in 2010 and vines in 2014 (he presently has over 11500 vines), after more than 30 years of work he has finally created the first gastronomic farm.

With his farm, certified organic for over 20 years, Partick became one of the leaders and drivers behind the sustainable farming movement: direct sowing of wheat, planting hedges, growing vegetables with RCW mulching (using branches of trees as organic mulches) …. And Patrick is convinced that "la bonne cuisine" can only be made with the freshest and produce.

Whilst developing his agriculture production, he never ceased trying to understand and perfect the traditional artisanal and fermentative produce, thus:

• Starting in 1995, after an internship with Lenotre a “Meilleur Ouvrier de France,” he started making is own bread with his own cereal (wheat, spelt, rye…) selling it to the local market. However, his bread can now only be found in his own restaurant (made with his own flour, indigenous yeast, and water from the local spring). He does however, sell a special truffle bread at several select restaurants, such as Alain Ducasse in Monaco.

• Starting in 1987, he started making his own duck products (foie gras, confits…) and aging dried duck breast or “magrets”. He then began working with his pigs and makes his first hams and saucissons. In 1995 he wanted to perfect his saucisson made without saltpeter or nitrate salt, he spent the next two years working with the “Centre Technique de la Viande” and managed to produce the first organic saucisson without nitrate salt or saltpeter preservatives.

• Always curious, he worked insatiably on how ham evolves and matures, and he put together, little by little, an innovative way maturation-drying-aging hams in cellars. In 2014 he beat some of the best-known Spanish producers to win “the best ham in the world” competition in Barcelona.

• Starting in 2013, Patrick began maturing his hams over long periods of time in wine cellars with vignerons around France: Elian Da Ros, Anselme Selosse, Thierry Germain, Stéphane Derenoncourt, Bernard Plageolles, Philippe Cohen, Fabien Jouves, Jean-Laurent and Jean-Dominique Vacheron, Eloi Durbäch.