Eastern Townships of Quebec: A Farm Tour

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Joany Brodeur at the Huilerie.
Joany Brodeur at the Huilerie.
The couple behind Ferme Cidricole Equinoxe in Farnham.
The couple behind Ferme Cidricole Equinoxe in Farnham.
These four week old ducks will be dinner at 13 weeks in the restaurant. Eastern Townships of Quebec.
These four week old ducks will be dinner at 13 weeks in the restaurant.

This morning, I don’t think I could have written a better script for myself in Quebec’s Eastern Townships. I began with a  beautiful breakfast, a plate so perfectly assembled I didn’t want to disturb it. Everything was small and perfect. I was staying at the Le Pleasant Hotel and Cafe in the charming town of Sutton, with a population of 5,000.  Outside was a group of bikers setting off on a tour. I took the GPS route, and it took me past the iconic silos, red barns, and farm fields that define this part of Quebec.

Breakfast at the Hotel in Sutton, Quebec.
Full Quebec Breakfast at the Hotel in Sutton, Quebec.

So much open land, fields that go on forever, and tidy farmhouses and farmshops along the way. As the music played in the car, I thought about how many times I’ve set out like this, and how many times I felt this exhilaration. This was the life I want to lead, and did for so many years; it was back again!

My first stop was to visit Caroline Pelletier, who runs Fromagerie Missiska. Her specialty is cheese and cheese curds, as well as milk that is minimally pasteurized, so it still has a big head of cream on top. This A2 milk is very popular, and buyers are not swayed by the price–about $15 a gallon.

Caroline showed me the rack of dozens of small cheese wheels getting ready to be salted and wrapped, and the impressive selection of Wagyu beef in the freezer. It is Wagyu and Jersey cow beef, and the marbling was impressive.

Caroline said that her life partner owns 100 of his own Holstein cows, and she has 60 Jersey cows, which are smaller and produce milk with the highest butterfat.  The two have six kids combined, and six more cousins live nearby. And many of them have expressed interest in keeping this vital family business going for the next generation.  This became a theme for the day, as I was to visit three more farms and I’d ask the same questions.

My next stop was quite an operation.  I met Audrey-Anne Lussier, who, with her husband Marc-Antoine Arsenault-Chiasson, runs the Ferme Cidricole Equinoxe. We strolled the 40 acres of vineyards, apple trees, duck ponds, and animal pens and she described their operation. They run a farm-to-table restaurant on the weekends, and people come throughout the week to buy apples and cider in their store.

They host outdoor weddings here, and the food is not expensive. All of it comes from the farm, including the beef, the duck, and the chicken.  Audrey-Anne said she hopes that her little ones will take to the farm; she is pregnant and has a three-year-old.  Farming is hard work, I could tell, as we walked around the property and she showed me how low the irrigation pond was…it hasn’t rained here for months, and the crops are showing it.

My last stop was Huilerie Arome des Champs, a farm that produces organic oleic sunflower oil, pressing it cold right there. Owner Joany Brodeur said people enjoy taking photos among the rows and rows of sunflowers, and their business has grown as people value their natural oil, which she sells in both large quantities and quarts.  She said her children have been enthusiastic about someday driving their big John Deere harvester, and she hopes that they, too, will keep the family business going long into the future.

I did so much more, including ziplining down the steepest run in Canada and learning how to play disc golf with a professional player at Mont Sutton.. Tomorrow I will ride a mountain bike at the famous Centre National de Cyclisme de Bromont, where a fantastic track awaits. More to come!