Last Sunday, Mona Lisa almost lost his enigmatic smile, victim of a scaling that went viral at the Louvre Museum. The entarteur/activist told us to “think about the planet! “. Some think about it, others dress it up and aren’t afraid to get their hands and pants dirty. This is the case of Verdita and her friends, pure kale Generation Ys, born in the early 1990s. Verdita is in her second year at the head of her very small market gardening business, De fil en vegetables.
Verdita, a first name they chose, is 29 years old and trained in fashion design, hence the “Fil” attached to vegetables. They hesitate between the non-binary and the transcendence of genders, talk about themselves in the feminine or in the masculine and turned to organic market gardening (without certification for the moment) last year.
Her “rural mentor”, “Nini” (Monique Savoie), lent them her field-laboratory at Stanbridge Station, in the Eastern Townships, to collaborate on their project. They also have access to a pond to water their vegetables thanks to a pump and a system of perforated hoses. The founder and former director of the Society for Technological Arts (SAT) retired from the ship on Saint-Laurent Boulevard last year: “I thought it was important to maintain a link with the values of this new generation. »
I accompanied them to the field this week, a small plot of 2000 square meters, half an acre, which they cultivate from May to October and which will supply three bars and restaurants on Saint-Laurent Boulevard, including the Culinary Lab — SAT Foodlab, Le Beau Temps and Le Majestique. “Last year, we lost vegetables, laments Verdita. We didn’t have enough customers. » I had the chance to reap the forgotten graces last fall, a real treat that cost them dearly in sweat, scratches, stings and sunburn.
Verdita learned on the haystack by making woofing in Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria and France during his early twenties. Then, they obtained a certificate in plant science at Dalhousie University, another in organic farming and the online training of popular market gardener Jean-Martin Fortier.
You have to rent or squat a small plot of land somewhere, put it under cultivation and quickly eat the harvest
Today, Verdita gives back to the next generation on an artisan scale. Thanks to crowdfunding (they raised $20,000 this spring) and assistance from the Mille et UN Youth Fund, De fil en Végétables will in turn be able to teach the basics of market gardening to young people aged 15 to 18 this summer. “There is a theoretical part, but also a practical one, insists Verdita. It’s not just a science, plants are also an art. »
Flower Rabbit and Eco-Anxiety
Climbed on their bale of hay, they look like a grano episode of Love is in the meadow. Christobald, Jade, Val, Niky, Antoine, all volunteers, except Charlotte, the trainee, came to lend a hand to their friend for the plantations of tomatoes, climbing beans and shishito peppers. Bio-entertaining, they have flower rabbits or spiders tattooed on their thighs and hands.
They dream of a land of their own rather than squatting Nini’s; they dream of a healthy planet and living soil rather than eco-anxiety; they dream of a world where eating well is not a luxury: “People, especially in towns, don’t know what living soil is: it’s a big organism with small animals, moles and field mice, worms, humus, organic residues, insects, fungi. People just want to pay as little as possible. Food is a commodity rather than something to invest in. »
All these young lovers of the earth are constantly tickling it with their nimble little hands to root a dream there.
“We will never be able to build capital to buy a house. My mother had a chalet when she was 20, says Val, 30. We are tattooed, and we like orange wine! She says it with a hint of irony, as if everything was in the present. Val adds that she doesn’t want children, that there are enough of them on Earth. Jade, 28, agrees: “I will adopt at 40 or 50…”
Verdita adds a layer of it: “The grocery store is going up, the rents are going up… Either it will create even more wealth gap or it will make a clash economic. » Bingo!
Between climate denial and ecological action
In the fields, CDs placed on the ground frighten the birds, the essential oil of garlic and the scarecrow keep the deer away. Verdita tells me about tractors backfiring with potato oil, growing tomatoes without water, roots of seedlings soaked in clay.
The young market gardener does not hide his eco-anxiety and subscribes to BBC Earth: “I have the impression that things are not going fast enough. We won’t be able to save the planet. Me, I need to take care of my basic needs, of my food autonomy, it lowers my existential angst. »
For the rest, they devote themselves to art and spirituality with their friends, sew their clothes and live their youth in the city, one foot in the field, one foot on the asphalt, sparkles on their cheeks. “Our generation knows that with climate change, it will be different. With COVID, we saw that everything could change overnight. »
Verdita observes two trends: “I see two kinds of young people: those who are in denial and will get lost in the Metaverse and entertainment, and those who are in survival mode facing ecosystems or who are involved in groups like Extinction. Rebellion. Or like the students who are striking this afternoon and demonstrating for climate justice.
“We will have to adapt and change more quickly. Me, I hope for mutual aid, notes Verdita. It is through diversity that we become resilient. One of my life missions is to transmit knowledge, to make it accessible. »
Something to smile about Mona Lisa for all time…
Instagram: josee.blanchette