Gourmet trip to the Lanaudière Christmas markets

Lanaudière is full of producers and farmers of all kinds, who meet every year in the markets of Terrebonne, Joliette and L’Assomption. Each market offers a unique program as well as the products of a hundred exhibitors, specific to each location. Here are some gourmet finds, handpicked.

The Nasenka Estate

A Highland cow breeding farm, Domaine Nasenka only sells its products on the farm. The only exception: the L’Assomption Christmas market. You have to taste the tourtière, made like in Lac-Saint-Jean, where the owner Denise Lessard is from. “In my pies, you will have 70% Highland beef, 10% ground pork, poultry that replaces the pie, and the small potato”, she describes, specifying that all her ingredients come from local producers. As for the cows, they are grass-fed and raised in free pasture for 12 months. Only the males are slaughtered, not before 3 years old, and the meat then remains on the carcass for 30 days before going to the butcher’s. “My ground beef is therefore as precious as my filet mignon,” says Ms.^me Lessard.

The ice cream shop

When Carole Béland opened the doors of her Frozen Shop in Repentigny five years ago, it was first and foremost to make Yule logs. In fact, during its first years of activity, the business opened on Valentine’s Day, continued with Easter and the summer period to finally close in the fall, to better devote itself to making the famous yule logs. “Over the past few years, we’ve sold up to 550 to market customers,” says Ms.^me Béland by making us taste the three succulent varieties of logs: raspberry and dark chocolate, Rolo, pecans and fleur de sel caramel as well as hazelnuts. “What characterizes my logs is that they are made only with ice cream, so they are lighter than those made with cake batter. »

The Snow Sheepfold

La Bergerie des neiges is the lamb farm run by Ludovic Juillet and Fidjie Martell, the star couple of the third season of Love is in the meadow. The latter welcomes us behind the counter of her shop, stocked with a panoply of products, all prepared at the Saint-Ambroise-de-Kildare farm. “Everything is raised and processed directly at home, we do all the butchery on the farm,” she informs. And all our products are 100% lamb, we want to be as authentic as possible. There are therefore classic cuts such as shank or lamb, but also six kinds of sausages, charcuterie, terrines and cretons as well as delicious marinated strips ready to grill on the raclette. That’s without counting the popular pâté cooked with ground lamb and ewe cubes, an exclusivity of the L’Assomption Christmas market.

Aunt Agastache

A unique find at the Joliette Christmas market, Tante Agastache specializes in products made from agastache, a native flower with a thousand virtues that is increasingly used in cooking. “You can cultivate it to distil its perfume, to make essential oil. It can also be dried or used fresh to flavor the kitchen, lists Lorraine Boury, owner and agronomist by training. Its taste is frankly aniseed, but also lemony and floral. In its gourmet applications, it is offered with dark chocolate, in herbal tea, but you can also simply sprinkle agastache florets on our favorite dishes. “You can put it on a pear pie, on a white fish with a little lemon, on a stir-fry of zucchini, in a soup, it can go with just about everything”, suggests the producer from Sainte-Émélie-de -Energy.

The Éric Malo donut shack

A must-see at the Festi-Glace for 33 years, Éric Malo has also set up his donut shack on the magnificent site of the Christmas market, in the park of Place Bourget, in the heart of downtown Joliette. This is one of the rare occasions to sample the famous pastries of Mr. Malo, who jealously guards the recipe for his light-as-air donuts, baked right in front of us. “It’s a light donut, with a hint of vanilla. It’s not a potato donut that you find elsewhere either, it’s a little recipe that we keep secret and that everyone loves,” he says, admitting in passing that he has already dared pass on the recipe he learned from his father-in-law Roger Coulombe… You can actually find the mini donuts in Montreal, at the Metropolitan Flea Market, and in Saint-Félix-de-Valois, at the Toit bleu.

Guy Rivest Farm

Jams, jellies, marinades, fruit syrups, fruit pearls, wines and fine spirits, the Guy Rivest farm works magic with the berries it grows in Rawdon. Its products may be on sale in several points of sale in Quebec, but at the Joliette Christmas market you can find some exclusives that you can normally only buy at the farm shop. We are talking in particular about fruit pearls, butters and caramels, but also about the alcohols produced by co-owner Louise Rondeau, who created her first strawberry wine in 1995 — it was in fact the first Lanaudière wine, all fruits combined. ! This is therefore an opportunity to taste the Donzelle, fortified strawberry and raspberry wine, the strawberry Mistelle as well as the strawberry cream and its variant which incorporates haskap, which we are strongly recommended to taste. try in kir.

Getaway with Bonjour Nature Lanaudière

Less than an hour from downtown Montreal, the Lanaudière Christmas markets are easily accessible by car, but it is good to know that the Bonjour Nature Lanaudière agency also offers a shuttle service on weekends. from the Radisson metro. We are talking about a guided service that tours the three markets – we also have a few gourmet surprises in store for participants.