What new book does this book have to offer in relation to what is being done in Quebec today?
You don’t need big energy-guzzling greenhouses. It all ends up getting expensive. So, to make that profitable, you have to grow high-income vegetables like tomatoes, peppers or cucumbers. We made the choice not to have heated and lighted greenhouses, and to grow less profitable vegetables that are more resistant to cold. We grow about 30 of them all winter in our greenhouses, but we have to plant them at the right time and in the right way. Plants can take the gel, but they must be acclimatized first. It’s a lot of things that are a matter of know-how. We are in another economic logic and another way of looking at production.
With simple means, sensitivity, a better understanding of plant biology and a certain expertise, we are able to eat fresh vegetables all year round in Quebec.
Jean-Martin Fortier
We can make spinach, kale (kale), bok choy, Swiss chard, turnips and many other vegetables that people are less familiar with. It’s nice to tell Quebecers to eat local, but they also have to eat in season. Progress isn’t eating strawberries in January and it’s not fair to be able to outsmart nature: it’s ingenuity, eating well.
PHOTO ANDRÉ PICHETTE, ARCHIVES THE PRESS
A few greenhouses, neither heated nor lighted, where the vegetables from the Ferme des Quatre-Temps are grown in winter.
Do you feel that the circumstances are favorable to broach the subject, especially with the movement that resulted from the pandemic?
It’s so exciting what’s going on. There is an awakening, a political motivation and public funds that are invested in greenhouses. But I would like it to be invested in the right place, in our countryside, and that we put these millions of dollars in 10,000 small greenhouses rather than in two or three large complexes that will grow tomatoes. Decentralization is desirable. It’s just more complicated. But it gets things done. I have not written a book for the general public, but so that market gardeners have a basis on which to build their own business, with the hope that they will have the support of the people to buy their vegetables.
As consumers, what are the means to be taken to move in the direction of food sovereignty?
Individually, if everyone takes a step, it has an impact. If there is action to take, it is to eat local and in season so that the money stays in the Quebec economy. Subscribing to winter baskets through family farmer networks is a concrete way. If everyone did it, it would send the signal that there is a business opportunity out there. You can also check the origin of your products at the grocery store and request seasonal vegetables from Quebec from your grocer. […] What we invest in our community comes back to us at some point. I really like the cheese and microbrewery analogy. Before, we had inexpensive Molson at the convenience store and we were well served. But when you look at all the flavors that we manage to produce now, many villages now have an economy because of these companies which support people. For me, it’s progress.
What do you imagine as a portrait in Quebec in your wildest dreams of food sovereignty?
I’m a big believer in replacing mass agriculture with mass farmers. What I would see are thousands of small farms across the territory that primarily feed their community. There are microbreweries and cafes in these villages and quietly, living in the countryside, it becomes something other than corn and soy. My dream is also that rivers and streams are not contaminated by agriculture that is destructive, that people go to the market in their village, and that an entire economy develops: rich in culture, in connections.
PHOTO ANDRÉ PICHETTE, ARCHIVES THE PRESS
Vegetables grow in the middle of winter in this greenhouse at Ferme des Quatre-Temps.
To those who find that there is a step back in this way of thinking, what do you say?
I think it’s a return to the future! We may be revisiting things from the past, but with new perspectives and new means. Progress is not a straight line and it is not just technological. It also means revisiting things that we had forgotten, but which were good. You sometimes have to experiment with junk food to realize that vegetables from Quebec are much better than those from elsewhere. We have good policies, resources, we are well organized. We are capable of being leaders and we already are. Corn is not the future.
And the future is…?
… Biodiversity, nature, ecology, it’s working with people, small farms, it’s about eating well, having beautiful products, it’s the land!
NOTE: The comments have been edited for brevity.
Nordic market gardening – Discover the winter culture of vegetables
Jean-Martin Fortier and Catherine Sylvestre
Cardinal editions
248 pages