Miller at arm’s length

Jean-Guy Tremblay was born and raised in the Éboulements mill, where his family settled in 1948. He has fond memories of it. “It was our playground. But in the evening, we had to grind bags of grain for the farmers.” At the time, the mill was used to produce feed for livestock. It has since resumed its original functions and grinds wheat and buckwheat flour for tourists, local residents and local businesses.

“Our friends would come and play hide and seek. There was a dart board there, and next to it, we had a ping-pong table,” the old miller points out. Between the two, a huge wheel driven by the movement of a river, moving underneath, activated large stone millstones between which the grain was crushed.

“This was our home! Our parents weren’t afraid for our safety, no,” remembers Mr. Tremblay. “We learned to operate the mill at age 9, then at 12, we stood up to stop the tractors!”

The seigneurial mill of Les Éboulements is still his “home” and the only one in the province still inhabited. In the narrow domestic part, the television sits next to the white walls covered in lime. On the upper floor, there are five bedrooms that once housed his parents and their eight children. The millers gradually preferred dwellings outside the premises because of the noise, dust and machinery. Not Jean-Guy, who now lives there alone and proudly emphasizes the immutability of things: “Nothing has changed here since 1792!”

Maintaining heritage

Jean-François Tremblay built this flour mill in 1792. Don’t look for a family connection with Jean-Guy, because he himself doesn’t know: “There’s nothing but Tremblays here!” Passed down from generation to generation and by marriage, this heritage piece was taken over in 1962 by Héritage canadien du Québec, a non-profit, non-governmental organization that ensures the conservation of several ancestral buildings.

The territory of the seigneury was subdivided at the beginning of the 20th century.^e century. However, the Moulin site, opened to the public in 1993, still houses a chapel and a manor house which became a juniorate and then a holiday camp. Jean-Guy Tremblay was a first-hand witness to this evolution.

In 1985, after having gone to “roll the pitoune” in Sherbrooke, where he was also a welder, he was requisitioned to restore his old mill and he stayed there.

The miller knows every cog in his period machinery and every corner of his lordship: invaluable knowledge that rests essentially on his shoulders.

Miller of all trades

The flour is produced at the Moulin des Éboulements as in the past, using a stone mill. It is pulverized in the basement in different bins, depending on its fineness, to then be mixed by hand, respecting the dosages of each product.

Jean-Guy oversees all stages of production, with occasional help from a few employees.

At 72, the miller has a muscular, sun-beaten body. His strong frame still allows him to lift heavy loads, go up and down stairs, crouch to clean machinery, answer customers, make deliveries and maintain his building and the site all year round. The miller considers himself above all a jack of all trades.

Vacation? “Weekends,” he replies. “We can’t leave the place for three weeks. When it rains, the water level must always be controlled to avoid overflowing.” And so it will be as long as the past is kept intact.

Jean-Guy tirelessly keeps an eye on things, but for how long? Of course, he sometimes thinks about retiring, but he will have to postpone his project again. The most experienced miller in Quebec shakes hands with us, apologizing for having to interrupt the conversation. We’re waiting for him, he says as he mounts his motorcycle. Deliveries oblige!