Posted at 11:00 a.m.
(Stanbridge-East) It was in Stanbridge-East that the instigator of many returns to the land in Quebec and elsewhere decided to put down roots and finally reap what he had sown. It is less than a 10-minute drive from La Grelinette, a farm he founded in 2004, in Saint-Armand, with his wife Maude-Hélène Desroches. It feels good to “go home”.
It must be said that he gave workshops, training and conferences, the gardener without borders. The “world tour” that began ten years ago, after the publication of his first book and then the creation, in 2016, of the Ferme des Quatre-Temps, was interrupted by COVID-19. Since then, Jean-Martin Fortier has wanted to stay in his beautiful region, the Eastern Townships, where lots of exciting things are happening these days and where the feeling of community is growing stronger.
His new laboratory is located in a historic building dating from 1849, the Old Mill, which houses a restaurant, the offices of the Market Gardener’s Institute, an inn, a shop as well as summer gardens, cold tunnels and a carbon neutral greenhouse heated by water and electricity.
Jean-Martin Fortier is very eager to receive.
The Ferme des Quatre-Temps is not open to the public. Neither did La Grelinette. But that never stopped people from stopping in front of our house and trying to visit. Here, it will be done for that.
Jean Martin Fortier
Access is indeed easy, since the farm is adjacent to an inviting public lot, along the Rivière aux Brochets, with a view of the Missisquoi County Museum and its spinning wheel. “I really like this image. I want to bring grist to the mill,” says Jean-Martin, while we contemplate the landscape.
Old Mill space
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The old mill, now a museum, which can be seen from the land.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The Espace Old Mill site, adjacent to public land and bordering the Brochets River, is exceptional.
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PHOTO PROVIDED BY ESPACE OLD MILL
In recent years, before it was taken over by Jean-Martin Fortier’s team, the Old Mill 1849 building was a bar and then a restaurant.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
It’s the end of the season in the garden that Jean-Martin Fortier cultivated all summer and which will be used to prepare the first meals and canned goods for Espace Old Mill.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
We bet there will be cabbage on the menu!
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The large greenhouse, here under construction, will be heated with water and electricity.
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The interest of Espace Old Mill goes beyond gardening. It is a practical and gourmet application of the concept of market gardening all year round, local and seasonal consumption. There will be country meals with extra soul a few evenings a week and perhaps more informal “refreshment” moments. The restaurant will reserve a good part of the farm’s production and will supplement with local farms for meat and other animal products.
The lucky winner to showcase these exceptional foodstuffs is Éric Gendron. Recently settled in the region, the young chef quickly forged ties with the surrounding artisan farmers by preparing intimate outdoor meals, whether in the context of his Le Coin Meigs project or during private events. Having tasted his cuisine during a dinner at the Sœurs Racines vineyard and B&B in Saint-Ignace-de-Stanbridge, we can confirm that it is a very good choice. Éric is supported by a young woman with impressive versatility, Jeanne Santoire-Joset, a lover of market gardening, caning and culinary history.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Espace Old Mill’s core team is made up of Jeanne Santoire-Joset (kitchen, market gardening, shop), Caroline Longpré (butler), Phillipe Tapp (general manager), Jean-Martin Fortier, Suleyka Montpetit (co-founder and CEO of Le Jardinier-maraîcher) and Éric Gendron (chef).
Without being 100% heritage, the cuisine of the Old Mill will certainly nod to the past. “Because we are in an emblematic place, one of the last loyalist strongholds, we want to make the link with the history of the village, explains Éric. We are going to meet an archivist from the museum to study old recipes that were made here. The chef mentions, for example, the green manure salad (grasses, crucifers, legumes) of the Quakers.
It is not by growing strawberries in winter in hyper-technological greenhouses that we will ensure true food sovereignty. It is by returning to what the ancients did well and by multiplying small farms.
Jean-Martin Fortier, market gardener
That said, the one who continues to teach, act as a mentor and adviser to the two Quatre-Temps farms (now run daily by Catherine Sylvestre) and to be at the head of the Growers & Co, among others, claims that it has finished carrying cases on its shoulders. His young collaborator Jeanne is quick to point out that the mere existence of Espace Old Mill is in itself a political and social gesture, a form of decentralization of human activity.
A concrete example ? Eventually provide work for graduates of the Brome-Missisquoi hotel school in Cowansville. “They are not proud of their region because they are all told to go and work in Montreal,” laments Éric Gendron. We need to give them more places outside the major centers to earn a living. »
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
We didn’t want to create a designer and modern dining room at the Old Mill. The space will remain warm.
And reinvent the farm table, then? “Actually, I would rephrase that. I would rather say that I can’t wait until we no longer have to use the expression “table fermière”, because it has simply become the norm and there are good restaurants everywhere in the countryside of Quebec. . »