This text is part of the special book Plaisirs
Saffron and soon truffles are added to the St-Jean clan’s production of nuts.
Growing Nordic walnuts was to be the small father-son project of Guy and Guillaume St-Jean, who wanted to find a sustainable and lasting vocation for their family land of Saint-Pie. However, it quickly became a major adventure in which family and friends, “the clan”, all participate now.
Founded in 2016, Vergers Le Clan is a family business located in the heart of the Montérégie hills, on the South Shore, specializing in the production of Nordic walnuts, truffles and saffron. Their mission is noble: “we want to diversify the agri-food offer at local and national levels, in a sustainable and responsible way, by producing quality vegetable proteins while capturing CO2 for the generations that will follow us,” explains Maryse Bédard-Allaire, member of the company and spouse of Guillaume St-Jean. A year and a half ago, Maryse decided to quit her job to devote herself full-time to the orchards and invest herself fully in them. Previously, she worked as a project manager for non-profit organizations. This is why he was entrusted with the management of the family project.
Guy is responsible for most of the activities related to growing and maintaining the nut trees in the Saint-Pie orchard. Guillaume, for his part, who still works full-time in the advertising industry, sees to the development and deployment of the project and takes care of the activities related to the cultivation of the orchard of Saint-Basile-le-Grand, their second land. .
First, the hazelnuts
“Guy has planted trees all his life on his land in Saint-Pie,” says Maryse Bédard-Allaire about her father-in-law. Hence the idea of an agricultural project highlighting them. Since the company started six years ago, four planting phases have taken place. In the orchards, there are now black walnuts, heart walnuts, American hazelnuts and hybrid hazelnuts adapted to the Quebec climate, among other varieties. Other than the frosts, there are very few challenges to this emerging but growing crop in Quebec, which is going pretty well for them.
In 2022, in fact, their second year of hazelnut harvest was particularly good, and Mme Bédard-Allaire cannot praise the quality of their nuts enough: “Our hazelnuts have a fresh taste, without any bitterness. They are soft and crunchy to the bite. When toasted a little, they are fantastic! »
In the event that their hazel trees did not bear fruit as desired, the family had a plan B: truffles. Indeed, the fragrant mushroom has been added to the project with the aim that producers can “take advantage of the cultivable space and give a double vocation to the same tree”. So they planted hazelnut trees and oak trees inoculated with the Appalachian truffle and truffle borschii. You should know that a truffle lives in symbiosis with the host tree: the tree nourishes it, and it, in exchange, helps it to absorb nitrogen and phosphorus.
In 2020, the St-Jean clan bought a second piece of land, this time in Saint-Basile-le-Grand, on which there was a saffron plantation and… 500 truffled hazelnut trees! “It was a very nice coincidence! »
This is how the family, in addition to producing hazelnuts and truffles, added saffron to its offer, a highly fragrant spice that enhances both sweet and savory dishes.
Upcoming projects
If 2022 was marked by a superb harvest of walnuts and saffron as well as the construction of an agricultural building housing all the equipment necessary for sorting and cleaning the hazelnuts, 2023 promises to be just as busy.
“We will have to think about what we want to do with our products. At the moment, we sell raw hazelnuts and saffron in small format. But do we want to transform them? Do we want to make them available to restaurants? We have to decide that, ”says M.me Bedard-Allaire.
In addition, it is very likely that the family will be able to harvest their very first truffles since the truffled hazelnut trees of the second land were planted in 2014 and the truffle takes between 7 and 10 years before being ready for picking. The fungus grows underground, it will need help to dig the ground. A perfect mission for the family dog, “who is about to be trained to spot truffles”.
Because yes, at Vergers Le Clan, even pitou can contribute to the family business!
Hazelnuts and saffron are on sale on the Vergers Le Clan Facebook page as well as in Lufa baskets and Mathurin baskets.
This special content was produced by the Special Publications team of the To have to, pertaining to marketing. The drafting of To have to did not take part.