Your organic farm in the Eastern Townships
Thus ends our 2021 season :an apotheosis, according to Environment Canada and their forecast for sunny skies, albeit accompanied with a bit of a chill. I won’t complain, as the fields are soaked from weekend rains and we still have to harvest the contents of your last basket. Another summer growing seasonhas come and gone, true to form,i.e.…
Si fueris Romae, Romano vivito more –or more familiarly, ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do.’ The expression comes to mind as I observe my three sons readying themselves for the deer-hunting season. Preparations include the felling of a few cedars to build their caches, the installation of cameras to better appreciate the comings and…
Each year, as the days shorten and we move into October, I pick up my well-thumbed copy of Verlaine. I always flip to the same poem, a few stanzas thrown on a page, simply written but so evocatively capturing the essence of what we all feel as autumn begins. The poem is Chanson d’automne (Autumn Song), an ode…
Montreal’s public markets are lively these days. We should know, it’s where we spend our weekends. You can feel the end of the season is nigh and like any season end, it is characterized by a last minute frenzy, as some rush to fill up on paste tomatoes for their spaghetti sauce while others load up…
Following its August apex, the season continues to decelerate, trailing with it a number of pluses and a few minuses. On the plus side, who would have thought we’d see such clement weather given a Farmer’s Almanac average first frost date of September 18 in Quebec? We certainly won’t complain, nor will a number of vegetables in our…
You can look for them high and low, but you won’t find them anymore : our young farm employees have left in pursuit of more studious occupations. Colleges and universities beckon, and the call of the classroom has won out…you may still catch a glimpse of them from time to time at our market stands, but they…
They lie scattered between rural routes. One happens upon them between two cornfields, or at the edge of a village like Stanbridge East. Peaceful and seemingly forgotten, but open to the public nonetheless – unlike our more-than-centenary churches. One can stroll through them and witness local history through the headstones rendered almost illegible by the passing…
Everything seems shrouded in mystery at Arlington Gardens, these days. Claire has decided to try to nail down the construction date and the builder of our big red barn, where we’ve already begun to welcome visitors to our Hayloft Adventures rustic accommodations. All it took was a casual comment from a local architect (“…this barn…
On nage dans le mystère aux Jardins d’Arlington, ces jours-ci. Claire a décidé qu’il fallait élucider la date de construction et le bâtisseur de notre grande grange rouge, celle où dorment déjà les visiteurs de passage d’Aventure sur paille. Partie d’une bribe d’information soutirée à un architecte allumé : “… cette grange est bâtie selon la…
Down on the farm, we’re into the final stretch. Only three weeks left before we all go back to our winter habits, including our more frequent visits to our local grocer. The days are cool, the nights cooler — which augurs well for all those fall vegetables just waiting for a cold snap to lock…