Sunflower master apprentice: Nicolas, age 10

At the Gare de Labelle Saturday market, Nicolas sells strawberries and zucchini cake from the farm Les petits fruits de la Rouge, which offers a variety of vegetables and berries.

Nicolas is curious and, positioned in the stall beside mine, questions me about my products and prices. Some bartering follows: strawberries for saffron syrup. After some negotiations and sweetening the offer, I also receive a whole cake. His own initiative. You have to see him at work. He doesn’t wait for customers to come to him. With tact, tray in hand, he walks around, inviting people to taste.

He’s a real pro with an innate sense of business!

In summer, Nicolas takes part in various farm activities, including his own cultivation of sunflowers. Starting in the spring, he sows – in a greenhouse – seeds from his productive sunflowers, which he replants in a special section of the garden so he can care for them over the summer.

His pleasure comes from watching them grow, watering them, observing their transformation, harvesting the seeds and drying them so he can plant them by the thousands the following summer. Nicolas intends to produce sunflower oil.

Without losing the candour of boys his age, he knows how to work, and considers himself lucky. “At least I never get bored,” he says. He intends to become a grower, farmer and mechanic, and already has the ear to detect if machinery is working properly. The sun shines on Nicholas, as it does on his sunflowers.

Seven years ago his parents, Anne Muth and Erwan Merdy, both from France, whose paths crossed in Québec, took over the Nominingue raspberry farm, which had been abandoned.

“Les petits fruits de la Rouge” now specializes in personalized local baskets. A full, farm-fresh resupply of vegetables, berries and homemade products, complete with delivery. The customers discover new varieties and all share the recipes.

lespetitsfruitsdelarouge.ca

 

By the same author: The kingdom of fungi and lactofermentation (Click the image below)

 

Marie-Stéphane Asselin54 Posts

Marie-Stéphane s’est lancée dans l’aventure agricole en 2015, alors qu’elle décida de laisser libre cours à une étonnante intuition; celle de produire du safran. Cette nouvelle safranière, baptisée Safran des neiges, représente depuis lors une fabuleuse aventure pour cette jeune entrepreneure passionnée. Elle partage avec nous ses coups de cœur agricoles du terroir laurentien. / Marie- Stéphane launched herself into agriculture in 2015 when she decided to follow a surprising intuition: the production of saffron. The new saffron farm, named Safran des neiges (Saffron of the snows) has, since that time, been a fabulous adventure for the passionate young entrepreneur. She shares with us her agricultural favourites in the Laurentians terroir.

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