Along with clement weather, early summer brings us lots of VEGETABLES. Here is why the ones we carry at the shop are so good.
Throughout the winter we are constantly asked about vegetables: why we don't have them, when we will have them, what we will have, etc. Part of what I love AND hate about Québec's climate is that we have NOTHING in the winter and EVERYTHING in the summer. The nothing of winter makes the everything of summer an almost religious experience.
Like everybody else, I shop at supermarché PA (and at Costco). There are things I need that can only be found at a supermarket, and honestly, you have to be very dedicated to subsist entirely on Boucherie Lawrence goods. But there are certain things we carry that are special. Ok, there a lot of things we carry that are special, but today I'll focus on summer vegetables.
For several years now we have carried vegetables from La Ferme Des Quatre Temps, a farm famous on the QC agricultural scene for developing and promoting regenerative farming practices, and inspiring a new generation of vegetable farmers. This relationship brings many new clients through our doors since we are one of few locations where Quatre Temps sells their produce, and the public’s obsession with their mesclun is REAL, comparable only with the fervour on the eve of the release of a new Harry Potter back in the day. Ferme La Rosace is a newer relationship; a small farm in the Montérégie region, its owners spent several years working at La Ferme Des Quatre Temps before embarking on their own project. We might have even have some cameos from Parcelles, a farm and restaurant in the Eastern Townships that focuses on delicious heritage breeds.
What makes all these farms special is their commitment to regenerative agriculture and bio-diveristy. I know, the terminology is overwhelming, so let's take a minute to clarify what I mean. Organic is a term we use to describe farms and produce that have been certified as such. To obtain this certification, farms have to prove that their produce is grown without synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers, and that it is GMO-free. It's a good starting point. But over the years organic certification has stretched to accommodate large-scale organic producers as well as the small local farms that originally inspired the movement. The results have been a dilution of the way the standards are interpreted and applied. Increased entry of large-scale farms into the organic sector has changed the way that organic philosophy is put into practice:
- Organic producers are now using materials that help control and promote crop growth, the way pesticides and fertilizers do, that are formally permitted by the organic certifiers, but that are not actually natural or soil-healthy; 25 synthetic active pest control products are allowed in organic crop production.
- There has been a return to the kind of mono-cropping we see in conventional agriculture.
- There are no regulations around increased carbon footprints through shipping and packaging, etc.
Regenerative agriculture takes the original intentions of organic practices and goes further. It takes as its central premise that soil health is linked to the total health of our food system, affecting everything from plant health to human wellbeing, but it also focuses on high standards for animal welfare and worker fairness. It is a holistic approach that takes into consideration the many elements that make agriculture's impact positive and REGENERATIVE, rather than degenerative, as mainstream agriculture has been.
So in this season of EVERYTHING I definitely suggest you avoid organic salad greens in giant plastic clamshell containers shipped from Earthbound Organic Farm in California. In fact I suggest you avoid those all year round. I love PA for many things but not for their year-round organic vegetables. Organic carrots from Mexico? Organic apples from the US? No thanks. Its hard to crunch all the data to know what is quantifiably better, but I personally choose local conventional produce over imported organic when I have to make the choice.
In the mean time, eat all the eggplants/ asparagus/ green beans/ red peppers/ cucumbers/ tomatoes you can this summer and accept that you will subsist on stored root vegetables and coleslaw this winter. We will be stocking the best we can find from our favourite farms until there is no more.
P.S. we're getting organic strawberries from Ferme La Cache Verte on Thursday, DO NOT buy Driscoll's for the love of god.
