History and mission

Seeds of Carrying

A family business!

From mother and father to daughter

My parents , Yves Gagnon and Diane Mackay, bought their land in Saint-Didace in April 1979. During the summer of 1980, they planted their very first garden and began transforming an old abandoned stable on a two-acre plateau on the Grand-Portage range into a house.

The results obtained with their first vegetable garden allowed them to become aware of the fertility of their land .

But how did two young people in their mid-twenties manage to live without running water, without electricity and without a budget?

The construction of a dry toilet, the organization of a summer kitchen in the barn, the development of a convivial fire pit for preparing meals, the installation of a hand pump on the shallow well of the neighbor across the street, the preparation of the soil with the help of another neighbor who is a milk producer, a brand new Troy-Bilt tiller, a lot of determination and the energy of passionate and irrepressible young adults , these are the ingredients that allowed my parents to realize their dream , that is to say, to develop a lifestyle based essentially on self-sufficiency, minimalist consumption and a fusion with the earth, plants and wild nature.

In 1981, thanks to the work that made the old stable, built from logs, watertight, the insulation of the walls, the installation of a wood stove, the digging of a shallow well and the connection to Hydro-Québec, they were able to spend their first winter in the warmth of this new, somewhat rustic, but all in all quite comfortable cottage.

Learning by growing

A 1.5-acre area was cleared using green manure , allowing them to commercially produce storage vegetables —any vegetables that can be stored in a cold room or cupboard during the winter. Their loyal customers provided them with sufficient income to continue their production and the development of their Jardins du Grand-Portage.

It was during these early years that my father was able to experiment with and understand the basics of composting, crop rotation , intercropping, ecological pest and disease control , and the basics of harvesting and preservation.

Organic farming, a natural choice

Having worked for several seasons on conventional market garden farms in British Columbia, there was no question of using synthetic products to fertilize their crops or protect them from pests and diseases. So, quite naturally, they opted for organic farming and were part of the first cohort of farms certified organic in Quebec by the organization Québec-Vrai.

The first literary work

Since 1984, My father began to give training in Joliette in ecological gardening , which provided him with the material necessary for writing a first work entitled Introduction to ecological gardening which was highly appreciated and remains a reference in the field. I have seen many readers bring it to Seed Festivals for a dedication. Unfortunately, it is no longer available in bookstores but can be borrowed from several libraries.

But how did seed production become their main activity?

A member of the Organic Agriculture Movement (MAB) since their arrival in Saint-Didace , my father was elected representative of the Lanaudière region, which earned him a seat on the organization's Board of Directors. This community involvement led him to meet Brother Armand Savignac , a Saint-Viateur cleric with a passion for vines, fruits and vegetables, and also keen on organic farming. who introduced him to seed harvesting.

In 1985, my father, Yves Gagnon, met Brother Armand Savignac, a Saint-Viateur cleric residing at the Christian Reflection Center in Joliette. Sentenced at the age of 42 by official medicine because of digestive problems, he left teaching to devote himself full-time gardening with the aim of better feeding themselves and their community. Following advice from naturopaths, he adopted a mainly fruit-based diet which allowed him to live to the age of 95.

The Dufresne

While in 1948 , he learned the Indore composting method with Alphonse Dufresne from Saint-Félix-de-Valois, he met Raymond, Alphonse's brother, who gave him seeds
of a pink tomato that Brother Armand will grow the following year. He is so impressed by the vigor of the plants as well as by the succulence of the fruits harvested that he abandons all cultivars that he had experienced until then to devote himself exclusively to the cultivation of this tomato which he named Dufresne in honor of the one who had given him the seeds.

The first tests

When my father met Brother Savignac in his garden in 1985 when he was almost 86 years old, he was dazzled by the quality of his 200 tomato plants which reached almost 3 meters high just like by the exceptional flavor of the many fruits they bore. He reported seeds offered to him in the goal to explore the cultivar in colder areas than the microclimate from which the brother benefited, because he was established in the plain at Joliette on the banks of the L'Assomption River and protected by the stone building where the community of Saint-Viateur clerics resided. Saint-Didace, located to the northeast of Lanaudière, did not benefit from such a climate: a much shorter season, either 80 days without frost, comparatively every 120 days which Brother Armand benefited from.

From Dufresne to Savignac

The first year, my father only harvested a few ripe tomatoes, from which he still took the seeds. Then, thanks to a meticulous selection work , he succeeded after a few years in obtaining 3 bunches of ripe fruit, Also tasty than those produced by Brother Savignac. Encouraged by the results achieved through a selection oriented towards precocity and hardiness, he decided upon Armand's death in 1994 at the age of 95 to name the Nordic line of Dufresne, Savignac, in honor of the brother who saved it from extinction.

Since then, my father has continued to improve the cultivar, which has made the Savignac tomato a very tomato tasty developing on a plant adapted to cold, disease resistant and very productive. What's more?

My father , who was the first Quebec producer of artisanal seeds , continued with passion his work as a seed grower since this decisive meeting which was going to change his life and the course of my life! He subsequently developed the Red onion of Saint-Didace , the Black Portage tomato , the red pepper of Maskinongé and to a lesser extent Côte de Beaune lettuce .