Director of Seeds of Carrying

Catherine Gagnon-Mackay opened Semences du Portage in 2015. For the past 10 years, she has been responsible for marketing the seeds produced by her team of seed growers. She is responsible for the urban garden center, the online catalog, the website, customer service management, and order fulfillment.

Catherine studied applied restaurant management at the ITHQ and life led her to take over seed marketing for Jardins du Grand-Portage in the summer of 2015, the family seed business of Yves Gagnon and Diane Mackay.

Horticulturist and Sales and Shipping Associate

After several years of working in the health sector, I decided that the plants that have always been very present in my life would become the source of my work. Meeting one of the last qualified herbalists in France, discovering the fragrance of the Damask rose in Morocco, several years spent surrounded by tropical flora, and this happy habit of wanting to visit every garden on my path have made me passionate. Without seeds, humans are nothing. The desire to safeguard the diversity and genetic quality of seeds brought me to the Semences du Portage team.

Horticulturist and Sales and Shipping Associate

After studying architectural technology and environmental design, Naomie finally found her happiness in horticulture. A passionate gardener since childhood thanks to her mother, she is particularly fond of medicinal and edible native plants and always carries an identification guide with her on her camping trips. She completed the double DEP in horticulture and landscaping in February 2024. Since then, she has worked for Jardins du Grand Portage and Semences du Portage where she learns new things every day, to her great delight!

Seed grower, herbalist and teacher

After earning a bachelor's degree in biological sciences from the Université de Montréal, Diane Mackay worked for three seasons on fruit and vegetable farms in British Columbia. In 1980, she and her partner, Yves Gagnon, settled on land in Saint-Didace, in eastern Lanaudière, where they started a family and created Les Jardins du Grand-Portage.
After several years of involvement in fruit and vegetable production, she specialized in traditional herbalism. She took a few courses with Marie Provost of La Clef des Champs and then enrolled in the professional training program at the École buissonnière of La Clef des Champs in the late 1990s. A member of the Herbalists' Guild since its founding, she received additional training at conferences and courses organized by the professional wing of the Herbalists' Guild.
Today, she cultivates nearly 100 medicinal species, some of which she processes into dried herbs, liquid extracts, oils, and ointments. Each year, she offers practical workshops on the cultivation, use, and processing of medicinal plants. She produces seeds of aromatic and medicinal plants and flowers.
Culture Nature since always.

Seed producer, author and speaker

Although he is primarily a gardener, Yves Gagnon shares his experience and passion for the plant world and ecology by writing several books on ecological gardening and cultivation, including Ecological Culture for Small and Large Areas, Ecological Culture of Vegetable Plants, The Ecological Garden, A Single Garden, and the children's book, A Garden with Aristott. In 2014, he published Autour de la terre with MultiMondes and then in 2016 Le festin quotidien, his book on food and cooking related to the garden.
Yves Gagnon is also recognized as a poet of the earth thanks to his collections Terre cuite (ambiances climatiques) and Écorchis. Yves Gagnon is known for his 10-year collaboration as a horticultural columnist on Radio-Canada's La Semaine Verte program. He regularly gives training courses in ecological gardening and gives lectures on related topics.
For over 40 years, he has passionately developed the Jardins du Grand-Portage in Saint-Didace, where he produces vegetable seeds. A pioneer in the field of constructive genetics, he has improved several heritage plant lines through meticulous and careful selection, including the Savignac tomato, the Oka muskmelon, the Tante Alice cucumber, and the Rouge de Maskinongé pepper.
Culture Nature since always.

Seed producer and market gardener

The proud owner of a farm at the top of the hill in Zamette, Martin Drouin has produced vegetable baskets for local residents. A part-time gardener at the Jardins du Grand-Portage, he now devotes himself to seed production. This year, he is producing seeds for about twenty cultivars, including Brandywine, Petit Moineau, Pruden's Purple, Pêche blanche, Mountain Princess, and Maria tomatoes, the soft Merveille-des-Quatre-Saisons lettuce, and Gold Rush, Green Masaï, and Royal Burgundy beans.
Culture Nature since always.

Seed company

Marie-Claude farms in Lemieux, in the Centre-du-Québec region. She produces certified organic seeds grown with the help of Queen, a Belgian mare. After 4 years of experience as a seed grower on a market garden, she decided to launch her own business, Ferme la Radicule. She produces seeds for our Delicata squash, Costata Romanesco zucchini, the magnificent Reine des Glaces lettuce, as well as German chamomile and cornflower cornflower.
La Radicule is certified organic by the Ecocert organization.

Seed producer

Always inspired by nature, Jean-David Lacasse became a market gardener after a career as an electrical engineer. Concerned by our ways of occupying the land and interacting with living things, he sees agriculture as a large open-air laboratory. After 10 years of producing organic vegetable baskets, he approaches seed growing as a precious opportunity to deepen his relationship with the plant kingdom. Le filon maraîcher is the name of his farm located in Saint-Gilles in Lotbinière: it has been certified organic since its very beginnings.

Seed company

Passionate about agriculture, Caroline worked on a market garden from the age of 10. She then had the
opportunity to work for a nursery specializing in apple tree grafting for 7 years. She is pursuing studies in agricultural business management. Project ideas are flying around her! Currently, she has been loaned 1.6 acres of agricultural land to make her gardens; for self-sufficiency and also for seed production. Her motto is that everything comes to us at the right time! She is proud to be in the process of acquiring 3.3 acres of agricultural land. Her Nursery will soon be born. This is what she has been striving for for 3 years! It just goes to show that you should not give up in life. Believe in your abilities and happy gardening!

Seed company

After working in market gardening and seed production, Hélène decided to launch her own venture into open-pollinated seed production. In Saint-Chrysostome, Montérégie, she grows a variety of certified organic vegetable and flower seeds. She produces seeds for the Mauritian mallow, nigella, Ping Tung Long eggplant, Orange marigold, Cinderella pumpkin, and Tiny Tim tomato, among others.

Seed producer, biologist and plant breeder

Passionate about history, evolution, and plant breeding, Gabriel Blanchet cultivates a small plot of land nestled in a clearing in the Sainte-Émélie-de-l'Énergie forest. There, he experiments with growing unusual plant species and cultivars, from which he produces seeds. This year, he produced the seeds of the Glacier tomato and the Italian Saucy Lady in Culture Nature.

Organic Seed Wholesaler

Here is Catherine with Tom Stearns at the Frelighsburg Seed Festival in spring 2017.
Tom Stearns is the founder of High Mowing Organic Seeds, an organic seed wholesaler based in northern Vermont where we source certain cultivars.