Marcel Émond and Cécile St-Pierre of Chasm Culture offer to visitors to pick-your-own small fruit organic, Cap-Chat, in Gaspésie.
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July 5, 2020 16h46
Updated at 17h26
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Visit the Gaspésie to the rhythm of the bio
Simon Carmichael
Initiative of journalism-local – The Sun
While many Quebecers are taking Route 132 to Gaspe for their holidays this summer, the organization QuébecBio offers a whole other way to discover this region that the tourist route for the usual : an organic farm at a time.
The guide presents 25 destinations biological women to visit la Haute-Gaspésie to Baie des Chaleurs, as well as the different identifications present in the peninsula, including the network Gaspésie Gourmande. “The land women are prone to the development of the organic”, a note in the guide the agronomist to the Fédération UPA Gaspésie/Îles, Germain Babin.
This is the case of Chasm, Culture, Cap-Chat, the retirement project of Marcel Émond and Cécile St-Pierre. “Let’s say that ultimately, it is not so restful as that, the” retirement”, enjoying Mr. Émond. The lands, which belong to the family of Ms. St-Pierre for generations, are now dedicated to the production and pick-your-own small fruit less common, as the amélanche, the camerise, the cassis and the pimbina. For the couple, ensuring that their production is biological has never been a question. “By launching this project, we wanted to ensure that it complies with our values of eating well and respect the environment,” says Mr. Emond.
Same thing for the owner of Bioculture Lepage, Élise Lepage. Established in 1983 by the father of this latter at Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, the family farm has always been organic, according to that which has been raised on these lands along the river. The soil of this former pig farm, fertilized by years of manure, has never had need of chemical fertilizers. “I’ve never known chemicals in my life,” she says. My parents have always been a little granos, even when it was not fashionable. It was avant-garde!” launches Ms. Lepage
A season record?
The course of 25 producers and distributors of biological proposed by QuébecBio is not limited to a single type of culture. There is everything, from pick-your-own small fruit up to the culture of algae, by way of the apiculture products as organic. “It will allow interested visitors to make a circuit alternative to discover the Gaspé peninsula. It is beautiful, the edge of the water, but there is so much more to see if we go on adventure!” lance Marcel Émond, income in the Gaspé peninsula after years in Lévis.
According to him, the road to organic presented by the organization will bring to the customer. But above all the customer is interested by the universe of the organic culture, ” says Élise Lepage. “It will allow us to more focus our efforts on people who understand and who are aware of our way of doing things. The people that are going to come with this journey-there, they will understand that if I leave the “bad” grass in the field, it is because they have a purpose, even if it is not necessarily aesthetic”, she says.
While tourists are beginning to flock to the Gaspé region, the organic growers of the peninsula are optimistic for the coming season. “I think we’re going to have a season record, as much for production as for the visits!” says Mr. Emond.
