Gardening
You may have seen it passing by, or perhaps you've been waiting for it for a few weeks now, as the generous maples gave out their last precious sap and spring took hold! Along with the buds breaking and coltsfoot showing the tip of its flower, the announcement of the fruit and vegetable baskets - not organic, but almost - from Le Jardin du Goulu is out!
The Jardin du Goulu at 1320 rang des Venne, in Saint-Côme, Lanaudière, is once again offering colorful, versatile baskets of fresh fruit and vegetables! From June to October, enjoy produce from the Gollé Goulu orchard and garden with a prepaid subscription. This subscription, of any value (see suggested prices below), guarantees you fresh, local produce grown in an eco-responsible way, in an orchard-garden inspired by the nurturing forest.
The heritage barn at 1320 rang des Venne. Le Gollé Goulu has been a member of Union paysanne since 2014.
You choose what you want when you visit the farm (Thursday PM or Friday AM at the gardener's pavilion). If you're unavailable or away on vacation, you can skip a week (or more!), take advantage of the fridge at Le Gollé reception (1300 rang des Venne) where surplus produce will be deposited for picking, or make an appointment with our market gardeners. You can also share the experience with family and friends.
Vegetables and greens (lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, peppers, broccolini, Swiss chard, eggplant, squash, pumpkin...), fruits (apples, sea buckthorn berries, cherries, aronia berries, plums, ground cherries...), herbs (basil, parsley, mint...), mushrooms, and a few perennials. ), mushrooms and a few edible perennials will be on show... as well as a few products processed from our fruits and vegetables, such as Marie and Louis' cheekbone jelly, Sophie's pickled cucumbers and Claudia's honey from pampered bees! And let's not forget the garlic and herbal teas that ensure a healthy winter and keep well beyond the winter.
Garlic flowers, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, oyster mushrooms, fennel, beet, eggplants: take your pick!
Le Jardin du Goulu is the peasant and gourmet dimension of Gollé Goulu, which offers ecological and unusual ready-to-camp accommodations (yurts, tepees, cabins on stilts...). Located on former farmland on the rang des Venne, since 2017 Gollé Goulu has planted a vast orchard and vegetable garden to create a veritable food forest, based on the principles of permaculture, where trees, shrubs and perennials grow side by side in various strata. Alongside a large greenhouse, on a surface area of one and a half acres, fruit trees and edible perennials rub shoulders with medicinal plants and vegetables... and bear fruit! Gollé campers can buy fruit from the reception fridge for a few coins, and for the past two years, local residents have been able to take out a subscription to ensure they eat local, healthy food in summer, autumn... and even a little in winter!
A member of Union paysanne since 2014 and Tourisme durable since 2021, Le Gollé Goulu farm campground has made it its mission to turn the acquired land into a veritable nursery of the living, where biodiversity and sustainable, environmentally-friendly practices take pride of place. Since 2019, the Jardin du Goulu's fine harvests have included Music variety garlic, truly bewitching squash and pumpkins, including the Algonquian pumpkin squash perfect for growing the three sisters, tomatoes of all kinds, sea buckthorn berries with a thousand virtues, oyster mushrooms camouflaged between cabbages and peppers, and what can we say about aronia, a small fruit that never ceases to amaze us for its nutritional values and versatility in the kitchen! Beyond food self-sufficiency, the Jardin du Goulu also aims to offer the local community a local, ecological and quality food supply... not organic, but almost!
Apple trees in blossom, camerisiers and garlic stand side by side in the orchard-vegetable garden, behind which looms the gollé.
Hardy or indigenous cultivars, ancestral, heritage, organic and untreated seeds: since the very beginning, Jardin du Goulu has worked with a concern for transmission and conservation. Preserving ancient knowledge and know-how to pass on to future generations. Preserving the seeds of yesteryear so that we can pass them on to those who come after us, to ensure a diverse, healthy and colorful future. Keeping the earth alive and resilient, to pass it on full of life and diversity. Preserving and passing on also means not losing sight of the fact that we belong to a winter "country" where the know-how of those who came before us helped us get through those winters! And buying local and eco-friendly also means making a commitment to slowing climate change, which threatens our seasons and everything that gives the country its maple and partridge identity, to paraphrase Élisabeth Cardin and Michel Lambert, who co-wrote Histoire culinaire du Québec à travers ses aliments, inviting us to "develop a cuisine that is identity-based, seasonal, rich and healing [1]"... Preserving and passing on means relearning seasonality, which anchors our way of living in the region in a lasting way. It's about putting meaning on our plates, while at the same time offering our senses the chance to be titillated by what really tastes good... as the children of our market gardeners can attest: once you've bitten into a carrot from Le Goulu, you can't go back and eat a carrot that grows in the grocery store... no, it's true, carrots don't grow in grocery stores... but Goulu carrots do grow a stone's throw from your home!
Preserving and handing down a peasant-farming perspective also means supporting the local economy and giving back to the villages the vigor and dynamism that a true community ensures, while preserving their identity, far from the smart centers of this world, far from the uniformity and meaningless experience that these places offer. Preserving and passing on also means learning from others, from those who come to visit or volunteer... Because the Jardin du Goulu is a living nursery in the sense that it's also a place where every Wednesday residents from the village and surrounding area come to lend a hand and their time in exchange for produce from the land...
And what else is passed on at the Jardin du Goulu or next door at the Pavillon de la Jardinière, apart from fruit, vegetables and a helping hand? Stories, smiles, little tricks and pots, recipes, passions, human bonding and meaning, for all generations!
Our delicious cheekbones for an equally delicious cheekbone jelly!
Subscribe now to receive your basket of fruits and vegetables from the garden from the end of June to the end of September. By subscribing, you're helping us plan our season and ensuring access to quality produce, full of taste and vitamins, without contaminants. Depending on your needs and budget, you choose the amount of your subscription, and get, in addition to fresh, ecological and local produce, an extra 10% on the value of your basket*.
Between the end of June and the end of September, every Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, Jardin du Goulu will welcome you to the farm at 1320 Rang des Venne in Saint-Côme, in the jardinière pavilion, to choose your vegetables and fruit according to your tastes and needs! Over the summer, the list of available products will be updated, and the more the season progresses, the more diversified the choice will be. If you still have credits beyond September, the Jardin du Goulu will welcome you in October to stock up on winter vegetables that last until spring and a little beyond (squash, garlic, root vegetables), because ecology also means stocking up and eating with the seasons!
Eating Saint-Côme fruit in Saint-Côme: an "eco-logical" choice!
*Suggestion: between $50 and $300, with the possibility of renewing your subscription during the season. When you subscribe, we give you an extra 10% on the value of your basket (for example, your $200 subscription entitles you to $220 worth of products, which you can distribute as you wish from June to October).
Interested in helping out the garden by becoming a volunteer member in exchange for farm produce?
Click on the following link: https://rb.gy/g2l8.
Interested in picking your own berries? Follow us on our social networks or check out our website for updates.
Article written by Marie-Soleil Roy
photo credits: Louis-Alexandre Saumur and Marie-Soleil Roy, co-owners of Gollé Goulu
[1] "S'unir au battement des saisons" in Élisabeth Cardin and Michel Lambert, L'Érable et la perdrix. L'histoire culinaire du Québec à travers ses aliments, Québec, Cardinal, 2021, p. 28.
1300-1320, rang des Venne
Saint-Côme, QC J0K 2B0
# établissement: 627579
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514 972-2341