EMILY HSUEH
FORT COULONGE May 12, 2021
A cheesy new business is being planned to open up in Fort Coulonge later this year.
Maryse Vallières-Murray is the brains behind Fromagerie La Drave, a small business project she has been working on with a friend since October 2020. Ultimately, they hope to open a shop where they will make and sell their own . . .
cheese, soft serve ice cream and other dairy products.
They are putting a focus on using local ingredients, and are aiming to make it a space where customers can come in and see exactly how their food is being processed.
“We really hope to be able to open next fall,” Vallières-Murray said. “Our wish is to be open in September 2021, but with COVID and all that it might be a bit later, maybe December. That’s for the cheese part; I think for the ice cream we want to wait for the summertime so that will be for summer 2022.”
Vallières-Murray explained that while she was in university, she and her friends would make cheese for fun. From there stemmed the idea to take it one step further.
“I was with one of my friends in Quebec City — I did my studies there but I am from Coulonge. We were talking about buying [cheese-making kits] you can make in your kitchen,” she said. “After that, we decided to discuss and we both liked cheese and we wanted to come back to the area and do a project of some kind. Finally we came up with the idea of the cheese factory.”
For the last half year they have been working on making their dream into a reality. That included entering the 23rd edition of the OSEntreprendre Challenge, a competition held by OSEntreprendre, an organization that supports up-and-coming entrepreneurs.
Vallières-Murray had to prepare and present a five-minute pitch to a panel of judges, followed by 15 minutes of questions. Her hard work paid off when Fromagerie La Drave was awarded the top prizes in the food and agriculture business, young entrepreneur and student entrepreneur categories.
They walked away with about $7,000 in prizes, including a year of mentorship from an experienced entrepreneur from the Outaouais, though they have yet to meet them. Next, they will be taking their project to the province-wide competition, representing the Outaouais region in the food and agriculture category.
Vallières-Murray and her team are very grateful not only for the prizes they won that will help them start their business, but also the support they’ve gotten from the community.
“I’d like to say I’m really glad, especially since we won those prizes, they’ve been a really big cheer up from the community. Like they saw the project and we really received so many messages and people just want to see the project [succeed]. It was really just amazing to see that happening and I’m so glad we can do this in our community. I’m from the Pontiac and I’ve always wanted to go back. To see the [support] for the project we’re trying to build, it’s just so motivating.
