STEPHEN RICCIO
QUYON July 29, 2020
With the help of Canadian horses, old-fashioned gardening techniques and Pontiac soil, the fresh vegetables of Jardin de Fabie in Quyon are available for purchase.
The garden’s kiosk opened on July 17 and will be open for . . .
the remainder of the summer on Fridays from 3 to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The garden is tended to by Audrey Lapointe, a Quyon elementary school teacher, and it is situated within the property of Fabie Breeding, a Canadian horse breeding farm run by Michel Allen and Claude Blanchette.
Lapointe’s relationship with Fabie Breeding started in 2015, when she began working with Allen and the heritage horses by doing carriage tours around Gatineau.
Lapointe can recall when she first recognized the potential of the land and the beautiful horses.
“Michel had all the equipment for doing the garden with horses, all the old timers’ equipment,” Lapointe explained excitedly. “So I was like ‘Wow man we need to do something, this is so interesting and that’s heritage.’”
Lapointe asked Allen and Blanchette in 2016 if they would let her rent out a piece of land and their horses, so that she could take a whack at starting a garden. Both owners were fully on board.
“I thought it was great, we have land, we have good productive land and obviously breeding horses and raising horses and training horses takes a whole lot of time for me,” Allen said of his initial thought process.
“It’s very complimentary, I work her soil, we prepare the land with the horses so it’s definitely ecological,” he added.
The garden first opened for public sales in the summer of 2018, and since then it has just been Lapointe, the owners and their horses tending to the garden.
“I’m not doing everything with the horses but doing part of the work with the horses is really interesting because it’s part of the heritage that we’re keeping alive in a certain way,” Lapointe said. “Back in the day, [the horses] were doing everything. There was no tractors, so all the steps that you have to do to build a garden, the horses were doing it.”
The garden is set up into two separate sections: one where four horses assist in turning the land for crops and another where Lapointe works with the soil herself. This, she explained, is done to preserve the life in the soil.
A key pillar in the garden philosophy for gardener and owners alike is minimal land tillage. Their goal is also to maintain the heritage value of horses working in the field, hence why the garden is split into two.
Lapointe starts the vegetables in early March and gives them at least four months of love before selling them at the farm stand.
“We’re producing maybe 30, 40 different kinds of vegetables,” Lapointe said. “It’s mainly vegetables that we’re doing here, the classic summer vegetables but also the winter vegetables that you can keep for a longer time in the fall.”
Lapointe owns a small greenhouse where she can start everything early in the year, but she grows everything outside with environmental concerns in mind.
“Everything I can do to be not using plastic, I’m doing it, or to be not using gas, I’m doing it.”
Lapointe said that gardening has taught her a lot, and she hopes that one day, kids can have structured learning through gardening.
“Gardening teaches you that if you don’t do it, you’re just gonna ruin it. You’re not allowed to be lazy, you’re not allowed to just postpone it.”
The address for the garden is 3999 Hwy. 148 in Quyon.
