Our Farm

Ferme Germain Desmarais is a family business founded 60 years ago that specializes in the cultivation of fruits, vegetables and garden plants. We are located in Pierreville, on the Rang du Chenal Tardif. Our farm covers 55 hectares (136 acres) and includes many fields (blueberry, strawberry, tomatoes, potatoes, ect), greenhouses, woods and several lakes.

We begin the season in May with plants for the garden, and end in October with winter vegetables. Each year we employ local labourers to help us during harvest time. We strive to continually provide our customers with local products of the highest quality possible. Our crops are always available directly at the farm (please, contact us to make an order before coming to the farm) and we travel to Drummondville's public market 3 times a week.

Our History

Sarto Desmarais was the first to settle on the farm. He came from Saint-François-du-Lac and moved to Pierreville in 1960. He raised dairy cows and did much fresh market crops such as strawberries, beans, carrots and potatoes. Sarto loved going from door to door talking to people and providing them with fresh strawberries. He did this for nearly twenty years, travelling from one house to another on a small carriage pulled by his horse. Around 1970, he began to go to Drummondville's public market.

In 1975, his son, Germain Desmarais, took over. In the early years, Germain did much trade with the Asbestos's grocery stores. Afterwards, he shifted to supplying many fruit and vegetable kiosks. In 1987, he began the plantation of a blueberry field, making him one of the pioneers in the local cultivation of highbush blueberries, a little fruit now very typical of Quebec production. To this day, we continue to harvest blueberries from these same shrubs which were planted almost 25 years ago. Some are now more than 2.5 meters high.

By 1991, Germain converted part of the farm to potato production. These are harvested and sold in bulk for the production of potato chips. If you come to the farm towards the end of July, you may see some of the harvesting steps. For several years, his children have become very involved in the family farm and he has started working in collaboration with his sister, Nicole Lafond, from the farm Le Jardin de Pierrot.

Our Mission

Our aim is to provide our customers with fruits and vegetables of superior quality, while cultivating our land responsibly. We choose to give priority to cultivars whose fruits have excellent flavour even though sometimes their visual appearance may not be perfect. We believe it is more important for our products to taste good rather than only to look good.

We have as a principle to use the least possible pesticides in our fields. We frequently inspect our crops to evaluate the presence of insects and weeds. It is then possible to determine whether intervention is necessary or if the level of pests is acceptable. We mainly use manual or mechanical weeding to control weeds.