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The growing season in Québec is short. Winter can last well into May, and by the end of September, the frost is back. As a result, anticipation for spring and summer is fervent, and the desire to spend time puttering in the garden, paddling around lakes, pitching tents in the woods, and enjoying the outdoors is a major pursuit.
That’s where tables champêtres, literally ‘rural tables’ where diners can enjoy a special summer meal, come in. Terroirs et Saveurs, the Québec government’s agro-tourism agency, understands the love of outdoor dining and has made a registered trademark of the term tables champêtres for their own organisation. (They’ve also designed gourmand routes by car and bike for exploring the farms and fields of local growers, cheesemakers, wineries, breweries, and you-pick orchards and fields for everything from apples to haskap berries.)
Bika Farm. Credit: Jeff Frenette Photography
This year, Terroirs et Saveurs has designated 16 on-farm dining experiences – a 33% increase since last year – throughout the province as part of their mandate.
“Bika Farm is about being an example,” chef Fisun Ercan says. “We want to give people an experience through eating when they’re coming here, eating local vegetables and proteins produced in an eco-responsible way.”
A dish at Bika Farm: Credit: Jeff Frenette Photography
Award-winning Bika, an easy drive from Montreal, is but one example of this type of on-farm dining. Turkish-born Ercan had longed to establish a farm for years; after running successful restaurants in Montreal, she missed the way her life had revolved around seasonality and sought to replicate that in rural Québec. Ercan’s guests are seated at comfortable tables in a spacious greenhouse-inspired structure set back from her large garden, with a view of the gentle bustle of the kitchen. Her menu proudly declares each variety of vegetable and herb she’s growing (barbarella, Turkish and Orient Express eggplants this year, for example), with each course described in detail: a lacto-fermented green tomato juice kicked off a recent meal. Diners bring their own wine to Bika, bringing the DIY spirit to each table.
To qualify as a Terroir et Saveurs table, the farm must meet certain standards, says Caroline Delorme, the organisation’s marketing director. “The farm must produce on their own land, there must be a menu, and the menu must include at least 50% of products from their own farm, or local products.”
Chef Fisun Ercan. Credit: Jeff Frenette Photography
Dominic Labelle’s farm Parcelles, also in the Estrie region close to the US border, meets those criteria – and then some, with all the vegetables on his menu grown on his farm. Labelle started off working in some of Montreal’s best restaurants and butcher shops, was inspired to obtain a Bachelor of Agriculture, and started farming a parcel of land on the shores of idyllic Lake Memphremagog. His farm now supplies vegetables to some of the same places he worked at, but it’s his weekend table champêtre that has won accolades. Parcelles brings diners from around the country to his picnic tables perched on a hill with a view of his fields, his chickens and the lake. Guests order at the outdoor kitchen counter with a view, ferrying vintage dishes and cutlery to the table of their choice – or to the sprawling lawn (bring your own blanket).
Parcelle’s offerings are centred around Labelle’s wood-fired oven, featuring thick flatbread and thin pizzas at the heart of an entirely local menu which includes regional wine, beer and cider. A hummus-inspired dip fashioned from lentils grown nearby usually starts things off, using sunflower butter and virgin sunflower oil alongside slightly salted crudités and thick homemade pita. Pizzas – always a white and a red – change weekly, showcasing everything from Labelle’s sungold tomatoes or broccoli topped with renowned cheeses from nearby cheesemaker La Station de Compton. And the vegetable plates, always cooked in his outdoor oven, highlight the celtuce, cabbage, spinach and other greens growing just metres away.
Parcelles. Credit: Parcelles/Daniel Neuhaus
Les Cocagnes, minutes from the Vermont border, offers yet another table champêtre dining experience, this time at long shared tables. An agro-ecological collective farm (think co-working space, but for farmers), Les Cocagnes specialises in weekend dinners including local wine pairings presided over by guest chefs from the neighbouring communities and further afield. The range of chefs means menus that might feature Indian, Chinese, continental or Québecois specialities.
“The Pays de Cocagne is a mythical land of abundance,” says founder Stephanie Hinton. “We liked the idea of being associated with the concept of abundance, while still feeling rooted in reality.”
A dish at Les Cocagnes. Credit: Olivier Bourget
Les Cocagnes also offers an apéro-champêtre on Tuesday nights throughout the summer for family and friends, taking full advantage of their pergola next to the pond for more informal enjoyment of late sunsets and walks around the farm.
“What sets us apart is our participatory financing method – we used community bonds to acquire the land,” Hinton explains. “To avoid dependence on recurrent funding in the form of subsidies, we’re looking to develop a viable business model through agro-tourism activities.”
Whether it’s a homespun picnic or a meal in a more formal, restaurant-ish setting, or an informal happening gourmand, from the first radishes to the sad moment when the last ear of corn has been plucked and devoured, the rolling hills and green spaces of the province are filled with diners making the most of this brief moment of bounty.
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