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130 YEARS OF TRADITION KEEPS ST-ALBERT CHEESE ON TOP ANDREW COPPOLINO andrewcoppolino@gmail.com
Fromagerie coopérative St-Albert ships cheese curds as far away as Japan, Barbados and Abu Dhabi. It’s a small village business preparing an iconic eastern Ontario – and Canadian – foods- tuff that feeds Canadians in diverse food cultures thousands of kilometres around the world. “To make poutine for Canada Day, embas- sies reach out to us each year and there might be a dozen or so places we ship to. They pay for it, we bring it to the airport, and then they fly it in,” says St-Albert business development director Éric Léveillé. That curdled milk is a craving for Cana- dians in foreign lands is somehow fitting – and that it is inspired by a humble cheese curd from a 130-year-old dairy in a 150-year- old eastern Ontario village is, well, inspiring in itself. Celebrating more than a century in business this year, the Fromagerie, owned by about 35 member farms (and roughly 80 individuals), is a prime contender for the oldest French-language cooperative in Canada. Dairy operations began in 1894 when Louis Génier and nine partners each ponied up a $12 membership buy-in and founded the St-Albert Cheese Cooperative. The Co- op’s Cheddar, when first made in the late 1800s, was called simply “St-Albert.” It's a solid part of Canadian diary history, a multibillion-dollar industry that began in the time of Champlain when French sett- lers brought their cattle here with them and continued for nearly 250 years, until the mid-1800s when dairy thrived as a cottage industry with hundreds of small processors in villages and hamlets across the country. Even by the early-1900s, long before there were refrigerators in homes, there was a multitude of creameries and cheese facto- ries in towns across Ontario and Quebec. Compared to impersonal multi-national mega-corporations like Saputo, St-Albert has retained its quaint and home-based orientation, the town’s primary employer adamantly refusing to let a major fire in 2013 deter them and remaining undaunted in the face of Big Cheese’s dominance in
Depuis 130 ans, la tradition et la fierté font que le fromage St-Albert est au sommet de la hiérarchie des fromages. (Photo d’archives)
the market. The fact remains that St-Albert is likely the largest independent cheese curd-manufac- turer in the country after Saputo, according to Léveillé. The ratios are startling: from a small farm WJMMBHFJO5IF/BUJPO BQPQVMBUJPOPGKVTU 13,000) situated 50 kilometres southeast of Ottawa and 15 minutes from Casselman and Embrun, the St-Albert factory employs about 220 people and makes cheese seven days a week, anywhere from eight to 12 tons of cheese curds every single day. That’s a lot of poutine, the iconic Cana- dian dish that requires the squeaky-chewing curds to set it off fully. St-Albert’s cheesemaking awards testify to quality, including grand champion at the 2013 British Empire Cheese Show, the year a perhaps symbolic coincidence with the fire. The rebuild from the ashes a decade ago meant much bigger and more modern cheese production with an observation deck, restaurant and retail space that essentially doubles the company’s space. Their cheese curds head to all ten Cana- dian provinces and three territories. i8FTIJQUP/VOBWVUFWFSZXFFL5IBU wouldn’t have been the case 10 years ago,” Léveillé says, adding that a deal with Costco has helped their growth and helped maintain staffing levels. At a chain grocer that I frequent here in Rockland, there is a high-visibility display stocked with two items only: St-Albert Ched- dar and cheese curds right at the front of the check-out aisles.
“Rockland is actually a very high-level region for us for selling cheese curds and Cheddar blocks, as is Hawksbury, Alexandria, Casselman and Embrun. Eastern Ontario rural towns are very good regions for us,” Léveillé says. As a food, poutine’s growth in popula- rity has been another boon to St-Albert’s business: just about every restaurant has some sort of version and interpretation of the popular dish which has propelled growth for the cheesemaker. It should be noted that the St-Albert cheese curds you find in grocery stores are slightly different from the “fresh” St-Albert curds that food operations use for poutine, which are smaller, less salty and contain a bit more fluid. Despite the 130 years, the St-Albert
process is still much the same, according to Léveillé, including cheddaring the cheese (cutting, layering, pressing), milling and salting it and turning 18-kg blocks by hand for proper aging, all labour-intensive steps. But he notes that the hands-on work of the St-Albert employees represents a century of tradition that has allowed the fromagerie to maintain the texture and flavour of a product like their cheese curds which consumers have grown to appreciate and demand. “The only way that we can stand out as a cheesemaker is by having a product that is more traditional and more tasty,” Léveillé says. “I think it’s a point of pride for the people living in St-Albert, too. When it comes to cheese curds, we’re pretty big.”
$5K GRANT AWARDED FOR 2024 RUSSELL PHOTO EXPO
Les gagnants de l’expo 2023 devant leurs photos. Une subvention de 5 000 $ a été accordée à la municipalité de Russell pour soutenir l’Expo photo 2024 qui mettra en valeur les talents locaux de toutes les régions du Canada. (Municipalité de Russell, site web)
GABRIELLE VINETTE gabrielle.vinette@eap.on.ca
Hobby, amateur and professional photogra- phers from around the world are asked to submit their photos of Russell Township. A jury decides the winners of four categories – best youth (under 18 years of age), best portrait, best landscape and best overall. The four winning photographs will be printed and displayed as outdoor public art along the recreational trail, and each winner will receive Canadian Artists Representation (CARFAC) fees of $400. Additionally, the four winners and hono- rable mentions will receive a subscription UP1IPUP&E.BHB[JOF BNBHB[JOFEFEJDBUFE to feature local content for and by Canadian educators, with the goal to “valuing and supporting the arts within our community.” The window for submitting photos to the 2024 expo is now open. Each participant can submit up to five photos. Submissions for the 2024 Photo Expo will be accepted VOUJM.POEBZ "VHVTU This year’s theme is “Best Kept Secret.” Details on the event and how to partici- pate at www.russell.ca/PhotoExpo24.
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The Township of Russell has been awarded a $5,000 grant from the Ontario Arts Council (OAC) to support the 2024 Photo Expo. Offered through the Ontario Arts Presen- ters Projects with the grant was awarded for “fostering greater community participation” and showcasing local talent. “We are excited to see the creativity of hobby, amateur, and professional photo- graphers and to showcase their work to residents and visitors at the Autumn in the Country event on September 14, 2024,” said Darren Pottie from the Russell Agricul- ture Society. “This grant from the Ontario Arts Council will allow us to enhance the Photo Expo and celebrate local talent in a meaningful way.” The Photo Expo, now in its third year, is an annual photography competition organized by the Russell Agricultural Society and the Township of Russell. It is now in its third year.
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