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FARM HANDS WORKING THE LAND AT JARDIN BOULAY GARDEN the community eats. I admire their work ethic in the blasting sun and humidity.
ANDREW COPPOLINO andrewcoppolino@gmail.com
might sell out of an item and send someone to rush back to the farm for more. “I was told that I couldn’t be a farmer because I was a girl” The Jardin Boulay 100 acres runs parallel to Rollin Road before curling into a dog-leg right with forest on each side that provides some shelter. The property was formerly her father’s hobby farm – Mary Lynn moved out when she was 18 but took over the farm when her parents passed away -- which she has built up over the years. The market stand has been operating on the space they rent on Laurier Street since 2010. “When I said I wanted to be a farmer, I was told that I couldn’t because I was a girl,” Boulay says. “I’ve always liked this kind of life. When I got the place, I wanted to go back to the life that I had growing up.” While many crops are now showing encou- raging signs of early growth, others look very clearly like the lettuces and brassicas that they are. An empty field awaits beans – both yel- low and green – batches of which Boulay, Berube and the Romeos will plant about ten days apart to stagger their harvest over the season. Sweet peppers and hot peppers will be growing far apart so the former don’t take on a nip of heat from the latter when the bees do their pollination jobs. 6MUJNBUFMZ UIFXFBUIFSDPOEJUJPOTBSF always front of mind for farmers. Boulay says the early spring was a difficult one – “when it’s cold, the bees don’t come out” – and now she says with a smile that the current bit of heat is good, though she would love if it would rain once a week. The market stand on Laurier makes up virtually Jardin Boulay’s entire business. It’s a lot of work, she says, as I pluck a warm, juicy strawberry and pop it into my mouth. “When I’m not at the stand, I’m here,” Boulay says. “There’s always work to be done transplanting until about mid-July. And after that, it’s taking care of the weeds and maintaining.” Jardin Boulay Garden anticipates opening July 12. They operate Thursday to Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. until the fall. Food writer Andrew Coppolino lives in Rockland. He is the author of “Farm to Table” and co-author of “Cooking with Shakespeare.” Follow him on Instagram @andrewcoppolino
“I like working hard. It’s rewarding,” Olivia says, with Sophia agreeing. “And at the stand selling, there’s the social aspect and getting to see different people from the community. It’s good relationships.” With small family farms being consolida- ted into larger corporate entities and with fewer kids wanting to take over the family business of agriculture, it’s encouraging to see young people like the Romeos – essen- tially Gen Zs – caring about how their food grows and where it comes from. For her part, Boulay stresses the impor- tance of her farmhands for helping the farm tend the fields and sell the resulting produce at their market stand at the corner of Laurier and Giroux streets in downtown Rockland starting again in a couple of weeks. “They are very good workers. They’re out here working hard and giving it their all. I depend on them,” Boulay says. The farm grows blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, tomatoes and just started cherries. Standing over a field of green spiky leaves, Boulay hands me a fresh garlic scape from a hardneck garlic plant: I snap off a piece and the aroma of garlic released is immediate. “I’ll be cutting them this weekend,” she says. “All the energy and water then leaves the scapes and goes to the garlic bulbs.”
Amid the 100 acres of farm in Saint- Pascal-Baylon, a few minutes outside Rockland, I see and hear a group of farmhands pounding stakes into the ground for a trellis system on which will grow cucamelons. Also, known as “mouse melons,” the grape-sized fruits look like tiny, cute water- melons and are one of dozens of crops growing at Jardin Boulay Garden, owned by Mary Lynn Boulay. The work of pounding the stakes is cer- tainly not cute in the blasting sun of the day, however. Atop the ladder, Olivia Romeo wields a heavy maul with sister Sophia Romeo and Jardin Boulay Garden co-farmer Stephane Berube – Boulay’s husband – holding the ladder steady. What is perhaps unique about the Romeo sisters, who live a only a country-lane or two away from the farm, is that they love the work of farming, though they have real no real interest in becoming farmers: Olivia, 21, is a university psychology student, while Sophia, 22, works at an area grocery store. Young farm hands working the land The pair, who have worked the farm for several years, simply love tending to the fields and crops and helping grow food that
De gauche à droite : Olivia Romeo, Sophia Rome et Stephane Berube plantant des tuteurs au Jardin Boulay Garden. (Andrew Coppolino) Near the house, a handful of apple trees will produce the popular Honeycrisp and the venerable McIntosh, among other varieties. A few metres from the greenhouse, where the season’s crops get their start as tiny sprouts in little plastic trays, is a peach tree with small cucamelon-sized peaches just starting to appear. “I plant them, water them and transplant them. After that, I have to rely on Mother Nature,” says Boulay. No farmers means no food It’s likely that even few customers who shop farmers’ markets and market stands – and know they are buying produce from the farmer – recognize at least somewhat the difficulties and essential hard work in hot conditions that farmers face. “Most people when they come up to the stand, you know, don’t really know everything that’s gone into what vegetables or fruits we’ve grown,” says Boulay. Her message, therefore, is a very simple one: support farmers because without them there would be no food. She points out that for the youth that come to the street-side tent – which I think is just wonderful for a town’s urban core – it’s an educational experience during which she can tell them exactly how the fruits and vegetables are grown. “I have kids and younger people that come to my stand, and they see that we are selling what we grow. Even teenagers come and ask to have a carrot. They take a bite and say, ‘Wow. That’s how a carrot tastes.’ It’s an education process, and we have teachers coming with their students. In September, when the kids are on lunch break they come and buy apples,” Boulay says. On the busiest days at the stand, Boulay
UNE ENFANT QUÉBÉCOISE PERDUE RETROUVÉE PRÈS DE ST-ALBERT
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qu’on eut signalé que l’enfant avait été aperçue en Ontario. L’OPP a lancé une alerte, demandant au public de signaler toute observation de Claire Bell et de surveiller une Ford Escape grise portant une plaque d’immatriculation spécifique au Québec et un panneau jaune « bébé à bord » sur la lunette arrière du véhicule. La police a décrit ce véhicule comme étant celui utilisé par la mère de l’enfant. Mercredi 18 juin à 14 heures, une caméra drone de la Police provinciale de l’Ontario a repéré Claire Bell, seule, sur l’autoroute 417 entre Casselman et St-Albert. La police l’a ramassée et elle a été examinée par un médecin qui l’a déclarée en bonne santé apparente, bien qu’un peu déshydratée. Elle a été placée à l’hôpital en vue de retrouver sa famille. La recherche de l’enfant disparue a nécessité un effort conjoint de la Sûreté du Québec, du Service de police de Montréal, de la Police provinciale de l’Ontario des détachements de Prescott-Russell et de 4UPSNPOU%VOEBT(MFOHBSSZ EFM6OJUÊEFT services d’aviation de la Police provinciale de M0OUBSJP EFM6OJUÊ, EV(SPVQFUBDUJRVF d’intervention et du Service de l’identité judiciaire.
Une fillette de trois ans de Montréal, portée disparue, a été retrouvée saine et sauve près de St-Albert. La police a annoncé mercredi dernier, le 18 juin, que Claire Bell, une enfant de trois ans originaire de Montréal, a été retrouvée saine et sauve près du village de St-Albert dans la municipalité de La Nation. Elle avait été portée disparue le dimanche 15 juin et l’enquête policière se concentre maintenant sur la façon dont elle s’est retrouvée en Ontario, loin de son domicile au Québec. La mère de l’enfant, Rachel-Ella Todd, 34 ans, a été arrêtée lundi 16 juin et est accusée d’abandon d’enfant. L’enquête de la police se poursuit. Les détails de ce qui est arrivé à l’enfant entre le moment où elle a été portée disparue à Montréal et le jour où elle a été retrouvée sur l’autoroute 417, près de St-Albert, n’ont pas encore été rendus publics. Lorsque Claire Bell a été portée disparue pour la première fois, les recherches de la Sûreté du Québec se sont concentrées sur les régions de Montréal et de la Montérégie. Les recherches se sont élargies et la Police provinciale de l’Ontario s’y est jointe après
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Horaire de collecte des ordures ménagères et du recyclage Fête du Canada 2025 À l’occasion du congé de la fête du Canada du 1 er juillet 2025 (mardi), la collecte des ordures et du recyclage n’aura pas lieu pour l’ensemble du territoire. Cependant, les autres jours de la semaine seront à horaire régulier. Waste and recycling collection Canada Day 2025 Note that collection services of waste and recycling for Canada Day 2025, on July 1 st (Tuesday), will be not be occurring. However, the other days of the week will be on regular schedule.
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