The Ferme d’ORée started as a dream in 2000, somewhere between Nepal and Mexico. A dream that sprang from a desire to live an honest life in harmony with nature and a desire to cultivate the soil while nurturing relationships with family and community.
With permaculture as an inspiration, we named our farm Ferme d’ORée. L’ORée means (forest) edge. Forest edges attract the greatest ecological diversity. We hope that our farm can also function as a cultural edge and attract people from country and city alike.
We wanted to grow organic veggies, but we ended up producing honey and raising animals sustainably, when nobody else was doing that in Québec. The veggies came much more recently!
We realized early on that if we want to create value for our clients, we must transcend marketing stories, practice truly sustainable agriculture and provide our clients with exquisite, unique products. We produced and sold vegetables for a couple of years, but we abandoned the production for lack of marketability, and to focus more on our Atelier d’ORée.
Sustainable production processes
Regenerative or sustainable farmers make the following claims:
Economic impact: we produce high quality, exquisite products for a niche market. Clients pay a fair price. The value proposition must be balanced. Clients do not pay for our inefficiencies. Money flows into our community.
Environmental impact: efficient production minimizes waste and we maximize recycled inputs. Local production and sales means les pollution. We detail a agro-environmental plan for manure management.
Animal welfare impact: animals can express their natural behaviors. They have lots of space and live in a fitting environment.
Impact on climate change: more carbon sequestration because of intensively rotated pastures.
Social impact: no hidden costs that have to be carried by society or future generations. Honest relationships with suppliers and employees. Family farm.
Impact on consumer health: more omega-3, more CLAs. No antibiotics. No hormones. No synthetic pesticides. (We use some organic bio-pesticides on our veggies.)
Consumers and newbie farmers often believe that simple solutions like pasturing or pasture rotations make all the difference.
True sustainability follows from an intricate set of interconnected small (often quite technical) actions that gradually increase efficiency and thus reduce the ecological footprint of our farm, while safeguarding other dimensions of sustainability.
Product quality
Finally, we all think a lot about food, but the most important thing is to enjoy it, with friends and family.
Over the years, our desire to raise an exquisite pork chop, or that perfectly marbled ribeye only increased.
The enthusiasm for sustainable food and the good prices that we receive for our products, have allowed us to invest not only in actions that improve sustainability, but also in the quality of our meats. You just have to taste!
More details and updates on how we raise our animals can be found in our blog posts on this site.