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Montreal Gazette

Crazy about vegetables at this local farmer's market

News By The tables were stacked with carrots and beets, their greens still attached, with Japanese eggplants and Lebanese cucumbers, with Tokyo turnips and Chinese cabbage. There were circles of garlic scapes and bunches of cauliflower, yellow and green zucchini, cherry tomatoes in different colours and larger tomatoes, fennel and onions, pails filled with bouquets of wildflowers — and much, much more. The produce had been harvested that morning or the previous day and the air was heady with the scent of basil and strawberries. The scene was the Thursday afternoon produce market in Prince Albert Square in Westmount's Victoria Village. It's run by Complètement Légume, an artisanal organic farm in Mirabel owned and operated by three women — Amélie Rodier, Stéphanie Ethier and Gabrielle Jobin-Richer — and worked, in large measure, by women. It was barely 2 p.m., the market had just opened and the line of customers waiting to pay and holding full baskets, for the most part, was already snaking around the tables. 'I love the product,' said Sara Popa, a regular. 'The produce is much fresher than what I find elsewhere and I find the price point fair. I also love the neighbourhood vibe: It's just so authentic.' Notre-Dame-de-Grâce resident Gabrielle Wener, another regular, was there with her husband, realtor Michael Marjaba. Wener is a naturopath and 'eating healthfully is a priority for me,' she said. 'What's great here is that everything is in season. I don't have to choose: Everything is fresh and delicious.' Stéphane Dupré, a regular who lives a block over from the market, said: 'Their produce is amazing, fresh, organic and affordable — and the women are super-knowledgeable and helpful: They bring so much to the community: It's a real gift to the neighbourhood.' Complètement Légume produce is certified organic by Ecocert Canada. Rodier explained that, in French, 'complètement légume' is slang for 'a little bit crazy.' 'Working in the farming business, you have to be a little crazy,' said Rony Cukier, a developer who has served as a mentor to Rodier and her partners. 'Farming is very, very hard work.' When they started their business in 2017, the three knew little about farming. As colleagues at Profiteausol in Mirabel, which provides support and guidance to agricultural producers in adopting sustainable farming practices that are also profitable, they worked with farmers, but not as farmers. Jobin-Richer had studied agricultural technology and Rodier had experience in project management. 'We had a lot to learn,' said Ethier, who had studied business administration and biochemistry. It started, as so much does, with opportunity: An investor in two Westmount restaurants who knows Cukier said he was looking for a small patch of land to rent for a farm-to-table initiative for the establishments. Cukier owns a piece of farmland in Mirabel in partnership with other people. It was rented to a longtime tenant, Ethier's father — his company, les Gazons Ethier, grows grass — but Ethier was willing to carve out a corner to rent to the women. That first season, in 2016, they grew produce for the two restaurants. The following year, they established Complètement Légume. 'They worked really hard and had a burning desire to learn and to succeed,' said Cukier. 'I was happy to mentor them and encourage them. For me, it was a wonderful thing to help young entrepreneurs with a strong work ethic and to watch them flourish.' The Complètement Légume farm moved to a larger space — 0.8 hectares — equipped with electricity, a greenhouse and an irrigation system and began to offer produce baskets. They started with 30 baskets and grew. Today, as part of the Family Farmers Network, they deliver about 180 baskets per week in Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, Mirabel and Prévost. They also produce more than 40 varieties of vegetables for restaurants, including Taverne sur le Square in Westmount Square, MacTaverne Auberge + Pub in Val-David and Les Arts Gourmets caterers in Prévost. 'Complètement Légume supplies 75 to 80 per cent of my produce the whole summer,' said Stephen Leslie, chef and co-owner of Taverne sur le Square. 'I organize my menu around what they produce: What they bring is so much better than what I could buy at the market. 'Their arugula reminds me of being a kid, when we used to grow our own arugula and it was peppery and bitter. You put that on somebody's plate and you know you are serving something that you have confidence in. The eggplant they grow is almost sweet. People say, 'It's so good.' Same with their zucchini,' Leslie said. 'As we get to midsummer, you can barely see the kitchen, it's stacked so high with produce: Any cook who comes through the door says, 'Chef, this stuff is amazing.'' In addition to the Prince Albert Square market, Complètement Légume is at the Val-David summer market in the Laurentians on Saturday mornings. The women are partners, but only Rodier is involved full-time. Ethier and Jobin-Richer have jobs elsewhere and are there one day a week. Officially, Rodier takes Sundays off, 'but, really, it's seven days,' she said. Five of the farm's eight employees are women. The Community Events division of the city of Westmount helped Complètement Légume set up in Prince Albert Square in 2022, once the plan had been approved by the city's then-director-general; today they do their own setup, arriving about 90 minutes ahead of time to set up tables and an outdoor canopy and to unpack produce from the reusable bins in which it is transported and set it out. Cynthia Lulham, who served on Westmount city council for 26 years, until 2021, initiated the Prince Albert Square project and that of another square, at Greene Ave. and de Maisonneuve Blvd. The goal was to provide a public place for events and a meeting place, she said. The first thing Prince Albert Square was used for was the Complètement Légume market — and the weekly market 'is exactly what I had hoped for,' said Lulham, who since 2023 has served as director-general of the association of Westmount merchants. 'The produce is amazing.' AT A GLANCE The Complètement Légume produce market in Prince Albert Square, at the southwest intersection of Prince Albert Ave. and Sherbrooke St. in Westmount, operates Thursdays 2-6 p.m. It will continue until mid-October. Related Stories from Montreal Gazette Columnists Brownstein: Atop a Walmart, Lufa's latest greenhouse is almost ready to harvest March 19, 2024 6:00 AM News Canada's only supermarket rooftop vegetable garden grows in St-Laurent July 28, 2024 12:13 PM Susan Schwartz montrealgazette 514-386-8794 Susan Schwartz, a native Montrealer, is a longtime reporter and feature writer at The Gazette.