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Montreal Gazette
19-07-2025
- General
- 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.
The Guardian
29-03-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
Europe's first Mars rover will have UK-built lander
Europe's first rover to be sent to another planet is back on track to reach Mars, with the lander that will deposit it on the surface lined up to be built in the UK. The Rosalind Franklin rover – named after the scientist who played a key role in the discovery of the structure of DNA – is part of ExoMars, a European Space Agency (Esa) mission to probe whether life once existed on the red planet, and features a drill to retrieve samples, up to 4bn years old, from two metres below the surface. Initially a joint project with Roscosmos, the rover was expected to launch in 2022. However, the mission was suspended after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But rather than ditch the project, Esa reassessed it, securing more money and striking new agreements for other sources to deliver aspects that were previously to be provided by Russia. Among them, Nasa will now supply the launcher for the rover, as well as a number of other elements including the rover's radioisotope heater units (RHUs). Takeoff is expected in 2028 for arrival on Mars in 2030. Now it has been announced that the rover's landing platform will be built by Airbus at its site in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, as part of a £150m contract awarded by Esa and funded by the UK government through the UK Space Agency. The business is no stranger to the mission: Airbus built the Rosalind Franklin rover itself. But, as Caroline Rodier, the project manager of the lander, noted, getting the rover on to the Martian surface is a challenge. 'Landing on Mars is not an easy task, and the schedule is very ambitious as well,' she said. The idea is that the rover and landing platform will be contained within a capsule Rodier likens to a Kinder Egg, which also features a parachute and a heat shield. On entering the Martian atmosphere, the first parachute is deployed to slow the capsule to subsonic speeds. Then that parachute, and the capsule itself, is jettisoned before a second parachute – attached to the lander – is engaged. 'And then eventually the platform itself, when it's getting quite close [to] the soil, will effectively start firing its thruster quite hard in order to land,' said Rodier. But this landing platform is complex to design: not least as it must be slowed to less than three metres a second before touchdown. 'When you land on Mars with this kind of system, with a platform and thrusters which are firing quite hard in order to break the speed and land safely, it means that you need a propulsion system with a big throughput,' Rodier said. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion 'If you compare with what we've done elsewhere, which are typical spacecraft, other missions, they have a much smaller throughput. So there are challenges, because it is the first time that we are doing this kind of propulsion system.' Rodier added the team are also working on legs for the lander as well as two symmetrical ramps that will be deployed once it has touched down, allowing the Rosalind Franklin rover to leave the platform via the least risky route. Rodier added that the rover itself is currently undergoing various tweaks and upgrades now that the launch window has changed, including enhancements to its guidance and navigation control system. Paul Bate, the CEO of the UK Space Agency, said: 'This is humanity defining science, and the best opportunity to find if past life once existed on Mars. 'We're proud to have funded this world-leading technology. The ripple effects of space exploration discoveries extend far beyond the realm of space exploration, driving progress and prosperity across multiple sectors in the UK, and inspiring technological advances to benefit us all.'
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Accelerate St. Landry program helps new entrepreneurs grow business
ST. LANDRY PARISH, La. () — In recent years, there has been a big push to bring new business into St. Landry Parish. Now, more work is being put into that goal as St. Landry Economic Development brings back the . Bill Rodier, CEO of , said the program is a partnership with UL Lafayette to build a culture of entrepreneurship in the parish. The program has already been utilized successfully in St. Landry Parish in years prior as well as in Lafayette Parish. Rodier said the program shows business owners the basics, how to get resources, and various other topics throughout the six 3-hour sessions. 'The idea of the program is anywhere you're at in your small business process,' Rodier said. 'This is a six-session program that's done on Tuesday evenings and really give you a path to go forward with it.' Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Rodier said one of the biggest problems any new business faces is marketing, which the program addresses. 'A business plan is another part of that,' he said. 'But marketing is a component of your business plan, and a lot of people struggle with that. It'll walk you through Avenues and specific ways that you can look at some of those key questions that people have when you're looking to start a business or when they're early on in their business process.' Rodier says spots are filling up fast for attendees as they are offering the program at a reduced cost for those who sign up soon. 'St. Landry Economic Development is supplementing the cost of most of that,' Rodier said. 'So, it's a $25 cost to attend what would be a $450 session. Meals are provided in that. And again, it's a six-evening program beginning on March 11th, every Tuesday, following with that.' Fewer than than 10 spots remain for the program. Anyone interested should contact St. Landry Economic Development or to apply. Teen's medical abortion puts Louisiana, New York leaders at odds as Landry signs doctor's extradition order Humpback whale briefly swallows kayaker — and it's all captured on camera Over 100 vehicles involved in Oregon highway crash amid 'whiteout' conditions New Farmers Market coming to Abbeville RFK Jr. sworn in as HHS secretary Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
