fig. a: Patrice Fortier in his element
It’s hard to believe, but it’s now been OVER 20 YEARS since we first made the acquaintance of Patrice Fortier and his incomparable la Société des Plantes, one of the world’s great purveyors of rare and heirloom seeds, all of them cultivated by Patrice and his small team of associates on a small farm in Kamouraska, in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region of Eastern Quebec. In fact, it seems like we actually met him before we started “…an endless banquet,” but that our second encounter with Patrice occurred right in the thick of the first month of AEB’s existence—November 2004—a heady time that somehow resulted in a torrent of posts (21 in all, although many of them amounted to little more than “micro-blogging,” avant la lettre).
Patrice quickly became not only an inspiration for a couple of novice food bloggers, he became a close friend. And back in the day, he used to regularly show up in Montreal with his fantastic (and fantastical) assortments of vegetables and hold these largely impromptu farm stand sales that were very much true to the DIY roots of la Société des Plantes (and in line with the DIY philosophy of AEB), so he also became a recurring character in the pages of AEB. Not surprisingly, a number of our favourite posts feature Patrice quite prominently.
The photo up top—the one with the full angelica headdress—is my favourite photo of Patrice. In 2012 we finally went to visit Patrice in Kamouraska, and when we did we discovered that a documentary film was being made about him: Julie Perron’s Le Semeur (2014). We arrived just in time to behold the shooting of an elaborate fertility ritual that Patrice had created for the film. My photograph is a behind-the-scenes view of the action. If you’re interested in tracking down Le Semeur (The Sower), you can do so here.
If you’d like to read all about that magical first visit to la Société des Plantes, you can do so right here. In addition to details of our visit to Patrice’s farm, you’ll find tales of bakeries, charcuterie producers, smokehouses, restaurants, and eel appreciation centres, as well as a preview for a stunning “Hommage à Kamouraska” menu that Michelle had created for Foodlab, featuring vegetables from la Société des Plantes.
fig. b: Patrice’s squashes, Mile End, 2005
The AEB Archives also contain a number of posts about Patrice’s numerous DIY farm stand sales, especially in the years 2004-2010. Some of these literally took place on street corners. Others took place in an odd assortment of businesses, all of them run by members of Montreal’s secretive Vegetable Underground, like bike shops and wine importation houses.
Examples of these posts include our very first piece on Patrice and la Société des Plantes in November 2004, as well as the following items:
fig. c: Michelle & her Société des plantes cardoon, 2006
Finally, this is one of my favourite photos of Michelle from AEB. It’s a photo of her holding a prized la Société des Plantes cardoon in 2005.
We had the pleasure of seeing Patrice again yesterday when he held a sale of his seeds (sorry, no vegetables this time!) at Librarie Gourmande at Marché Jean-Talon. It was such a treat to see him again—it had been a while. And one of the reminiscences that came up was the vision of Michelle and her cardoon at one of those early streetside sales. In case you can’t tell, we’re crazy about Patrice.
Once again, if you’d like to learn more about la Société des Plantes, you can check out their website HERE. If you’re a gardener, or you have gardeners in your life, seeds from la Société des Plantes make a wonderful gift.
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