Regions: Canada

Fred Tremblay and Isabelle Leveau planted the first vines at Vignoble Camy only ten years ago, but they make wines the old fashioned way – starting in the fields, listening to nature, and responding from there. They’ve earned a regional reputation for their winemaking in their comparably short tenure. You’ll find their wine in some of the best restaurants in Quebec, but it is not available for sale to the public, nor do they typically host visitors. Needles to say, it’s pretty exciting that they have invited us to set our table in their beautiful vineyards. Keep an eye out for Champlain Sea shells in the limestone soil (artifacts from 15,000 years ago when this whole region was underwater!) as we walk through their rows of Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Noir on the way to the table for dinner by Josh Crowe from Taverne Monkland. Chef Josh is a passionate advocate of using Quebecois ingredients. His relationships with farmers across the region help him source the best products for his thoughtfully prepared “cuisine du marché”, keeping Taverne Monkland on top of lists of local favorites even 26 years after its opening.

If you’re looking for a show-stopping view from the table, this event should be high on your list. Located in the Pemberton Valley just outside of Whistler, BC, this 54-acre farm stretches underneath the majestic Mount Currie. It truly earns its nickname as the Sea to Sky Farm Experience. Trish and Jordan Sturdy will tour us through their rotating array of seasonal fruits and vegetables (they may even let us pick a surprise or two) before we sit down in the shadows of the towering green peaks that have made British Columbia famous. Phil Scarfone will join us in the field kitchen for a second time. The Top Chef Canada runner-up will bring out the best of what the valley has to offer; he may even share something he foraged from the nearby mountains if we’re lucky.

We will set the table in beautiful Prince Edward County for the first-time with a visit to this busy farm that is a bountiful pantry for locals and many fine Bay of Quinte restaurants. Established in 2010, Edwin County Farms encompasses 700 acres and land that has been cultivated for hundreds of years. The farm produces a vast variety of organic vegetable crops, beef and broiler chickens, eggs, wheat, honey and maple syrup, with careful attention to synergistic systems in the fields and stewardship of the surrounding forests. Perhaps we’ll put the table under the wide embrace of oak branches, next to the glistening pond, or in a field of wheat. Our hosts will tell us the history of this land, from the Iroquori to the first settlers to today, and how they have worked to reclaim much of the arable land and restore it to its agricultural glory. Guest chef Coco Gaona will be busy cooking an Argentinian-inspired feast in the field kitchen. He and partner Alejandra run Tiempo, a rustic but refined culinary experience that embraces the Argentinian tradition of live fire cooking and high-quality local ingredients. “Tiempo” is Spanish for “time” — a nod to the precious pause in time of sharing a meal, sitting fireside and appreciating the land. This is bound to be a magical one.

We were supposed to come back to La Ferme in 2020, but it’s been two years since the Canadian border was closed to us and everyone else. Now we’re beyond excited to return and see what rock star farmer Jean-Martin and his innovative crew have been up to and what they will show us. La Ferme des Quatre-Temps is an agricultural project that aims to demonstrate what the farm of the future could look like, paving the way toward a more ecological agro-food model for all of Quebec. It also is a remarkably beautiful spot for a farm dinner, with eight acres of bio-intensively farmed vegetables, 40 wooded acres for the pigs to roam, and 60 acres of grassy pasture for beef cattle and laying hens in moveable egg-mobiles. Guest chef Emilie Bégin will pick from the very best of the farm’s bounty for our late summer meal in the field. She’s the chef at Montreal’s Society for Arts and Technology (SAT), where she crafts inventive locally sourced menus that celebrate Quebec’s wealth of farmers and food producers like host farmer Jean-Martin. Before taking the reins at SAT, Emilie cooked at a number of lauded restaurants in Canada including La Bête à Pain, Mesón, and the three-starred Clos de Sens.

 

Nous devions revenir à La Ferme en 2020, mais la frontière canadienne nous est fermée ainsi qu’à tous les autres depuis deux ans. Maintenant, nous sommes fou de joie de revenir et de voir sur quoi l’agriculteur rock star Jean-Martin et son équipe innovante ont travaillé et ce qu’ils vont nous montrer. La Ferme des Quatre-Temps est un projet agricole qui vise à démontrer à quoi pourrait ressembler la ferme du futur, ouvrant la voie vers un modèle agroalimentaire plus écologique pour tout le Québec. C’est aussi un endroit remarquablement beau pour un dîner à la ferme, avec 8 acres de légumes cultivés de manière bio-intensive, 40 acres boisés pour les porcs et 60 acres de pâturage herbeux pour les bovins de boucherie et les poules pondeuses. La chef invitée, Emilie Bégin, choisira parmi les meilleurs produits de la ferme pour notre repas de fin d’été dans les champs. Elle est chef à la Société des arts technologiques (SAT) de Montréal, où elle élabore des menus inventifs à base de produits locaux qui célèbrent la richesse des agriculteurs et des producteurs alimentaires du Québec, comme l’agriculteur hôte Jean-Martin. Avant de prendre les rênes de la SAT, Emilie a cuisiné dans plusieurs restaurants renommés au Canada, dont La Bête à Pain, Mesón, et Clos de Sens avec ses trois étoiles Michelin.

A table set in lush green grass at the base of the Coast Mountains and majestic Mount Currie. This is one of our most beautiful farms to date. Trish and Jordan’s sixty acres are brimming with orchard fruits, berries and peak summer vegetables — music to the ears of guest chef Gus Stieffenhoffer-Brandson. Gus cooked at Michelin-starred restaurants around the world before moving back to Canada to open Published on Main. His popular Vancouver restaurant is known for its rotating seasonal menu sourced from local farms and many wild edibles that he forages himself. Wild mushrooms, huckleberries, sea asparagus or elderflowers might make an appearance on the menu.