Strawberries hold no secrets!
Whether you like strawberries a little, a lot, passionately, or not at all, you certainly won’t stay indifferent when you step into the Ferme Bourdages shop in Saint-Siméon-de-Bonaventure.
From the moment you arrive, you sense that something remarkable awaits. That feeling is quickly confirmed when you see the variety of products on display in this spacious shop, most of which have one thing in common: strawberries. It’s the largest producer in Gaspésie.
You’ll also find the strawberries themselves, in their simplest form, along with various products grown in gardens or sourced from local producers, including seasonal vegetables, jams, tarts and pies of all kinds, as well as breads and pastries. As for the strawberry wines, all named in honour of the Bourdages ancestors, you can sample them at a tasting counter. You can also eat there, with several dishes on offer.
Pierre Bourdages, the company’s general manager and co-owner with his brother Jean-François, explains that this display of products and flavours is the result of 200 years of cultivation on the family farm. They are the sixth generation of Bourdages on this land, which carries on its tradition of abundance and quality.
The Ferme Bourdages shop is more than a store: it’s a sensory and cultural experience. And while the products can’t carry the organic label, Pierre Bourdages assures that the cultivation and processing methods come close to organic standards, using predatory insects and other processes that ensure the highest quality.
Initially, the farm was meant to provide for the family. In the 1990s it became a market garden, after Pierre graduated in agricultural technology and bought the farm with his parents. That's when strawberry production took off. Needless to say, it's the result of intense effort. Today the strawberries benefit from expertise that makes them some of the best-tasting on the market, says the farm's co-owner, who talks about them with passion.
Wine production, for its part, began in 2000, when Jean-François joined the team and completed training in the wine sector. Today, Ferme Bourdages produces 45,000 bottles of strawberry and rhubarb wine a year. In addition to the Saint-Siméon shop (60% of sales), the wines are distributed to 100 businesses across Québec, including some SAQ outlets.
Ferme Bourdages employs around 100 people, including nearly 30 Mexican workers who return each year to lend a hand with field work and elsewhere.