Ferme Germain Desmarais Market gardener and local producer
"Ferme Germain Desmarais" is a family‑run operation specializing in fresh fruits, vegetables, and garden plants. We’re located in Pierreville, on the Chenal Tardif road, and have been part of the community for more than 60 years. Our farm covers 55 hectares (136 acres) of land and includes a blueberry field, a strawberry patch, a wooded area, as well as several ponds, trees, and farm buildings.
Our season starts in May with garden plants and wraps up in October with our fall and winter vegetables. Every year, we hire local workers to help us during harvest time. We do everything we can to offer our customers high‑quality, locally grown products. Our harvest is available year‑round directly at the farm (please contact us before coming to place an order), and we’re at the Drummondville public market three times a week.
Sarto Desmarais was the first generation to settle on the Desmarais farm. Originally from Saint‑François‑du‑Lac, he moved to Pierreville in 1960. He raised dairy cows and grew a wide range of produce for the fresh market, including strawberries, beans, carrots, and potatoes. Sarto loved going door‑to‑door to chat with people and offer them his strawberries. He did this for nearly twenty years, travelling from house to house on a small horse‑drawn cart. Around 1970, he began selling at the Drummondville public market.
In 1975, his son Germain Desmarais took over. In the early years, Germain sold a lot of produce to grocery stores in Asbestos, then gradually shifted his focus toward fruit and vegetable stands. In 1987, he planted a blueberry field, becoming one of the early growers of highbush blueberries—a small fruit that’s become a Quebec classic. Today, we still harvest blueberries from those very same plants, which were put in the ground nearly 25 years ago. Some now reach over 2.5 metres in height.
Around 1991, Germain converted part of the farm to potato production. These potatoes are harvested and sold in bulk for chip manufacturing. If you stop by the farm toward the end of July, you might catch a glimpse of this type of harvest in action. For many years now, his children have been deeply involved in the family farm, and he works in partnership with his sister, Nicole Lafond, from Le Jardin de Pierrot.
Our goal is to offer our customers top‑quality fruits and vegetables while caring for our land responsibly. We choose varieties for their flavour first, even if their appearance isn’t always picture‑perfect. For us, taste matters more than looks.
We follow the principle of using as few products as possible in our fields. We avoid preventive treatments and instead inspect our crops regularly to monitor insects and weeds. This allows us to determine whether intervention is needed or if pest levels remain within an acceptable range. To control weeds, we rely mainly on manual or mechanical cultivation.
