A run to Runaway Creek

Runaway Creek Organic Farm

I've been wanting to visit the Runaway Creek Organic Farm near Arundel all summer. Yesterday we finally made it. We are pretty slack when it comes to growing vegetables. Yes we have our own patch but it has nothing but rhubarb and tomatoes in it. Oh and some asparagus which has been coming back for years and I'm not sure when to pick. It is now a huge bush.

Nine carrot gold?

Runaway Creek is a pretty inspirational place. Michael Rossi and his wife Yasmin set up the farm from scratch and opened to the public in 2000. If you ever felt the Laurentians were not the ideal place to grow vegetables Michael will make you think again. There is every vegetable you can think of in every colour of the rainbow. 

He is strictly organic and proud of it. We chatted to him for a while when I offered him a cookie. I'd made them the day before and I thought they were pretty healthy - full of oats and goodness. Is it organic? asks Michael. Well er..no. Sorry I can't eat it, he says. I've never felt so ashamed. I'm not a big organic buyer but this did make me think.

Organic tobacco

 Michael even grows organic tobacco (above). Does it give you organic lung cancer, I ask. We passed on the tobacco but ended up buying organic honey from linden flowers (we used to have a linden tree), Emmental and cheddar cheese, bacon, fennel and black pepper sausages, curly endive, summer spinach, fresh eggs and something called lobster mushrooms (colour of lobsters).

Checking out the produce. I'll take this one

 Michael picks his mushrooms at night in the local woods. I told him I'd love to cook up the mushrooms I see at our cottage but I'm scared incase they are poisonous. Just bring them in here and I'll tell you, says Michael. Funnily enough we got home and found a lobster mushroom on the lawn. I checked it with Michael via Facebook and he says it's good.

Owner Michael Rossi selling organic cheeses

Michael has a great life. He farms in Quebec in summer and in winter moves to Grenada where he and Yasmin, whose family is from there, grow tropical fruits in the sun. Runaway Creek, not a home for juvenile deliquents as my husband insisted on joking, is a great spot to explore and take a picnic. Infact take some bread and you could make a great cheese salad sandwich.

Morin Heights

 When I asked for spinach and endive Michael shouted for Yasmin and she went off to cut it. That's what I call fresh. On the way home we stopped at Morin Heights to investigate a store,  Marché Vallaincourt, which my uncle recommended for its selection of microbrewed beers.

Microbrewed beers from all over Quebec

Two huge aisles of beer greeted us and we chose a box at random from Mont Alexis des Monts called Nouveau France. We plan some thorough research here too. PS I bought some organic flour today. That cookie refusal is still bugging me.

For more pictures of the farm go to my FB page.

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