Who are we

​The primary mission of Terre Promise is to produce ecological seeds of vegetable varieties that are rare or difficult to access, ancient or of great cultural value so that the public can have access to them. We also have the mission of recording the history that accompanies ancestral varieties. to safeguard our cultural heritage. And finally to teach seed cultivation and conservation techniques through training and practical workshops for gardeners, farmers, horticulturists and other artisanal seed producers so that they can reproduce their varieties, select them appropriately and share them in turn.

1. Create together: often, great achievements are not the work of one person, but of many people. At Terre Promise, teamwork and the exchange of knowledge is the basis of our achievements.

2. Recognition of the work of others: The varieties that we cultivate have been bequeathed to us by people who have safeguarded them from year to year. Sometimes First Nations peoples or elders who have the memory of our cultural heritage at heart. We owe them respect.
3. Humor and happiness: We are a team of madmen and one joke does not wait for another in our team. We are passionate about our work and despite the pitfalls, we work to make the world a little better...

The Terre Promise project germinated more than ten years ago in a Montreal community garden. At that time, I was interested in permaculture and self-sufficiency, which led me to want to produce the seeds* of my favorite vegetables myself. By asking around for advice, I realized that even the older gardeners, normally knowledgeable, bought their seeds* without asking themselves any more questions, and did not keep them from year to year. So I started looking for ancestral techniques for saving seeds*.

For more than ten years, I have been interested in endangered issues, techniques and seeds*. As most of our ancestral varieties* have disappeared over time, I understood that it was important to share them in order to prevent them from sinking into oblivion. I also realized that cultivating ancestral varieties* made it possible to develop varieties* that were more resistant to climatic hazards and diseases. In addition, more suitable varieties* require less watering and fewer chemical inputs such as synthetic fertilizers or pesticides!

In 2014, the seed company Terre Promise was born. Today, more than 300 varieties* of vegetables, herbs and flowers are grown on site. We harvest and save our seeds year after year. These are open-pollinated*, patent-free, often rare, royalty-free and non-genetically modified varieties*. Since then, we have worked tirelessly to safeguard our cultural and common heritage.

Terre Promise is located on Ile-Bizard in Montréal. The one hectare plot is cultivated following permaculture and agroecology principles.

More than 250 varieties of vegetables, fruits and herbs are grown on permanent beds.

Once the season is over, we move over to our workshop located in Ahuntsic, at Centrale Agricole, where we clean our seeds, test our germination rates, and do the packaging. 

At the farm, we grow 95% of the varieties we sell. The remaining 5% comes from other Quebec seed farmers or, when a certain crop fails, from a Canadian organic seed farm. We base our work on permaculture principles in order to produce seeds harmoniously with the environment. We use wood chips and dead leaves as mulch. We do not plow nor till the beds, which are permanent. The soil is only worked by hand with traditional tools such as pitchforks and shovels, and the grass is cut with a scythe. No machines are used on the plot to avoid soil compaction.

Moreover, we have a wide diversity of flowers to attract pollinators. We have also created several habitats for natives insects, reptiles and amphibians.

Lastly, we have dug up two ponds to welcome frogs and passing ducks. Since we do not irrigate our fields (aside from planting time), we use the rainwater that accumulates in these ponds when we do need to water some crops. Mulch and a careful garden design help retain enough moisture so that the plants are self-sufficient for most of the season.

A huge thank you to all the volunteers that allow Terre Promise to exist, thrive and move forward. Thank you for the advice, the tips, the hours spent at the farm or the workshop, and the days spent at markets or packaging seeds.