Who are we
Proud to be a local seed producer
At Terre Promise, Quebec and Canadian ancestral varieties rub shoulders with finds from all over the world.
Each variety has its own characteristics, which makes it unique. From one generation to the next, the varieties are selected for their flavor, their color, their shape or for their resistance to diseases, pests or climatic hazards. Some have fallen into oblivion throughout history, due to their inability to withstand transport over long distances, or their fragility to handling as practiced in today's mass food system. We rehabilitate them and share them with you to ensure better nutritional diversity.
Our team
Terre Promise is proud to count on a committed, professional and dynamic team both in the fields at the production level and in the workshop, the place dedicated to seed conservation. We welcome several volunteers and trainees wishing to perfect their knowledge in the field of seed cultivation.
Lyne Bellemare
Lyne Bellemare was for 10 years the coordinator of the French component of Seeds of Diversity Canada. Founder of the company Terre Promise., she is the author of the book Terre Promise, the art of growing your own seeds (Edition QC Americas) In addition to being a permaculture enthusiast, she is especially interested in conservation. seeds of old, heritage and rare varieties.
Camille Lamoureux
Camille is the field production manager and technician. She holds a degree in horticultural production from ITA in St-Hyacinthe. Working in the horticultural sector since 2011, she is a passionate market gardener. The production of artisan seeds has become another asset in her horticultural career in Quebec.
Élisabeth Néron
Élisabeth is a production worker and a graduate of CRIFA in Coaticook. She plays a key role in seed preparation, packaging, and order shipping. During the summer, she is also out in the field, actively contributing to seed cultivation.
Elsa Bergeron
Elsa is a field worker during the summer and a student during the winter season. Her help is especially valuable when it comes to harvesting, drying, and sorting seeds. She is our lead in managing applications and handling flax seeds for our Textile Flax Preservation Program..
Laurie Archambault
Laurie Archambault, agricultural worker. Holder of a DEP in horticulture et gardening, she joined us during the cold months to warm up her heart. She is insatiably curious and likes collecting seeds, friendships, musical playlists, and broken ceramics to create mosaics.
Emma-Jeanne & Adèle
Emma-Jeanne and Adèle are the farm’s future. In charge of wetting the envelopes, they also developed special skills to count beans with their toes.
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.
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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.
- 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.
- 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 a été situé pendant 10 ans à l'ïle Bizard, à Montréal. Nous avons déménagé en 2023 à Sherbrooke, pour cultiver une parcelle de plus de trois hectares en s’inspirant de la permaculture et de l’agroécologie.
Plus de 250 variétés de légumes, de fruits et de fines herbes y sont cultivées sur des buttes permanentes.
Nous produisons sur place 95% des variétés que nous vendons. Le 5% restant provient d’autre semencières québécoises et parfois, lorsque nous ratons une récolte, nous commandons d’une semencière biologique canadienne. Nous nous inspirons des principes de permaculture pour produire des semences respectueuses de l’environnement. Nous utilisons des copeaux de bois comme paillis ainsi que des feuilles mortes. Nous ne labourons ni ne rotocultons les parcelles, qui sont permanentes. La terre est uniquement travaillée à la main par des outils traditionnels, tels la fourche, la pelle et l’herbe est coupée à la faux. Aucune machinerie n’est utilisée sur les parcelles pour éviter la compaction du sol.
De plus, nous plantons une diversité de fleurs pour attirer les pollinisateurs et laissons des habitats pour les insectes indigènes, les couleuvres et les crapaux, et tout autre petit invité à pattes.
Finalement, nous avons implantés deux étangs pour acueillir les grenouilles et les canards de passage. Comme nous n’arrosons pas (uniquement à la plantation), nous utilisons l’eau de pluie recueilli dans nos bassins à cette fin ou en cas d’urgence. Le paillis et l’agencement des plates-bandes retiennent l’eau de façon à ce que les plantes soient suffisantes à elle-mêmes tout au long de la saison.
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.
Josée bellemare
Josée Bellemare, project manager, has shared with us her expertise in order to optimise each production step. Thanks to her, we can make sure the seeds head exactly where they are meant to go, to your garden.
Stéphanie Savard
Stéphanie Savard, a horticulture enthusiast, is currently completing her training at the Laval Horticulture Center. She is generous enough to start several of our seedlings in her set-up worthy of the greatest professionals.
Jean Collard
LATE Jean Collard (-2021), a friend and a passionate gardener. He believed in the potential of Terre Promise since the very start of the project. He helped us improve the different production steps. With is innovative ideas, he is the creator of the Collard Machine, a useful seed blower. He also built many drying racks and other tools. Thank you Jean.
René paquet
René Paquet, retired from the Agriculture Ministry, has worked for a long time in variety breeding. Highly involved in the Seeds of Diversity organisation, he generously shared his knowledge and many of his ancestral varieties with us.
People talk about us everywhere
It's always a pleasure to share our knowledge about seeds!