From artist to seed producer

Nature’s bounty at your fingertips.

Food as art.

A person who embraces the role of both artist and market gardener is making the headlines in the Côte-du-Sud region. His name is Patrice Fortier. He cut his teeth as an artist in New York City’s East Village in the 1980s, discovering the excitement of spontaneous gardens that combine artistic vision and food self-sufficiency.

Salsify.

While pursuing his graduate studies in visual arts and textile printing, Fortier became a gardener himself and left the city to study market gardening. He settled in Kamouraska, where the “La Société des Plantes” project was born in 2001.

Enjoy the video interview, with its full transcript.

Germination.

Fortier’s artistic practice is closely tied to his business activities. The revival of endangered plant species, genetic selection of plants, and landscape stewardship have inspired works that are integrated into agricultural practices and sometimes become inseparable from them. From artist to seed producer and market gardener, Patrice Fortier has continued the artisanal tradition unbroken, linking botany with aesthetics.

Harmony and profusion.

Vibrant colours and summer flowers.

With the interest that began in the 1990s in ecology and sustainable practices in market gardening, several seed producers began to grow acclimatized seeds. Ancient varieties are the pride of our restaurateurs, producers, and lovers of local food heritage. The diversity of food and the biodiversity of the past have given us the impression, as Charles Baudelaire wrote, that we are “eating memories.”