Ted's wound is healed enough that we won't need to spend time with the Quebec medical folks any longer. I love that we were able to switch from Fortierville to Gentilly to Sherbrooke fairly seamlessly. After our 10 a.m. appointment, we stopped in at the downtown permanent market, La Gare. Some sauerkraut with ham was calling to Ted from last year's memories. When we found out that this young man is the butcher and this is his business, some more interesting future memories made their way into our grocery bag.
When I think of Quebec, Amandines come to mind. What's wrong with an Amandine for lunch? You only live once.
After stopping in at the campground to put our perishables in the fridge and freezer, one of our favourite destinations was calling to us. South of Sherbrooke there is a fairly nice farming area. The land is very hilly, but farmers have managed to carve out some flat land here and there and built their farming operations. Not too many pig farms in this area. This is one.
We weren't heading for a pig farm.
We were heading for La Station Fromagerie. If you've followed our travels for years, you will recognize this place. When we first visited, maybe 10 years ago, they were still quite a small operation. Every year we've come back, we've been witness to their well-thought-out growth. This is the front of their on-farm store.
Hints of fall greeted us as we walked alongside the porches where visitors can enjoy treats from the store.
In the past year, they have built a huge interpretive centre adjacent to the curing rooms. If you read every sign and smell every sample of hay, you will get a really good idea of how they make such great cheese.
Example: "In the summertime, the approximately 120 Holstein cows are turned out to pasture. Since 2021, they have been spending their winters in a loose-housing barn, a system where cows can move about freely in an open area."
Example: "Our cows are fed a proper diet of dry hay and natural supplements and their biological rhythms are respected to optimize herd health. When needed, however, La Station uses essential oils, clay and homeopathic ointments, among other remedies to treat most minor injuries."
In the recent past there was a viewing window where you could see a person on a ladder turning the cheeses and cleaning them. That is no longer the case. That no longer happens. Replaced by a robot. Up to 30,000 cheeses can be stored in the curing rooms. Daily, the robot slides cedar planks carrying cheeses, dips them in salt water and brushes them to help cure them properly.
Wouldn't workers have sore arms if they needed to tend to all of those cheeses daily?
On our way back to the truck, we paid more attention to the signage along the way.
We admired the pipeline we'd seen the first time we visited this farm.
And, we tasted some cheese - this one has some oak ash in the middle.
Leaving the farm, we took the side road to get a better view of their new barn.
And, watched a cow go home.
Tomorrow, we will be going home too.
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