Potato Grower

refined a manner as I can muster, I scarf down the delectable concoction of yellow fries, brown gravy, cheese curds and blueberries. It is (and I exaggerate not) par excellence. JULY 10, 1:12 P.M. Ferme Gaston Bouchard, Sant-Ambroise Gaston Bouchard is not much of an English speaker, and, as already noted, my French vocabulary is derived primarily from children's films. But with Côté acting as interpreter, the pride Gaston, his son Matieu, and Matieu's 17-year-old daughter Ophélie have for their role in the region's potato industry shines through. Gaston's father settled in the area more than 80 years ago, and the farm has been in the family every since. Today, the Bouchards grow some 400 acres of high-quality seed potatoes of about 15 varieties. The nearby Propur fresh-pack shed was Gaston's brainchild in the early 1960s. He sold three other growers on investing in it, and even though the farm itself raises seed, the family still has an ownership stake in the packing plant. In fact, Matieu is the plant's current president. "The packing shed is right in our backyard," says Matieu. "It's home. We are the founding family of the project, and it's still my heart and soul." As we bump along through their fields, Matieu and Gaston point out the window, ticking off the varieties flowering in the rich, sandy loam: "That's an early yellow, smooth-skinned one called Obama. Over here is Chieftain, GoldRush, Superior, Kateri, Dark Red Chieftain, Frontier Russet, Envol, Andover…" The Bouchards have made their name on two things: innovation and integrity. In the 1970s, they were the first growers in Quebec to employ pivot irrigation and cup planters. "We're perfectionists," says Matieu. "We're people who, when we give our word, a handshake is a contract." 18 POTATO GROWER | NOVEMBER 2019 In spite of the normally wet climate in Quebec, Pierre-Luc Chouinard plans to improve irrigation on his seed potato operation on the eastern shore of the St. Lawrence River. André Gagnon's greenhouse houses around 100 varieties of early-generation potato plantlets and is the primary proving ground for Québec Parmentier's variety development program. Québec Parmentier seed sales manager Laurence Côté, right, with grower Kevin Rivard at one of Rivard's seed potato lots Matieu Bouchard grows 400 acres of seed potatoes on his family farm, as well as serving as president of the fresh-pack shed his father founded more than 40 years ago.

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