About us

Back to the land

We had dreamed of going back to the land. And from that dream, a small farm was born, and then a processing and distribution business. In 1984, our hens, chickens and turkeys were happily pecking and scratching in the yard. We had goats for milk and pigs for meat, from which we made cheese and yogurt and homemade deli products. A large garden provided us with vegetables year-round. In the fall, we made jams and put up food for winter. With our freezer and cold storage room full, winter was the time to plan the start of the small farming business that was to see the day in 1989. Our son Julien was then 5 years old.

From the start, we opted for organic farming methods. For nearly 10 years, the farm produced a great variety of vegetables, raspberries and potatoes. Garlic and garlic flowers preserved in oil had always been part of our production, although in small quantities. Starting in 1999, we concentrated our production on garlic and on processing and marketing garlic flowers, the sales of which have shown consistent growth ever since. A conventional version of our garlic flowers product helped us produce enough to meet demand.

Our drive: Research and innovation

Our processing operations started in 1990 with the discovery of our star product, garlic flowers fermented in oil, a unique product, unlike any other on the market.

The development of our fermentation process is the result of many years of research. Since 2001, control of the fermentation process is achieved through the use of a bacterial culture specifically developed for our product. In collaboration with CBFC Canada Inc and its President, Gary Caldwell, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Food Research and Development Centre, we are still pursuing our efforts to develop other applications. We are proud to have been able to bring together modern biotechnology and fermentation, an ancient method of preserving food. In addition to giving incomparable taste to garlic flowers, fermentation makes it possible to avoid using any chemical preservatives, both in our conventional and organic products, providing an organic solution to a modern industrial problem.

Our motto: Strength in numbers

Canadians use four times more garlic today than they did 20 years ago. Currently, more than 95% of all garlic sold in Québec is imported, mostly from China, but also from Argentina, Mexico, California, etc. Garlic production in Québec is far from sufficient to meet demand. To achieve our dream of developing our market using local garlic, we have partnered with several Québec producers and have teamed up with Feliks Furmanek, Canada’s largest garlic producer.

Not only is there strength in numbers, but those partnerships are essential in a competitive and global market. Thanks to them, we have successfully entered the larger distribution networks, making high-quality, organic local garlic available to a larger number of consumers. Sold since 1990 in natural food stores, our garlic has been available in Québec’s IGA stores since 2005, and in all Provigo and Loblaws stores in Québec and Ontario since 2007. Furthermore, developing those markets enables today’s small producers to increase their production and fosters the emergence of new local garlic producers.

Our team:

Trust—in our strengths, our products and our partners—is the basis of our business philosophy. To us, trust is stronger than any contract and is the essential condition of success in business.

 

Christiane Massé,  CEO

A woman of many talents, Christiane created the farm with her husband in 1989. She took over the business in 2005.

 

 

Feliks Furmanek,  Vice President

An Ontario garlic producer for nearly 20 years, Feliks has been providing us with garlic flowers since 2001. He joined our company in 2005.

With his nephew Paul, Feliks has been producing organic-certified garlic for the past four years, using cutting-edge techniques, such as geothermal heating in warehouses and GPS-assisted mechanical weeding in the fields. Both are meticulous and very innovative and are constantly improving their production. Through their expertise, they demonstrate that organic agriculture can be achieved efficiently and on a large scale.

 

Johanne Desrochers, MBA, Member of the Board

A long-time friend, Johanne has been following the progress of Le Petit Mas since its very beginnings. In fact, she’s the one who came up with the name! Johanne joined the business in 2007. Her expertise will help develop new markets.