Take your pick: adrenaline packed or slow and contemplative?
Published on Jul 5, 2022
General Manager of the Virée gourmande des Comptonales and a sheep’s milk producer, Julie Mayrand is passionate about promoting the indispensable work of the region’s producers and processors.
Les Comptonales is the Gastronomy Outing which has been held every autumn for the past 15 years in Compton. It gathers some fifty producers, processors and artisans on a circuit visited by more than 5,000 visitors over the course of a weekend. It’s also an evening market, held every Thursday during the summer in Compton’s Lions Park, showcasing about thirty producers: fruit, vegetables, meat, cheese, breads...
“Created by a group of women wishing to promote the work of agricultural producers and transmit the region’s agri-food heritage, the Comptonales are always led by women who take their mission to heart,” Julie explains. She’s in charge of everything relating to the organization of the Virée gourmande event. She’s supported by Diane Goyette, one of the founders responsible for the Evening Market and who is the Chairperson of the Governing Board. “Being involved in the Comptonales allows me to contribute to the vitality of the agricultural community, while continuing the work accomplished by the women who preceded me,” she emphasizes.
Julie also owns a dairy sheep farm. So she knows what it’s like to be an unconventional producer who has to deal with all kinds of challenges to establish herself and prove the quality of her products. While to us as consumers, this may seem like “just” the milk production stage, Julie points out the importance of teamwork. “Without the producer, processing is not possible,” she says. On the other hand, without the artisan to transform our products, they aren’t valued and used to their full potential. Julie truly believes everything is connected, and sees it as a wheel that turns; everyone has an essential role to play in making things function properly. It is therefore quite natural for her to promote local producers in her role within the Comptonales, in addition to contributing to this ecosystem as a dairy farmer.
All producers, processors and artisans deserve to be promoted. And this is made possible by the involvement of a variety of stakeholders in the Comptonales, where a sense of community prevails. Producers get involved in the project to contribute to the development and vitality of the community, and the spirit of helping and supporting each other illustrates this quite well.
For Julie, gastronomy is central to the Eastern Townships. There is no doubt in her mind that it contributes to the vitality of our region. She feels particularly privileged to live in the Coaticook region, where she can purchase her groceries from a variety of local producers, close to her home.
It’s now your turn to discover the work of our producers and the abundance of local products! Visit the Compton evening market on Thursdays from June 16 to September 15, and the Virée gourmande on October 8, 9 and 10.
If she could, Julie would probably have mentioned every producer of the Comptonales! However, here are just a few of them:
Terroir Artisans
Marthe Tremblay – Founder and Coordinator of La Mante du Carré
Terroir Artisans
Sébastien Authier – Co-Owner of the Rural Brewery 11 comtés
Terroir Artisans
Jean-Sébastien Béraud – Co-Owner of La Mie Bretonne
