Seventeen farms and workshops, one menu, a distance for each
We have not sorted our producers by category. Categories move with the seasons, and the farm that brings vegetables in July brings squash in October. We sorted them by distance instead, starting on the roof and travelling outward.
It is the only order that tells the truth about a kitchen. It makes visible the one thing that cannot be dressed up: how far an ingredient actually travelled, from the soil to the embers.
One house lies beyond 120 km. We own that below, and explain why.
→ See this season's menuCircle zero — the house itself
Jardins Maison Boire · 0.01 km
Herbs, garlic, peppers, tomatoes, honey. Between the harvest and the plate there is a staircase.
The gardens, the greenhouse and the towers
Behind and above 13, rue Court: rows in open ground, beds on the terrace, a greenhouse that gives seedlings a head start in spring and stretches the season into October, and vertical growing towers whose greens are cut the same day they are served. The zinnias, borage and nasturtiums that garnish the plates grow three metres from the kitchen.
The rooftop garden reclaims heat from the grill. That is not a metaphor: it is what buys us a few extra weeks of harvest at both ends of the season.
The hives
Our honey ends up on desserts and in the bar's cocktails. The beekeeping know-how comes from MeliFera, who has been with us since the first colonies.
The henhouse
A few hens, closely watched. From coop to kitchen, their eggs travel about ten metres — the shortest journey on this page.
What the fire leaves behind
All the cooking is done over maple wood. The ashes are not waste: they regulate the pH of the gardens and go into the house laundry soap. Compost goes back to the beds. Rainwater is collected.
The first circle — under 15 km
Seven of the seventeen are less than a quarter of an hour away. That is where freshness is won or lost.
Mycep · 2.1 km
A vertical mushroom farm in the middle of town, a few streets from here. Picked in the morning, over the embers the same evening — and the whole journey fits in a crate on a back seat.
mycep.caHuilerie Arôme des Champs · 9.5 km
The kitchen's everyday oil. Pressed in Bromont, it spares us shipping the most ordinary product in the brigade across an ocean.
laromedeschamps.comMeunerie Agro-Bio · 9.5 km
Our sourdough starts here, and so does the fresh pasta. A mill ten minutes away means ordering a flour to suit a recipe, instead of bending the recipe to suit a flour.
coopagrobioquebec.comMiel Fontaine · 11.1 km
Our own hives cannot carry a full season. Honey from Sainte-Cécile-de-Milton takes over — on the goat cheese, in the cocktails, in the marinades.
mielfontaine.caFerme de la Canopée · 11.3 km
This is the farm that carries the vegetable side of the menu from May to October. What comes out of the ground on Tuesday can be on the table Wednesday, at opening.
fermelacanopee.comBoucherie Locale · 13.8 km
Good people, fifteen minutes away. This is where we find the cuts you cannot order from a catalogue.
Boucherie Locale on FacebookThe second circle — 15 to 50 km
Brome-Missisquoi, the Haute-Yamaska, the first orchards. Eleven of our seventeen producers sit inside this 50 km radius.
À la Canne Blanche · 29.6 km
An organic egg farm run by farmers living with visual impairment. The story of the farm is worth as much of your attention as the eggs are — and we are glad to tell it in the dining room.
alacanneblanche.comBoucherie Coutu & Frères · 38 km
A village butcher, forty minutes out. Proximity changes one simple, decisive thing: we order the cut the menu calls for, instead of choosing from what is left.
boucheriecoutu.comWagyu Québec · 38.6 km
Wagyu raised in Québec, by Guy Noiseux's farm. The marbling, without the ten thousand kilometres.
Wagyu Québec on FacebookAil du Pinacle · 47.2 km
Garlic grown at the foot of Mount Pinacle does not taste like garlic that has crossed the Pacific. That is the whole argument, and it fits in one bite.
aildupinacle.comThe third circle — 50 to 120 km
Deeper into the Townships, and out to the island of Montreal. This is where we go for what the Haute-Yamaska does not make: miso, milk of a very high order, the forest, fish.
Aliments Massawippi · 69.3 km
Living, certified-organic ferments: miso, fine tamari, food-enzyme cultures. This is the salted depth behind several of our sauces — fermented an hour from here rather than half a world away.
alimentsmassawippi.comLaiterie La Pinte · 70.6 km
The milk is drawn on Monday morning and delivered to the restaurant on Wednesday, in deposit bottles that go back empty. Two days between the milking and the crème brûlée: as short as it gets.
lapinte.caRacines Boréales · 85.7 km
Fiddleheads, wild mushrooms, understorey plants, products of Québec's land and sea. What the forest gives to those who know where to look — and when to stop picking.
racinesboreales.caFerme Opercule · 96.1 km
An urban fish farm raising Arctic char in intensive recirculation, in a system that uses 100 to 200 times less water than a traditional open-flow operation. Cold-water fish raised in a Montreal neighbourhood: one of the most interesting bets on our menu.
opercule.caFerme piscicole des Bobines · 119 km
At the foot of Mount Hereford, at the far end of the Eastern Townships, a farm raising trout in running water. It is our easternmost point, and the reasonable limit of a fresh delivery.
lesbobines.comThe one exception — the river, 468 km out
Sel du Saint-Laurent · 468 km
Exactly one of our producers is past 120 km, and it is the salt. Manuel Bujold Richard evaporates St. Lawrence water to draw a Québec sea salt from it. The alternative would be shipping salt from France or the Himalayas. We prefer 468 km along the river.
selsaintlaurent.comThree more producers, on the drinks list and in the pantry
They are not on the distance map above, but they belong to the table.
- Ferme Le Rizen — organic Asian vegetables, Frelighsburg. lerizen.ca
- La Villa vinaigres & jardins — artisanal vinegars, Saint-Pierre-de-Broughton. lavillavinaigres.ca
- Brasserie La Ferme — farmhouse beers, Granby. brasserielaferme.ca
Maison Boire is a member of Aliments du Québec au menu and an accredited partner restaurant of the Créateurs de saveurs des Cantons-de-l'Est.
Everything that touches the table
The plate is not the only object in a meal. The dish, the glass, the binding of the menu, the table runner: every one has a pair of hands behind it, and we know whose.
Clay — the pottery studio
Maison Boire has its own pottery studio. The stoneware that carries the service is thrown and glazed by hand: no two plates are quite alike. In summer the studio also runs private classes, and it trains.
The service stoneware is by Atelier Bedford.
Leather — La Compagnie Robinson
Vegetable-tanned leather, stitched in Sutton by Patrice Didier. It binds our menus and dresses our tables. It is a material that does not stay new for long — which is precisely what we ask of it: to age alongside the house.
Glass — Boutiverre
A glassblowing studio in Lac-Brome, working since 2012, run by Caroline Couture. It collects bottles from businesses across the region and blows them into light fixtures and service pieces. Several of our cocktails are served in a glass that has already had a life.
Ceramics — Makiko Hicher
Our water glasses, thrown and glazed by hand. Ceramics right down to the smallest gesture of the table.
Our walls are a gallery
Maison Boire exhibits. The walls change with the seasons, like the menu.
Rizlane Abdessamad
Ethereal long-exposure photographic works in which the body becomes light. She presented her first solo exhibition here, across three floors.
rizlane.caZoé Boivin
Born in Granby, off to Montreal in 2010, back in the region in 2022. A luminous contemporary abstraction — and a mural signed for the house as far back as 2018.
zoeboivin.comNicolas Ruel
The Canadian artist who prints his images on stainless steel, under his "8 seconds" signature.
nicolasruel.comRichard Bernardin
A cinematic eye, between Montreal and New York. Canon Canada ambassador.
richardbernardin.comWhat we measure
We started counting kilometres before anyone asked us to. It is what earned the house LEAF Level 3 certification in 2019, then first place in Canada under the LEAF programme in 2020, and the Restaurateur of the Year Award from Aliments du Québec au menu in 2021.
What we track, year after year:
- Origin. Every producer is named, placed and linked. The distance is public.
- Season. The menu changes when the farms change. What is no longer growing does not stay on the card.
- Residue. Compost to the beds, wood ash to the garden and the soap, rainwater collected, paper and cardboard remade on site.
- Energy. Cooking is done over maple wood, without a gas flame in between.
- Material. Tableware thrown on site, glass blown from salvaged bottles, vegetable-tanned leather — rather than anything disposable.
We do not claim to be self-sufficient. We have made it a stated goal, and we publish where we stand.
→ Our distinctions and press coverageWhat we pass on
A house that produces should also teach. The pottery studio runs summer classes and takes on apprentices. We once spent five summer days running green workshops with the ovens cold. And we take part in Semer la santé, a regional project bringing partners together around healthy eating for young people.
Come and see
The best way to check any of this is to sit down. The chef's counter looks straight into the fire; the gardens are behind; the studio is upstairs. We answer questions.
Are you a producer or a maker in the region who thinks their work belongs here? Write to us at info@maisonboire.com.