Every morning Jean-Sebastien Sauvageau and his father are out in the pastures feeding thousands of animals that include rabbits, guinea fowl, quail and ring-neck pheasants. And yes, you can even hunt pheasant on the farm. The pastures cascade along the top of a hillside with a stunning view of the St. Lawrence River just over the next hillside. Is it any wonder he loves his job?

“If I wanted to be a rich man, I wouldn’t have picked agriculture,” laughs Jean-Sebastien. From where I’m standing surrounded by rolling green hills, the beautiful blue water of the river that looks more like a lake and the soft sounds of cooing, snorting and clucking of the animals seems pretty rich to me.

Jean-Sebastien studied much of his animal husbandry skills in France before he established his farm almost ten years ago. He raises over five thousand rabbits for the meat. The fur is too expensive to treat so the pelts are discarded. He also raises guinea fowl, pheasant and quail for commercial sales. “Last year we sold over 10,000 dozen quail eggs,” says Jean-Sebastien.

 

Volieres is a family affair, his father helps out with the animals and maintenance of the farm and his mother assists in retail and production of some of their amazing products like the Guinea Fowl liver pate with onion confit (fondant de foie de Pintade) that is called ‘little Jesus in velvet pants’ because of it’s silky texture and divine flavour.

It’s difficult to make a living at farming even with the entire family involved. He has worker houses where people stay in exchange for learning how the business of raising these animals for profit works. But Jean-Sebastien says he’s finally in a good place where he can see the business take hold. He laughs, “it’s the end of the beginning. The next phase should be better”

 

The farm is open to the public and people come to see the largest number of different animals in the county. There are turkey, goats, chickens, pigs, rabbits and a whole host of specialty animals and even a chicken that lays green eggs.

The retail store and production facilities are a compact unit in the basement of his house. Here you can taste and buy many of his products including my favourite, his mothers untraditional red onion confit made with raspberry vinegar.

Volieres is on the Charlevoix Flavour Trail. It’s worth a visit to Baie-Saint-Paul in Charlevoix, Quebec.