Make Way for Local Oils!

Which product from your lineup is your personal favorite—the one everyone should taste?

I absolutely love hemp seeds. I never thought they could taste that good. They’re my personal favorite, and every time I let someone try them, I get the same reaction. It’s an exceptional product—nutritious, with a nutty flavor, yet without being a nut!

It’s easy to add our products to your daily routine—just use them the same way you already use chia seeds, olive oil, or chickpeas: a spoonful of ground flax seeds in a smoothie, a drizzle of hemp oil and a sprinkle of seeds on a salad, or a dash of spicy oil on a pizza. Use yellow peas in hummus or stews, and beluga lentils in soups. Have fun—it’s so easy to reinvent classic dishes using Quebec-grown ingredients.

When you acquired Tournevent Farm, why did you choose to focus mainly on grains and oilseeds?

Our project has always been to grow our own specialty grains to produce virgin oils from Quebec, for Quebec.

Looking back, we realize that we were innovators in our crop choices. When we first started growing hemp, everything still had to be learned. Harvesting and drying require very specific know-how. It was also a financially risky crop at the time, since there was no crop insurance—so we were completely at the mercy of nature. Over the years, we have become leaders in the field.

In the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region, canola grows extremely well—actually better than in the southern part of the province, where it’s warmer. So it made perfect sense to grow it organically on our isolated lands, which is quite rare. We also grow excellent Quebec flax, camelina, buckwheat, and legumes such as yellow peas and black and green lentils, which we grow using companion planting alongside our grains.

(Note: Companion planting means growing two crops together so they help each other—by attracting pollinators or preventing weeds, for example.)

You operate under organic certification. Why did you choose this approach?

For us, organic farming is both an ethical and logical choice—we couldn’t imagine doing things any other way. Living in harmony with the land, wildlife, plant life, and natural resources is part of our core values. The long-term impact of chemical products on crops and biodiversity is well recognized, and we want to avoid that at all costs. Of course, choosing organic is a real challenge—it requires a lot of work and it’s expensive—but it’s the path we chose so we can pass on a healthy legacy to the next generation. And we’re very proud of that.

You handle everything yourselves, from the grain to the bottle of oil. How does that whole process work?

We use a vertically integrated model, since we are both producers and processors. We clean our own grains on-site and then transform them into our own line of in-house products. This allows us to control quality from start to finish.

And cleaning grains is no simple task! When you harvest in the fields, you collect not only grains, but also rocks, weeds, and insects. At Tournevent, we have top-of-the-line equipment and deep expertise in grain cleaning. We’re able to produce food-grade products with exceptional quality and uniformity in size and color, right on site.

What does innovation look like at Tournevent?

Our goal is to build a “Factory 4.0.” We’re not an artisanal oil mill in the sense that we want to produce large volumes to feed as many people as possible—and we want to give ourselves the means to achieve our ambitions. We aim to automate as many tasks as possible, freeing our employees from physically demanding work, and instead offering them high-quality jobs. We already control several pieces of equipment using digital tools, and we’re moving toward smart machines that can even be monitored through our phones.

For us, innovation also means ensuring our long-term sustainability by embracing the circular economy: eco-designed packaging, adding value to our press cake (a by-product of oil production) by turning it into flour and animal feed, and sharing agricultural equipment, among other initiatives.

A Palette of Colors and Flavors

Quebecers should know that our oils are incredibly flavorful and highly nutritious. They are cold first-press oils, which allows them to retain more flavor, nutritional value, and color. With Tournevent, you can truly taste the impact of terroir and northern climate, as each batch features subtle variations—much like a fine wine vintage.

• Canola – bright yellow – flavor reminiscent of sunflower
• Hemp – green – nutty flavor
• Flax – yellow – shortbread cookie flavor
• Camelina – orange – herbaceous flavor

To discover Tournevent’s products, visit their online store.