Les coups de cœur de l'équipe.

The Rocquencourt Butter dwarf bean is a heritage variety of French origin, renowned for its reliability and the remarkable quality of its pods. The compact plants, with their upright growth habit, quickly form neat and easy-to-maintain rows, typical of well-structured dwarf beans.

They produce tasty, smooth, uniform, golden-yellow beans, generally measuring 12 to 17 cm in length. These pods are free of parchment, the tough fiber sometimes found on certain beans, giving them a particularly tender and pleasant texture, even at a slightly later stage of harvest.

In the garden, Beurre de Rocquencourt stands out for its exceptional performance, even under more demanding growing conditions. This variety demonstrates good tolerance to humid and relatively cool climates, where other beans may struggle to produce. This hardiness makes it a reliable choice for unpredictable seasons or vegetable gardens subjected to prolonged periods of rain.

Harvested regularly, it offers a generous and consistent production, ideal for gardeners looking for a reliable, tasty butter bean that is easy to integrate into a vegetable rotation.

In the local area, the Rocquencourt Butter bean is seen as a reliable plant. It embodies the qualities of well-selected heritage varieties: consistency, adaptability, and the simple pleasure of successful harvests, even when conditions are not ideal.

Garden dill is a delicate and expressive aromatic plant, recognizable by its finely cut foliage and characteristic aniseed fragrance. From its very first appearance, it brings a visual and sensory lightness to the garden, swaying gently in the breeze on its supple stems.

Cultivated since antiquity, Anethum graveolens is valued for both its leaves and seeds. In the garden, it behaves as a warm-season annual, growing quickly but relatively short. It prefers sunny locations and well-drained soil, where it can fully express its aroma.

Dill integrates easily into vegetable gardens and mixed flower beds. It grows well alongside cucumbers, lettuce, or cabbage, while attracting a variety of beneficial insects when it flowers. Its yellow umbels of blossoms add a graphic touch and support biodiversity.

The Aunt Alice cucumber is an old variety that will appeal to gardeners looking for a generous and easy-to-grow plant. Originally from Europe, it has become a staple in vegetable gardens thanks to its abundant yield and relative resistance to common cucumber diseases.

With its vigorous growth habit, this variety produces elongated, deep green fruit, perfect for summer salads or pickles. Aunt Alice proves to be a valuable companion in the garden, bringing a touch of freshness during the warm season. Its vigor makes it an excellent choice for trellis cultivation, where it forms productive green screens.

In the perennial garden, it encourages biodiversity by providing shelter for the soil and contributes to the rotation of vegetables in the vegetable garden, thus participating in a sustainable ecological cycle.

Originally from Asia, the lemon cucumber is striking for its round shape and sunny yellow hue , reminiscent of a vibrant fruit fallen from the sky. Less common than its elongated green cousins, it is prized for its sweet and refreshing flavor , without the bitterness found in many classic cucumbers.

In the garden, it truly shines when grown vertically: its vigorous climbing habit benefits from being trained on a trellis, which showcases its round, bright, and easy-to-pick fruit. A generous, playful, and nutritious variety, it finds its place in diverse vegetable gardens, attracting attention and sparking curiosity both on the plate and on the vine .

The Grandma Dinel climbing bean embodies much more than a simple vegetable variety: it is a living testament to a family legacy passed down with care and affection. Its story begins in 1907, when Maximilienne Corbeil Dinel received, as a wedding gift, a packet of beans she affectionately called "her runners." She immediately adopted them, sowing them every year in her vegetable garden in Chénéville, in the Outaouais region. Even at over 94 years old, she continued to cultivate them with the same unwavering dedication, faithful to a silent but tenacious tradition.

It was her granddaughter, Judith David, who in 2008 took up the mantle of preserving this memory by entrusting these seeds to the Jardins de l'écoumène (Gardens of the Ecumene), concerned that they would not be forgotten. Despite research carried out in collaboration with the Potagers d'antan (Vegetable Gardens of Yesteryear ), the exact origin of this variety remains a mystery. It is therefore in homage to Maximilienne that this bean now bears the name Grand-maman Dinel (Grandma Dinel ).

In the garden, this climbing or trellising variety displays delightful vigor. The stems quickly rise to form a living web, an arch of memories to climb, flowering relentlessly until the first frosts. The long, pale yellow, flattened pods spread gracefully, containing plump berries to be harvested just before they are fully ripe—a key moment to avoid a mushy texture.

This hardy and generous bean naturally finds its place in a heritage vegetable garden. It loves to climb, reaching for the light, as if to tell its story again and again, season after season.

Originating from Italian market gardening traditions, the Aunt Mary's Paste tomato has carved out a prime spot in vegetable gardens seeking rich and fragrant sauces. Its elongated fruits, typical of "paste" type tomatoes, evoke the age-old rituals of slow cooking and preserving, lined up in the pantry.

In the garden, this variety proves to be a reliable companion during sunny summers. The indeterminate plants produce an abundance of elongated fruits suitable for processing. In a vibrant and bountiful garden, it contributes to the daily pleasure of summer harvests and the beautiful consistency of the seasonal cycle.

Originally from Sicily , the Rosso Sicilian is an old determinate tomato, carefully passed down by a Sicilian immigrant in 1987. This hardy variety has adapted well to Quebec gardens , where it appreciates rich, well-drained, and warm soils .

Its deep red, heavy, and heavily ribbed fruits resemble open flowers: spectacularly shaped tomatoes weighing up to 330 g . Their compact growth habit makes them ideal for planting in close rows, with light staking to support the weight of the clusters. In a thriving, nutrient-rich environment , this tomato becomes a reliable ally throughout the summer , with a harvest spread over 70 to 90 days . Its floral structure and moderate vigor make it a dependable plant in a vegetable garden that thrives during the warmer seasons.

The Yellow Pear cherry tomato is an old variety with irresistible charm. Pear-shaped tomatoes have been cultivated in Europe since the 16th century, and the Yellow Pear itself is mentioned in English records as early as 1752.

With indeterminate growth, it thrives in a living vegetable garden, forming long clusters of bright yellow, small pear-shaped fruit.

Its dense foliage protects its fruit from the scorching sun, while its cold tolerance allows it to extend the harvest until the first frosts. With good support or a sturdy cage, this vigorous plant becomes a faithful companion in the kitchen garden, where it generously accompanies the cycle of the seasons.

Originating from the Crimean region on the Black Sea coast, the Black Crimean tomato has become known for the unique color of its fruit and its rich flavor. In a thriving garden, its large tomatoes with green shoulders and purple flesh seem to ripen slowly in harmony with the sun, as if they were preserving the memory of the warmth of maritime summers.

In the vegetable garden, this is a standard , indeterminate tomato variety: it continues to grow tall and produce throughout the season if supported by sturdy stakes. Its fleshy and often abundant fruits turn a deep, almost chocolate-brown hue when fully ripe. In a nurturing environment that respects the natural rhythms of the seasons, the Black Krim naturally finds its place among heirloom varieties, offering a welcoming presence and delicious harvests to those who know how to observe and care for it.

Originating with the Hopi people, who have lived for centuries in the arid lands of the southwestern United States, this bean embodies the intimate, ancestral connection between communities and their seeds. Passed down through generations, this traditional variety— Hopi Black —reveals elegant yet robust, matte black beans deeply rooted in a culture of resilience, sovereignty, and respect for all living things.

In the garden, this dwarf plant is distinguished by its vigor and its ability to adapt to varying climates, including shorter or drier summers. It thrives in well-drained soil, tolerates drought, and produces abundantly even in regions with limited growing seasons.

Its unassuming foliage complements its discreet flowering, soon followed by pods filled with seeds that are easy to shell by hand. It is a valuable variety for gardeners committed to preserving living seed heritage.

Passed down since the late 19th century by the Morin family of the village of Chertsey in the Lanaudière region, the Adelin Morin tomato is a rare heritage variety that embodies a living chapter of Quebec's vegetable-growing history. Its flattened, heavily ribbed fruit, with its deep pinkish-red hues, evokes the large tomatoes seen in gardens of yesteryear. Produced in clusters of four, this beefsteak tomato forms robust, indeterminate plants that require careful staking and support until maturity.

It complements the gardener's age-old gestures—sowing, staking, observing, harvesting—and invites a relationship with life, following the rhythm of the days, from the small, fragile seedling to the heavy, sun-ripened fruit. In a supportive vegetable garden , it requires welcoming soil, sunshine, and regular attention, but it generously rewards with spectacular harvests, with fruits weighing from 200g to over a kilo. Faithful and expressive, it naturally finds its place in a respectful and deeply rooted cultivation.

A vibrant tribute to the diversity of North American vegetable gardens, the Royal Burgundy dwarf bean offers a unique spectacle with its dark purple pods contrasting against intense green foliage. Its compact, bushy habit makes it a perfect companion for urban gardeners, balconies, or small vegetable patches.

Hardy and cold-resistant, it ensures a generous yield even at the beginning of the cooler season. Its discreet white flowers herald long, tender, and flavorful pods that turn green when cooked. Undemanding and nitrogen-fixing, it integrates naturally into ecological crop rotations, nourishing the soil while adding color to the harvest. Accessible and rewarding, this bean embodies the balance between beauty, simplicity, and abundance in the garden.

Native to Africa and long cultivated in the tropics, this bitter-free fruit-vegetable is covered in small, soft spines that only pique curiosity. Its fresh flavor, somewhere between cucumber and a hint of sweetness , makes it a surprising addition to salads, stir-fries, or marinades. The young fruits, about the size of walnuts , can also be pickled in vinegar like gherkins.

In the garden, its tropical vine grows vigorously, its twining stems climbing up to two meters , clinging to trellises with fine tendrils. Its three-lobed, velvety green leaves form a dense canopy that shelters a bright yellow bloom, a promise of a beautiful season.

To thrive, this vegetable needs sun, warmth, and rich, well-drained soil , sheltered from the wind and away from tomatoes and eggplants. Picked young, while still green , it offers a generous, unusual, and flavorful harvest all summer long—perfect for those who want to invite a touch of culinary biodiversity into the heart of the vegetable garden.