It's less of an aha moment than an ahhhh moment that point when the exhale deepens and eyes widen to fully absorb the lush rolling hills east of Montreal. “As soon as we turn off the autoroute and cross the bridge, life gets better,” says Richard Ouellette, who escapes the urban bustle with his life and business partner, Maxime Vandal, to dial it back at their farm in West Bolton (a little more than an hour’s drive from the city). “We come nearly every weekend and sometimes on weeknights for a quick dose of nature. It grounds us,” says Ouellette, a designer who draws inspiration from his childhood in the surrounding Eastern Townships region.
Ouellette and Vandal, an architect, are the creative team behind Les Ensembliers, a design, architecture, and construction firm in Montreal, but on weekends, they trade blueprints and business suits for garden spades and beekeeping garb. Their nearly 80-acre property—the former estate of an American tobacco heiress—is more than they intended to bite off when considering a country place five years ago, but “as soon as we drove up this allée of gorgeous, mature trees, we were sold,” Ouellette says.
Enchanted by noble apple trees, a grove of maples, acres of lush forest, and fields (now planted in hay) that had seen better days, the couple began digging in. Vandal transformed a garage into a chic and functional cedar-shingle coach house by the parterre, with a kitchen that opens to the garden on the ground level and living quarters above. An old farmhouse on the property remains a work in progress. “We’re dismantling it bit by bit to salvage materials for our future dream home,” says Ouellette.
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Humminghill Farm (so named for its many hummingbirds) has become the couple’s ongoing agri-adventure. Vandal loves nothing more than fussing over his “vegetable garden of inhuman scale—always the overachiever!” jokes Ouellette, who added beds of dahlias, cosmos, sunflowers, and zinnias to the mix. “If I was putting all this energy in the gardens, I wanted color and beauty.” In addition, the couple raise Chantecler chickens and have an apiary for pollination and honey. Their trusty assistant, Zack, a 12-year-old pincher mix, chats up the chickens. “He’s the boss of the place,” Vandal adds. “Mr. Z and the chickens have their own dance.”
Working the land has reconnected the designers with the rhythms of the seasons, but truer still, they delight in sharing the bounty. On prepandemic Saturday mornings, Ouellette would cut and deliver fresh flowers to 15 neighbors, more for joy (crank up the vintage convertible) than side hustle—“I love bringing happiness to people,” he says. The practice resumed this year with some adjustments.
Vandal has crafted a line of blended vinegars to make use of excess herbs and peppers grown on the land. “Max loves to cook. As soon as we begin inviting friends, he starts his focaccia recipe—baking relaxes him, as does gardening. I prefer to do nothing and relax,” says a laughing Ouellette, who, au contraire, makes his “never fails” sheet pan–roasted veggie dish and sets linen-draped tables in the garden and by the pond. He decks out the tables with homegrown centerpieces and wares from their latest venture—a line of pottery and textiles crafted by 16 local artisans (sold through their shop, La Ferme Humminghill). “Each artist and piece is a little different. We love combining textures, techniques, and finishes and the storytelling that comes from mixing and matching,” says Ouellette.
Indeed new stories unfold nearly every weekend. “It’s a privilege to live here and repurpose this land in a sustainable way,” says Vandal. “It changes our entire life on the weekdays to see this ahead of us, to come here and respond to the weather changing, to the chickens who demand attention. We are connecting to a simplicity and a daily rhythm that’s real and soulful.”
Guests, too, find kindred connection to the land, even bringing their gardening gloves to dinner. “It’s not that we put them to work,” jokes Ouellete. “They want to join in.”
Featured in our July/August 2022 issue. Photography by Andre Rider; Produced by Dayle Wood; Written by Stephanie Hunt.
