West Brome barn transports visitors to life on a plantation
Travellers on Route 104 between Knowlton and Cowansville can’t help but notice an area of land just west of Route 215 in West Brome that has rows and rows of billowing flowering bushes that are still blooming even though most have passed their peak and are about to burst forth with clusters of deep purple berries. Few would suspect that what looks like a traditional barn on that same property has become a hospitality suite and showroom for all the elderberry products that the owners of “Vitalité Sureau” have for sale.
For the past 17 years Phil Gelinas and Andrea Coombs have been working on their home and out buildings, busying with bringing up children, and working at other employment. Until three years ago, the land they have owned has been used for grazing beef cattle owned by other farmers. Several years ago they learned about an extraordinary indigenous shrub that yields fruit with an abundance of health benefits. After researching further, they now say that it only made sense to try growing some elderberries.
“It is indigenous to the area, it is low in maintenance, it likes the damp soil of the lower-lying areas, it has a high yield, it has huge nutritional and health benefits,” explained Coombs. “Why wouldn’t we want to try it out?” What has resulted is a full-time operation tending to over 50 acres of what has been touted as one of the top antiviral herbs on the planet.
Registered as an official agro-producer with Quebec’s MAPAQ (Ministère Agric, Pecherie et Alimentation du Québec), Vitalité Sureau grows, processes, and sells its products from within the grand old barn that once sheltered beef cattle and hay. One would say that they are operating a vertically integral business. That means it is theirs from top to bottom.
Part of the operation has meant having to renovate their barn built in the 1800s. By cutting open a wall Gelinas was able to install a massive picture window that looks toward the southeastern section of the plantation. The window
provides natural light that adds to the airiness of the immaculate space where the charm of yesteryear is shared with the sleek, no-clutter look. Gelinas says that they could not have succeeded in getting the barn to its present state without a lot of hands-on help from family and friends.
Doors wide open to get a cross draft, visitors are welcomed into an airy atrium that is sparsely furnished, save for an antique table for four and a massive bar clad with several 42-inch wide pine slabs from trees that once stood for hundreds of years by their home, also built in the 1800s. Still a part of the property, after a two-year wait for their majestic old pine trees to dry out. The logs were ripped during the cold winter months so that the gum from the trees would not jam the saw blade. Afterward, the thick planks were sanded smooth and drenched in shellac to give a clean and slick appearance. Coombs explained that everything that can be seen inside the barn is material that has been reused, from the large rectangular white enamel sink behind the bar that was once in their wood-frame farmhouse to the corrugated metal on the wall that came from a barn roof.
Coombs and Gelinas are now going full throttle in a business that features everything elderberry. From flower infusions, and honey, to jam, juice concentrate, muffins and pastries; all can be found inside an 1800s barn that they have renovated. She admits that she has barely had time to come up for air. They have a bumper crop coming this season and know that they will need help to harvest the berries. Gelinas says that they anticipate an intense gathering time of about two weeks over the Labour Day period.
Coombs says she wants visitors to take advantage of the full experience. They are welcome to take a stroll through the plantation or just sit in the luxurious wicker chairs under the permanent awning over the massive balcony overlooking the elderberry fields and rolling hills while sipping on elderberry lemonade and feasting on anything elderberry.
Both Coombs and Gelinas say that some visitors think that the barn would make a wonderful reception room for special occasions. They are open to the idea and suggest that people give them a call to make arrangements.
Meanwhile as the processing is expanding, Gelinas is set to finish the basement. But owing to guidelines established by MAPAQ this part of the operation will not be available for visitors. It is for reasons of hygiene that they must limit the people inside the production area.