With Valentine’s Day around the corner, some people may be looking for last-minute gift ideas. With possible tariffs looming over us, now is a better time than ever to buy local. Luce Desnoyers, of À Coup d’Ailes, has products available this year that are made locally as well as being the products of collaboration.
Desnoyers lives on a small self-sustaining homestead in Saint-Chrysostome. This is home to a variety of animals like horses, chickens, geese, and pigs. She also grows all kinds of herbs, plants, and fruits and vegetables. She devotes a lot of her time to making handmade soaps and candles. These soaps are often made from milk from her goats and are scented with herbs and plants that she grows on her own land, making them extremely unique.
The candles that Desnoyers makes are shaped in creative designs as well. “All the little details are realistic,” she says. Her candles are often in the shape of what they are scented as, or formed like cakes and baked goods. “Usually, every time someone passes in front of my booth, they ask if my candles are edible,” she says. For Valentine’s Day, she is working on candles shaped like different flowers, including roses and gardenias. These will also be thematically gift wrapped.
Not only does Desnoyers use her own ingredients to make her artisanal products, she collaborates with other Valley folks to keep her products as local as possible. For example, she will often use leftover beef fat from Boutique Bon Boeuf in Saint-Chrysostome to make soap, as a way to minimize waste. She also partners with other producers like La Planète Bleue for blueberries, and Le Boisé Saint-Jean-Baptiste for maple products.
Supporting local farms and businesses is a priority to Desnoyers for a few reasons. She feels that with the rich diversity of products available in the Valley, there is so much to enjoy. She also loves the passion and energy that each producer puts into their products. “Each time you walk through a market you meet people who are passionate about what they do, and just taking the time to chat with them means so much,” she says. She herself puts hours of work into each candle and bar of soap that she makes.
The main focus for Desnoyers is to use the resources on her farm as much as possible. “We do everything here. If we have to build a shelter for the horses, the wood will come from our land,” she says. Everything is done “like it was in the olden days,” she adds.
Desnoyers’ products can be found at the Voisin depanneur in Huntingdon, but she also attends many local markets. She will be present for the upcoming Huntingdon Farmers’ Markets.
Appointments can also be made to visit her small home boutique to take a look at – and a sniff of – her products; these can be organized by contacting the À Coup d’Ailes Facebook page. Her hope for 2025 is to set up a website with a shipping option.