Lately I’ve had this great desire to make cassoulet. Not any speedy, short-cut cassoulet, but the full-meal deal. A two-to-three-day cooking extravaganza in three stages: bean stage, multi-meat stage and finally, splendid, aroma-rich, slow-cooking combo stage.

To make it real, though, I want the finest locally sourced duck (well, at least within the prescribed 100 miles) I can get for my cassoulet. That’s where Jean-Louis Hardy and partners Adrien Dugué and Jean-Marc Gendron come in. Together, the three emigrés from the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon operate Le Ferme du Diamant, purveying their own gently reared mullard ducks (no, not mallards, mullards: a fat-breasted hybrid of Rouen and Muscovy ducks or Pekin and Muscovy ducks), as well as traditional pork, veal and lamb charcuterie. Located in Cormier Village in southeast New Brunswick, La Ferme du Diamant sells its boudin, patés, foie gras, galantines, rillettes, mousse, magret, terrines, sausage and much more at farmers’ markets, including those in Dieppe, Moncton, Fredericton and Caraquet, plus other outlets dedicated to quality local foods.

Also well-tuned into locavore delights is Halifax, NS restaurant The Wooden Monkey, flourishing in a new, larger location and still enjoying some bounce from the hearty endorsement of Rolling Stone Ron Wood (who knew?) and his estranged wife Jo, who gave the restaurant a plug in her book, Naturally. It’s Oscar nominee Ellen Page’s favourite, too. On second thought, it’s just great if I don’t actually get around to making that cassoulet for a while.

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