I believe that behind every craft ingredient is a story, an idea, a passion. That’s what my pop up dinner series, SOURCED, is all about. I want to show how the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, is not only a beautiful place but a delicious place, too.
When I started SOURCED, it was one big social experiment. The idea is to make people think about where their food comes from and plant a seed. The series follows the seasons; getting people to play with the food and connecting the dots of what’s in season, when.
‘SOURCED’ is all about putting the trust back into your ingredients, the people growing/raising them and the person cooking for you – every ingredient literally passes through my hands. So, I take my guests on an ever-changing moveable feast across the Okanagan directly to their food source with a surprise seasonal menu every time; turning locals into tourists in our own back yard; getting them travelling for good, clean and fair food and hearing the stories and people behind the food where it makes the most sense – around a diner table. But, the thing is, it’s not really about me – I wanted to shine light on my farmers because they have been my secret weapons.
And now I had the chance to do a quick fast version in the little but mighty town of Tatamagouche on the Northumberland Shore of Nova Scotia. Oh yeah, I had a day to check out the food and drink scene to craft the story behind the menu – challenge accepted. After playing in the tide pools at the Bay of Fundy and hanging out at the Hopewell Rocks, it was straight to this scavenger hunt for ingredients for the next day’s pop up dinner at Sugar Moon Farm.
Here’s an insider perspective with hopefully just enough background to make you want to get to know them better yourself:
Oh, Sugar Moon Farm.
I was virtually introduced to Scott and Sugar Moon in 2017 after a friend recommended I buy some of his delicious maple syrup online and have it shipped to BC for my mega Canadian pantry. So, when I dreamt up the plan for this East Coast edible adventure, Scott and Quita were amongst the first people to ask if we could meet in real life, which is why these farm visits were even happening in the first place.
The Sugar Woods is definitely a destination – they have a restaurant, you can hike and tour the area, and stock up on maple syrups colour coded by early, mid or late season. Like a lot of craft products, every year is different – there’s no real pattern or formula, just the trees doing what they do. I prefer the earlier extraction with its more delicate flavour, but I also saw how the earlier syrups aren’t necessarily the palest in colours. It’s going to be really cool to showcase a tasting flight to my Okanagan guests because maple syrup is not just maple syrup! This is definitely a taste of place and time, which is beautifully poetic to me.
The average Nova Scotian sugar season is 3 to 6 weeks, which is a lot less than say, Quebec. During that harvesting time, they collect around 20 litres of sap, which boils down to just ½ litre per tap using their gravity feed pipeline. When you take a walk through Sugar Woods, you see how much work is involved and it definitely makes you look at how much you’re drenching those pancakes in differently.
Scott and Quita were the ultimate hosts and after a tough year of pop up dinners and burning out, they shared some lovely words of wisdom to keep us going. Their maple syrup reflects them and what they do – they’re just stellar and made with heart.
Address: 221 Alex MacDonald Road, Earltown
Waldegrave Farm / Tatamagouche
This farm has a really interesting story behind what they do and the way in which they do it. It isn’t just a 2-acre certified organic farm growing really delicious vegetables; its farmland is part of the Tatamagouche Community Land Trust, set up to give farmers a chance.
The idea is to keep land and housing pricing affordable and accessible, even if prices in the local area go up. Without getting into too many details, it means young farmers can potentially start without a mortgage and invest their capital in things like infrastructure (like a packing shed for instance), instead of land payments. The Trust, plus its 6 leaseholders set up by-laws to protect the land, which means you can sell your house, but not the 2-acres of in-trust farm land around their home. These an annual lease fee for things like property taxes and common infrastructure repairs, but also a little pot to hopefully buy more land and make it more accessible for someone else. The 24-year renewable lease means Cammie and her family has enough security to make investments in the land, as long as it’s up to code. I think it’s brilliant and ties in with the First Nations belief that the land is borrowed and not owned.
Since moving from the North Okanagan, Cammie has been farming this land for 11-plus years and I learnt so much during our short farm visit. You can find Waldegrave Farm at the Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market on Saturday – with 70% of their overall sales coming from Halifax, you really do make a difference when you buy your weekly grocery shop from her.
Address: Waldegrave Farm Packing Shed, 11 Alex Cox Road, Tatamagouche
Tatamagouche Brewing / Tatamagouche
Tatamagouche not only has sketchy phone signal, but it’s also home to the 2018 Atlantic Canadian Brewery of the Year, which is random and awesome all at the same time. Tatamagouche Brewing is steeped with history. Once a butcher shop, you’d find the original butcher block in the centre of the brewery (hence the ‘Butcher Block’ beer in their portfolio). Now five years old and still family-owned, it’s a cool space to hang out and grab a beer or three, or sample a flight. You can also find their organic craft beers at liquor stores around the province.
Address: 235 Main Street, Tatamagouche
Bay Enterprises Oyster Lease
In the words of oyster farmer, Charles, ‘they [oysters] were probably the original swingers’ – they can switch their sex back and forth. As you can probably tell, Charles is quite the storyteller and character – you can’t help but fall in love with him as his sparkly eyes grows bigger and bigger as he talks you through all things seafood and sustainability. Bay Enterprises was Canada’s first oyster farm, dating back to 1866. Their first eco-harvested originated in Poole, England, which is near where I’m from. Learning about the English ties from across the Atlantic has been really fascinating, especially as I’m over on the Pacific now.
Back to Bay Enterprises, they harvest using the same techniques as when they started, with a few things to make it easier on their bodies. Despite it being an incredible amount of work, Charles told me this:
‘I just love what I do’
In his 70s, he’s working as hard as ever, but he really seems content, which is quite an amazing thing to experience. Home to the Tatamagouche and Malagash Oysters, they’re clean and crisp with a bright brine, which is refection of where they’re living the dream.
Address: 2642 Malagash Road, Cumberland
Sweet Earth Farm / Tatamagouche
Joe and Stephanie’s story is really quite something, but not uncommon in our farming scene around the country – more and more people are leaving their corporate day jobs to become self-taught farmers.
Raising non-GMO Berkshire pork and pasture-raised chicken, they also own two organic haskap berry farms. With the help of YouTube and lots of reading, the husband/wife duo has been laying down the roots for regenerative farming. The idea is for the animals to help each other out with a little circle of life action – the pigs will fluff up the straw for the cows to lay in, they’d peck out all the manure, the chickens will eat all the feed the pigs don’t eat, and by the end of winter there should be lots of manure for compost. In the words of Joe, ‘the new thing is hydroponics – growing things without soil. But where are the nutrients and minerals come from if you don’t have soil? It’s all about the soil and you can’t detach the two. You can’t grow and have life without soil because life is in the soil’.
Their farming practices keep on evolving with trial and error. The best thing is that it’s just going to get better and better (and their pork is already delicious AF might I add).
Address: 81 Spiddle Hill Road, West Earltown
Earltown General Store / Earltown
The General Store also doubles up as the gas station, so chances are you’ll pop in during a visit to the area. As you walk in, you’re greeted with the smell of freshly made bread – check out their olive loaf. The store does a really good job at supporting the local community with Waldegrave Farm veg, maple sugar, local cheeses and other things.
Address: 5556 Highway 311, Earltown
Random fact: Until the 1960s, Earltown was Gaelic speaking
Doing things the right way is often the hardest way. Good people deserve good things, and when we support small, independent or family-run spots, your spending choices really does matter and make a difference. I closed the doors of my own family-run restaurant in 2016, but I always promised to do what I can to try and help. Whether it’s in British Columbia or Nova Scotia, that doesn’t really matter.
After my day of farm visits, all I can say is what an inspiring Slow Food hub exploding with amazing humans doing great things. This emerging food hub really reminds me of places like Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, where organic is just the way it is.
Now it’s time to cook and hopefully do this beautiful produce, justice.
