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The Mission
We are a red seal chef and herbalist team passionately running a small scale regenerative farm and our local farmers' market in the village of Tatamagouche. Our farm focuses on food medicine and uses herbal medicine and fermentation to create nourishing foods for our community. Running our farmers market created a passion for building and sustaining essential local food systems, which also inspired our farm-to-table food truck. We serve a comfort food menu based on our market's offerings and fueled by our vendors products. Our goal is to create an affordable and locally sourced menu, giving our community a truly local option, while showcasing what the small businesses and farms around us have to offer. We use minimal input on the farm and work with nature to get the most out of our soil, which also allows us to lower food costs. Our product line flows with the seasons to ensure you get the ultimate local flavor experience, and your body gets what it needs to thrive in each one.
The Roots
The Chef
Shawn is a certified red seal chef who grew up on his family farm and is no stranger to having fresh food all around him. His mother also ran a bakery from home and being surrounded by real food and community working together became his goal. Once he finished culinary school and moved to Nova Scotia, he became passionate about growing his own vegetables to put into his creations and started a small scale homestead. In 2020 he accepted a manager position at the Tata Farmers' Market and helped build the market back up to be a place for the community to gather and support local businesses all in one place. Shawn spent years running kitchens with burnout atmospheres that just didn’t match what he was looking for from it all. Running the market not only inspired his dream to run his own locally sourced food business, and change the food system, but it also supported him in making it a reality. He’s also recently joined the board of Farmers Markets of Nova Scotia to help make a difference and show people how essential their local markets are.
The Herbalist
Ashley started her journey into the world of herbs + fermentation when she received the life-changing diagnosis of a digestive autoimmune disease. This destroyed her relationship with food for years, until she discovered the art of fermentation along with plant medicine, and finally began to heal + nourish her body. This pivotal moment ignited her passion for natural healing, as well as her goal to provide her community with local whole food options. She understood the importance of providing nourishing + real food, however, the high cost of store bought organic ingredients pushed her to explore an alternative path. This led her to regenerative farming, where she began cultivating her own herbs and fermenting her naturally grown vegetables for herself and her community. This last step finally allowed her to harness the incredible power of food as medicine, which can now be enjoyed on her weekly menu, as well as in her apothecary. This path also eventually lead her to the local farmers market where she now works hard with her husband to create a resilient food system for their community.