- Nourish Champions
Staff Spotlight: Meet Ruth
Ruth is a homesteader in Unama’ki/Cape Breton, where she tends to her goats and chickens, plants all sorts of trees and flowering botanicals for birds and insects, along with vegetables for her family. She is interested in how water flows on the land she stewards, and has spent countless hours digging waterways (also known as ditches) and moving rocks to channel and store water. Ruth has been a cultural studies scholar for many years, with a focus on traditions where the interdependence of human and more-than-human beings shape and sustain dynamic ecosystems. She is particularly interested in how traditional ecological knowledge is embedded in and transmitted through story. Ruth is a keen teacher of small-scale, sustainable methods for growing food, and has employed this passion in her work with Nourish Nova Scotia as the garden mentor for Cape Breton and the Strait Region. Learn more about Ruth’s thoughts on food below.
What drew you to get involved with Nourish Nova Scotia?
I was interested in the opportunity to participate in a mentoring role that engaged youth and those who support youth, in learning to grow food and develop deeper connections to the land in Cape Breton and the Strait Region.
What is a food story you cherish?
My most cherished food stories inevitably involve my Nana, my Dad’s Mom. I was fortunate to grow-up next door to my Nana and Papa, on their old farmstead where my father was born. While Nana and Papa were not rich in a monetary sense, they were rich in their knowledge of how to make a little go a long way. I learned to forage for wild apples and mushrooms with my Nana. I first learned how to use a paring knife and peel those wild apples with my Nana. I first learned how to make the best pie crust with her. All these things (and more) I got to do long before I started kindergarten. Nana’s kitchen was my second (and favourite) home. Though she passed many years ago, she is still my mentor and guide in what it means to live a good life.
How do you see young people helping to influence food systems today?
Youth are deeply impacted by the changes that are happening to the natural world around them. In the past couple of years Nova Scotia youth have experienced, first hand, the devastating effects of floods,‘wild’ fires, and increasingly unpredictable weather – all due to climate change. Youth want to have a future where they can look forward to breathing clean air, drinking clean water, and eating healthy food. Learning to grow food while caring for the land is a tangible way for youth to engage, at the most local and fundamental level, in changing the food system. This is true for all of us!
If you could wave a magic wand and have your dream come true, what would your wish be for the food landscape in Nova Scotia?
Fostering a cultural and spiritual revolution so that people embody a deep respect and love for this beautiful land – our farmland, forests, and water. Without love and respect for the land there will never be any government policies that will actually put the food landscape first.
Is there anything you love to grow or cook?
There are so many things I love to grow, it’s difficult to choose. But, right now I am very interested in learning to grow or forage for high caloric grains and seeds that can be easily processed into flour. I love to cook Sunday dinner for my family, which usually involves some sort of roast, along with potatoes, veggies and salad fixings from the garden.