A Little More of Canada, One Province at a Time

Over the coming weeks, we are going to be shining a light on a different Canadian province or territory in each Wellness Letter. We love shipping our products across Canada, and over the years we have come to know customers, families, friends, and acquaintances from so many different parts of this country, along with many more people we have yet to meet.

We thought this would be a lovely way to share a little more of Canada with one another. Maybe you know Nova Scotia well but have never learned much about New Brunswick, or perhaps Nunavut feels very far away and unfamiliar. Each week, we will take a small look at the food, culture, people, places, and personality of a different part of Canada, giving us all a chance to discover something new and appreciate just how much beauty, history, and character exists across this country.

For us, it is simply another way to celebrate the people and places we are so fortunate to connect with — one province and territory at a time.

Welcome to Nova Scotia!

Nova Scotia at a Glance

Nova Scotia sits on Canada’s East Coast and is one of the three Maritime provinces, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and connected to New Brunswick by the narrow Isthmus of Chignecto. Cape Breton Island forms a major part of the northeast, and throughout the province, the relationship with the sea is never far away. Nova Scotia is also part of Mi’kma’ki, the traditional and ancestral territory of the Mi’kmaq, whose relationship with this land and its waters reaches back thousands of years.

Nova Scotia is Canada’s second-smallest province, larger only than Prince Edward Island, with a land area of approximately 52,825 square kilometres. Among Canada’s ten provinces, that places us ninth in size, or twelfth when the three territories are included.

What Has Traditionally Been on the Nova Scotian Plate?

Long before European settlement, the Mi’kmaq were living from the land and waters of Mi’kma’ki, drawing food from the ocean, rivers, forests and changing seasons. Fish and shellfish, eel, game, berries, roots and edible plants all formed part of traditional foodways, while smoking, drying, roasting and boiling allowed foods to be prepared and preserved according to what was available at different times of year. That knowledge of the land and sea forms the beginning of the food story of Nova Scotia.

As Acadian, African Nova Scotian, Scottish and other communities became established here, they brought their own food traditions and adapted them to what the province could provide. Fish and seafood remained central to life along the coast, while potatoes, root vegetables and other hardy crops became important because they grew well and stored through the winter. Oats, apples and wild berries also became familiar parts of the Nova Scotian table, and many of our traditional dishes developed from the practical combination of what could be grown, caught, preserved and shared.

There is no single modern “Nova Scotia diet,” and most Nova Scotians today eat much like other Canadians, but our traditional food culture still tells us a great deal about who we are. It grew from the sea, the land, and the people who learned how to live from both, and even today some of our best-known foods are tied directly to that history.

Fun Facts

The Donair Was Born in Halifax

The Halifax version appeared in the early 1970s when the traditional gyro was adapted to local tastes, using beef instead of lamb and adding that famously sweet garlic sauce. It became Halifax’s official food in 2015.

Hodge Podge Really Is Ours

That wonderful late-summer mixture of new potatoes, beans, peas and carrots swimming in butter and cream is a traditional Nova Scotia supper, and for many people it still tastes like the point in the summer when the garden is finally giving you a little bit of everything at once.

Moon Mist Has Three Flavours at Once

Banana, grape and bubblegum. It probably shouldn’t work, but Nova Scotians beg to differ.

And Yes, Some of Us Eat Seaweed Straight From the Bag

Fundy dulse is salty, chewy, and very much connected to life beside the Atlantic, and it may be one of the clearest indications that Nova Scotians have long been willing to see what the sea has to offer.

Nova Scotian Question of the Week

Why Are Nova Scotians Affectionately Called “Bluenosers”?

The name Bluenoser has been connected with Nova Scotians for generations, and there are several colourful explanations for where it may have come from.

One popular folk story says that fishermen working in the freezing North Atlantic winds often came home with noses turned blue from the cold. Another story says that fishermen wiped salt spray and sweat from their faces with woollen mittens or clothing dyed with inexpensive blue dye, accidentally staining their noses in the process. A third explanation points to the “Bluenose” potato, a blue-skinned or blue-streaked variety once grown widely in Nova Scotia.

No single explanation has ever completely settled the question, which may be part of why the story has lasted so long. What is certain is that the word Bluenoser became closely associated with Nova Scotians long before the famous schooner Bluenose ever appeared, and today it remains one of those names that many Nova Scotians recognize immediately as belonging to us.

The Personality of Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is a place of contrasts, and perhaps that is part of its charm. We can be decidedly folksy, with kitchen parties, fiddle tunes, church suppers, roadside vegetable stands, fishing boats tied up at the wharf and neighbours who still arrive with a casserole when somebody needs looking after, but that homespun side of the province should never be mistaken for being behind the times.

The same province that still knows how to make hodge podge from whatever came out of the garden that morning is also a Canadian centre for ocean technology, robotics, underwater sensors, artificial intelligence and marine research. More than 300 ocean-related companies operate here, and Nova Scotia has developed a remarkable concentration of people and businesses working on ways to understand, explore and work with the ocean that surrounds us.

And then there is the Navy. Halifax has been a naval city for centuries, and today Canadian Forces Base Halifax is Canada’s largest military base and home to the Atlantic fleet of the Royal Canadian Navy. Ships leaving Halifax Harbour may be heading down the coast, across the Atlantic or much farther around the world, and that naval presence has been woven into the personality and economy of the city for generations.

That connection to the sea seems to run through almost everything we do. We fish it, sail it, and study it. We build ships for it and develop technology to explore beneath it, and we also sit beside it with a cup of tea and complain about the fog. The ocean is not simply scenery here; it has shaped how people worked, travelled, ate, survived and built communities.

Nova Scotia’s personality also comes from the many people who have made this place home. Mi’kma’ki is the ancestral territory of the Mi’kmaq, whose relationship with this land reaches back thousands of years. Acadian communities have survived enormous upheaval while preserving a distinctive language, culture, and food tradition for more than four centuries. African Nova Scotian communities have roots here extending back hundreds of years, while Gaelic traditions remain particularly strong in Cape Breton and northeastern Nova Scotia.

Perhaps all of that history helps explain another very Nova Scotian quality: resilience without a great deal of fuss about it. People here have lived through storms, shipwrecks, hard winters, changing fisheries, economic ups and downs and the constant unpredictability that comes with living beside the North Atlantic. Communities have had to adapt, improvise and begin again, often more than once, and the ability to make something workable out of what is available has become part of the character of the province.

There is also an unmistakable creative streak here. Music, storytelling, craft, food and humour are woven through everyday life, and innovation is not really separate from that tradition. In some ways, the person working with an underwater robot in Halifax and the fisherman who devises a better way to rig his gear are displaying the same very Nova Scotian tendency:

“There must be a way to make this work.”

And perhaps that is Nova Scotia in a sentence:

Rooted in the past, surrounded by the sea, comfortable with a kitchen party — and quite capable of building the future.