Food for Thought

Where does our food come from It's a simple question that generated the Slow Food movement. In Nova Scotia the answer has schoolchildren gardening, farmers' markets thriving, and people preserving our unique culinary heritage

It's a warm, sunny, August day in Hants County, and Allison and Jessica Hayes-Conroy are weeding the garden at Dr. Arthur Hines Elementary School in Summerville. In May the students planted the garden, but over the summer the weeds took over. Somewhere beneath the surface, seeds are soaking up nutrient-rich soil, beginning the transformation into the potatoes, onions, carrots, and corn they are destined to become.

As the 26-year-old twins pull weeds and till the soil, the leafy tops of vegetables become visible in rows. The Hayes-Conroys, who hail from Riverton, N.J., are living in Nova Scotia while conducting their PhD field research. Allison attends Clark University in Worcester, Mass., while Jessica attends Penn State. Both are students in the social and political discipline of geography. Allison is researching how everyday life with food—from tasting, smelling, and chopping to growing, tending, and shopping—can inspire social and political activism. Her focus is Nova Scotia's Slow Food movement, mainly because of its vibrant and friendly yet politically active membership. "My work focuses on human motivation for creating social change and for being part of a movement," says Allison.

Flower power: Allison (left) and Jessica Hayes-Conroy amidst the bounty at Dr. Arthur Hines Elementary School's student-tended garden.

Jessica is researching school gardens, both in Nova Scotia and in Berkeley, Calif., to determine how economic and gender differences affect the students' experiences. "I am interested in what sorts of visceral experiences are created through the garden and cooking program," says Jessica. "I want to know what it takes to try to create positive emotional experiences for schoolchildren so that programs like this garden can be more effective at creating nutritional and social change."

Although their research began as separate proposals, when two bodies of research both stem from food, they are bound to intertwine. "Both of us are interested in the moods, feelings, and sensations that arise through the interaction with the material world," says Jessica. "In this case, it's with food."

Needless to say, the scope of the sisters' research is wide, but their focus narrows as they crouch in the soil and corral their thoughts. The garden at Dr. Arthur Hines was spearheaded several years ago in the spring of 2004 by Kathy Aldous, a program co-ordinator of health promotion at the Hants Shore Community Health Centre and a former board member of Slow Food Nova Scotia (www.slowfoodns.ca). Aldous's plan was to get students involved with the production of vegetables while simultaneously—and surreptitiously—promoting healthy eating. "The children are learning skills in the garden and kitchen," says Aldous, "skills that are being lost in this modern world of two-income families and convenient supermarkets." Even though the program has had its challenges, such as finding time to integrate it into the school day and consistent funding, the garden is becoming an important part of the school. "It's attracting the attention of parents, teachers, and the community," says Aldous. "I believe all schools should consider having a garden."

On a global level, the Slow Food movement aims to educate; its focus is to encourage an understanding about food—how it tastes and where it comes from—in order to make eating more pleasurable. The goal isn't to abolish junk food; rather, it's to show that food comes from somewhere besides fast-food restaurants. "Slow food can't conquer fast food, but it can show that there's another food system out there," says Brian Kienapple, the leader of Slow Food Nova Scotia. "There is a triangular relationship between the person who grows the food, the person who prepares it, and the person who consumes it," says Kienapple. "This relationship is essential not only to the success of our local agricultural production but also to the preservation of Nova Scotia's culinary heritage."

Tending a garden is the perfect place to start. Students plant seeds in the spring and harvest the produce in the fall; then, in the small kitchen off the gym, three Grade 6 students at a time take turns working with a supervisor, who teaches them how to prepare lunches with the vegetables they have grown. Finally, the fruit of their labour is sold and served through the school's lunch program.

"Nova Scotia is where both of our interests overlapped. Beyond that, we both wanted to travel here, and we're excited to be here," says Allison (right) with Jessica, holding the fruits of their labour.

One day each fall, the menu gets a boost from Chef Michael Howell, the co-owner of Tempest restaurant in Wolfville, N.S., and a Slow Food member. "I am motivated by a belief that slow food and its ideals are important to impart to the younger generation," says Howell. While the children are both nervous and excited, they feed off the energy and immediacy of preparing the food. "The kids ask questions, some more relevant than others, like, 'What can I do with a turnip?' and 'What's coconut milk?' " says Howell. "Sometimes it's, 'Have you ever cut yourself with a knife?' or 'What's it like being on TV?' It's a worthwhile project I believe in."

Howell's recipes are relatively quick and simple, and they adhere to the standards of the school's healthy lunch program. The Nova Scotia Department of Education recently passed a new provincial food-and-nutrition policy that sets standards for the food and beverages allowed to be served and sold in schools. Vending machines containing junk food have been removed and replaced with more nutritional alternatives.

Occasionally, Howell pushes the envelope a little. "I'll bring in fish sauce and curry paste and create a Thai vegetable curry," he says. "The key is to keep the kids interested while teaching them to be creative with the ingredients they have." Sometimes the food is a hit; other times it's a miss. Either way, everyone gets a chance to taste familiar vegetables—squash, potatoes, corn, parsnips, onions, and carrots—in new ways.

"What the school garden is also doing is tying educational concepts—math, science, biology, socialization—to what goes on in a garden," says Kienapple. While the garden isn't an official Slow Food Nova Scotia project, the organization has been involved in the process by bringing in Howell to harvest and prepare the food.

Soon these concepts will be captured on film. Kienapple and Aldous, with the help of funds raised by the convivium (for the definition of a convivium, see above), are making a video to document the process of creating and working in the Dr. Arthur Hayes garden. Kienapple is currently in discussions with Acadia University to market the video both as both a health and an educational tool. "We hope the video is more inspirational than educational," says Kienapple. "We're marketing it to education officials to encourage implementing gardens in more school districts."

That's the essence of Slow Food. An idea becomes a seed that grows into the hands of farmers, students, parents, teachers, chefs, and consumers. As these connections grow stronger, the symbiotic relationship between rural and urban communities is strengthened. Farmers' markets grow. Consumer awareness rises. Local tastes are rediscovered. History, tradition, and culture are revived through something as simple as growing vegetables in a garden. "Blueberries, maple syrup, lobster, the Berkshire pig, Gravenstein apples—these are foods that have cultural and culinary significance in Nova Scotia," says Kienapple.

Slow Food has 1,000 convivia throughout the world, but Allison and Jessica Hayes-Conroy chose to conduct their PhD research on the Nova Scotian convivium. "We wanted a place that was likely to be different from Berkeley in terms of agriculture, history, culture, and diversity," says Allison. "We also wanted to do research in the same place. Nova Scotia is where both of our interests overlapped. Beyond that, we both wanted to travel here, and we're excited to be here."

Perhaps it's the biodiversity of farms here—they're the most diverse in Canada—that make it unique. Or it could be that the province had the first farmers' market in Canada, one that is still thriving today. Maybe it's the active interest Nova Scotians have in preserving their culinary heritage in order to create variety in their food choices. One factor is certain: The gap between rich and poor isn't broad enough here to drive a socio-economic wedge between consumers and producers. Wedges such as those, which exist in many parts of the United States, make researching social and political activism there an elitist activity.

While Allison and Jessica believe that food will forever be a complex topic, they feel their time in Nova Scotia has been well spent. "We've been warmly welcomed by Slow Food Nova Scotia, and we've had a great experience," says Jessica. "We came here hoping to engage people in dialogue, to discuss the fun, the chaos, and the complications of food activism." Although the sisters bid farewell to the province at the end of September, that doesn't mean they don't plan to return. "I love it here," says Jessica, "and I hope to move here one day."

— Lindsay Cameron Wilson

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