Nova Scotia local food: an Atlantic-made pantry, aisle by aisle

Nova Scotia local food is more than lobster and blueberries. If you love a farmers market, want to shop closer to home or are filling a gift box, our aisles are full of it: honey from Nova Scotia bees, cider pressed from Nova Scotian apples, kraut fermented in small batches and milk from a Cape Breton Jersey herd. Below we walk through an Atlantic-made pantry aisle by aisle (pantry, drinks, sweet and fridge), with the makers we're proud to carry and how to use them.

What counts as Nova Scotia local food?

Local can mean where a food was grown, where it was made, or where the business is based. A Nova Scotia cider made from Nova Scotia apples is local all the way through. A coffee roasted in Nova Scotia uses beans grown far away, but the roasting, the jobs and the care are right here. Both belong in a local pantry, and it helps to know which is which.

Nova Scotia's food culture grew out of fishing communities and farms: coastal seafood on one side, orchard fruit from the Annapolis Valley on the other. Seasonal farmers markets still show it off, and the Halifax Seaport Farmers' Market is North America's oldest continuously operating farmers market.

Our Atlantic Canadian Made shelf gathers the makers from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador in one place, and our local makers page tells more of their stories.

The pantry aisle

Boates Farm: apples, pears and vinegar from the Annapolis Valley

Boates Farm grows organic apples and pears in Woodville, in the Annapolis Valley, and makes sweet apple cider and apple cider vinegar from them. It's the only producer of apple cider vinegar in Atlantic Canada, and the new orchard plantings are managed organically, without synthetic inputs. The organic program is certified by Pro-Cert Organic Systems. In the fall, the farm opens a U-pick on Saturdays and Sundays, so you can pick apples and pears in October and taste the same fruit in the bottle. Follow their page for the U-pick dates each year.

Honey, maple and preserves

Cosman & Whidden bees gather nectar from orchards, meadows and wildflowers across Nova Scotia, and the honey is pure and unpasteurized: a blend of fruit blossom, clover and wildflower. Hutchinson's is a family-owned maple farm, where Orval, Doug and Michele turn sap from their own hardwood maple bush into organic Nova Scotia maple syrup. Our guide to local honey and maple syrup goes deeper on both.

For a little heat, Halifax Honey Company Stingin' Hot Honey goes on pizza, wings, a cheese board or roasted Brussels sprouts. HardyWares Preserves makes jams, jellies and sweet mustard pickles by hand in small batches in Nova Scotia, and Wabanaki infuses maple syrup with elderberry for a sweet, fruity, earthy pour over pancakes or yogurt.

Coffee from a Wolfville co-op

Just Us! Coffee Roasters started in Wolfville in 1995, when five coffee lovers set up Canada's first fair trade coffee roastery as a worker-owned co-op. It's still worker-owned, still roasting fresh, and the beans come from small-producer fair trade co-ops. Tierra Madre is a smooth, chocolatey everyday pot. Our roundup of Nova Scotia coffee roasters covers the rest of the local coffee shelf.

Organics from farther afield: Filsinger's and Gold Top Organics

A local pantry has room for good Canadian neighbours too. These two family businesses aren't Atlantic, but they make organic staples we reach for all the time.

The drinks aisle

Cider has deep roots here, thanks to all those orchards, and the province's Good Cheer Trail of wineries, breweries and cideries was Canada's first beverage trail. Lake City Cider pours from a taproom on Portland Street in Dartmouth, the same street as our Dartmouth store. Its non-alcoholic ciders are made with 100% Nova Scotian apples: the original is light and crisp with fresh apple on the nose, and the cranberry version adds cranberry juice from Terra Beata Farms in Lunenburg. For the holidays, Spice Up Your Life brings cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and orange peel.

Bulwark Cider makes its non-alcoholic sparkling cider from a signature five-apple blend; it's crisp and pairs like a sparkling wine. Goodmore Kombucha is brewed with organic black tea, and the ginger flavour uses both fresh ginger juice and dried ginger. Kombucha brings live cultures, and many people enjoy it in place of soda.

The best local pantry is the one you cook from on an ordinary Tuesday.

The sweet aisle

Peace By Chocolate is the Hadhad family's chocolate company. After their family chocolate factory in Damascus was destroyed, they rebuilt in Antigonish in 2016 with the support of their new community, and they give a share of profits to peace-building projects. The Nova Scotia bar pairs dark chocolate with wild blueberries.

Made with Local began around a kitchen table in Nova Scotia, when founder Sheena Russell made a few dozen bars for her neighbourhood farmers market. The Peanut Butter Blondie Real Food Bar uses peanut butter from Windsor and organic milk chocolate from Grand Pré. Schoolhouse Gluten Free Gourmet, an Atlantic Canadian gluten free bakery, makes plant-based Nanaimo bars sweetened mostly with dates.

The fridge

Skye Glen Creamery milks a small herd of grass-fed Jersey cows in East Skye Glen, Cape Breton. Jersey milk is rich, with more butterfat and protein than most, and it comes to us in glass bottles, along with Skye Glen yogurt, made in Cape Breton. Nova Kraut hand cuts its sauerkraut in small batches from 100% Nova Scotian spray-free vegetables and ferments it naturally. Acadiana Soy makes tofu in Halifax from certified organic soybeans, in small batches, using traditional methods.

Fresh bread lives nearby: Birdies bakes naturally leavened sourdough in Nova Scotia with flour milled on a stone mill in the shop. Our guide to local sourdough has the full lineup.

A local pantry at a glance

How to build your local pantry

1. Start with what you already buy. Swap one staple you go through every week, like honey, coffee or milk, for a local one.
2. Give each find two jobs. Hot honey on pizza and on roasted squash; apple cider vinegar in a vinaigrette and a quick pickle.
3. Follow the seasons. Fall brings fresh sweet apple cider and U-pick days; winter is for maple, preserves and kraut.
4. Keep a list of favourites. Note the maker and flavour you loved so the next shop is easy, or so you can build a gift box.

Questions we get a lot

What is a famous food in Nova Scotia?

Lobster tops the list, in a roll or as a whole-lobster supper. Digby scallops are prized for their sweetness and tender texture, and Digby celebrates them every August at Scallop Days. Salt cod fish cakes, hodgepodge (a summer dish of new local vegetables in cream and butter), Acadian rappie pie made from grated potatoes and meat layered with broth, and blueberry grunt, wild blueberries under soft biscuit dumplings, are classics too. Wild lowbush blueberries are harvested in late summer. For a pantry, local honey, maple syrup, apple cider and sauerkraut are easy ways to bring that taste home.

What kind of food is Halifax known for?

Seafood, especially lobster rolls and fish and chips, and the Halifax donair: spiced beef in a pita with a sweet, garlicky sauce, created in the 1970s and named the city's official food in 2015. Halifax also has a busy farmers market scene and plenty of local makers, many of them on our shelves.

What is the best non-alcoholic cider?

Taste is personal, but we're big fans of the local ones. Lake City Cider's non-alcoholic apple and cranberry ciders are made in Dartmouth from 100% Nova Scotian apples, and Bulwark's sparkling non-alcoholic cider is crisp enough for a celebration.

Is Filsinger's apple cider vinegar good?

It's one we stock with confidence. It's made from Filsinger's own certified organic apples, wild fermented without added yeast, and left unpasteurized and unfiltered, so a cloudy strand of the mother may form in the bottle. At 5% acidity it's a good all-purpose kitchen vinegar.

Where can I buy Nova Scotia local food in Halifax?

At both Luminate Co stores and online. Look for the Atlantic Canadian Made shelf tags in store, or shop our Atlantic Canadian Made collection.

Local food is at both stores: 486 Starboard Drive in Bedford and 590 Portland Street in Dartmouth, open seven days. In HRM, order by 11 am with Luminate Express for same-day delivery, or choose pickup. Anywhere else in Canada, orders over $80 ship free.

Sources: Boates Farm; Filsinger's Organic; Gold Top Organics; Peace By Chocolate; Just Us!; Made with Local; Lake City Cider; Nova Scotia farmers markets; product labels and listings.