It’s summer in Nova Scotia. That means summer foods, lots of barbecuing, outdoor eating, and fresh from the garden (soon) additions to the menu. It’s a great time to look at adding Big Cove Foods to your summer menu.
The Big Cove Foods story is homegrown in Pictou county. It started when Sarah and Dave moved into the family farmhouse after leaving Toronto.
It was a big adjustment. In a city, everything is close by. Lots of markets and specialty stores, lots of food choices, flavours, and variety. Dave’s solution? Grow things to enhance the local foods. Sarah was already putting in vegetable gardens. Dave started to mix spices and herbs together, and the two of them began to sell food items at the local farm market.
Fast forward 10 years to now, Sarah and Dave have grown a family, along side a business. Big Cove Foods currently offers nine different cooking spice blends and three sweet spice blends. The names of the blends are fun, such as ‘Mary Had a Lot of Lamb’, a sumac, rosemary and thyme blend. It is great with lamb but also works well in salad dressings or pasta sauces. ‘Porcini BBQ Genie’ has a mushroom base with a little brown sugar, pepper, ginger, lemon peel and other earthy things in it. It makes a fabulous rub, or use in egg dishes or with chicken. The ‘Maximum Pie’ blend is perfect for apple pies, and works in cinnamon rolls or sprinkled over a latte. These are just three of the blends.
The spice blends have been developed to be gluten free, low sodium, vegan and will not contain msg or fillers. It’s all flavour. There is a note about sulphites on the packages as these occur naturally in the spices used to create the blends. Also, each package has a little heat guide on it, indicating the intensity of the spice heat so you buy with confidence, and won’t burn your taste buds off by mistake.
There are three things I really appreciate about this company. First, it’s Nova Scotian. There’s so much discussion on supporting local and here is a small family-owned and operated company we can support. Sarah and Dave have invested their lives in to the very soil of our province, and the returns are delicious. Second, they give back. The company is part of the 1% for the Planet certification. 1% of sales are donated to environmental organizations working to create sustainable enterprise. And third, the blends taste delicious. That’s crucial! It’s so much easier to support local when it tastes good. There are lots of recipes and meal preparation suggestions on the Big Cove Foods website.
As we enjoy our summer living, make your food choices as local as possible. It’s a tasty approach.
Did you know? Sumac is one of Nova Scotia’s native trees, and the berries can be harvested for teas or lemon-ade like drinks.
Cathy