Nourishing Circles Food Collective

Nourishing Circles Food Collective Healthy food creates healthy people. Healthy people build healthy communities. Healthy communities steward healthy landscapes.

Canadian food collective crafting foods through stewardship, fermentation, & collaboration. Growing a legacy 1 circle at a time. Tawny & Kevin are stewards of land and resources. We embody old world values as we strive to practice regenerative agriculture on our small scale farm. Our farm raises sheep, goats, ducks, rabbits & honey bees. Kevin & Tawny provide more than food, they offer quality experiences as a hunting guide and yoga teacher and are building their hunting fishing camp, retail store, vineyard, winery & on-site accommodation. Tawny teaches a remembering of the Mind-Body-Soul through 1-1 spiritual acceleration sessions, medical intuition assessments, oracle readings, e-courses, and soulful connection group coaching calls while Kevin runs an earthmoving business SkidScavations. Together they courageously lead from the heart in all they do and all they share with the local, international and online communities.

I’m all the feels this morning.I’m setting up at the Pugwash Farmers’ Market after a long stretch of markets, demos, dri...
09/12/2026

I’m all the feels this morning.

I’m setting up at the Pugwash Farmers’ Market after a long stretch of markets, demos, driving, unpacking, repacking and meeting so many incredible people.

Yesterday I shook the hand of a man whose family will celebrate 50 years of blueberry farming this year. I got a little teary talking to him. He was honest. There were plenty of times he probably should have given up.

But he didn’t.

I looked at him and said, “You’re not built for backing down.”

We both smiled.

He told me that, in the long run, it worked out because of great collaborations. People working together. People believing in each other. People finding ways to keep going.

Then another man stopped because he recognized a story in the lines on my face and the hat on my head, both looking a little worn.

Turns out he has been a blacksmith for more than 65 years.

While working I watched Heather at Masstown merchandise her store with such tender care, not just for our products, but for the small businesses she represents and the customers she serves.

This is what local food is supposed to feel like.

It isn’t just a product on a shelf.

It’s relationships.

It’s shaking the hand of someone who has done the work for half a century.

It’s a retailer making room.

It’s a customer asking a question.

It’s a farmer deciding one more time not to quit.

And here we are today in Pugwash, showing up again, giving it everything we have, ready for more conversations.

If you believe this kind of food system matters, help us prove it.

Tell someone about us.
Visit one of our retailers.
Share this post.
Come find us at a market.

And if you’re outside Nova Scotia, our sourdough starter can finally come to you too.

For now, you’ll find me here in Pugwash.

Hat on.

A little tired.

And very, very grateful.

Weaving a collaborative tapestry,
Tawny

“If you ever want to find me, I can still be found taking the long way around.”That line has always felt a little like a...
09/11/2026

“If you ever want to find me, I can still be found taking the long way around.”

That line has always felt a little like a motto for my life. I have rarely chosen the well worn path.

I wander. I leap. I explore. Sometimes I get it right.

Sometimes I get it spectacularly wrong.And when I do, I come back to my values and self correct.

My moral compass wasn’t handed to me polished and perfect.It was forged through self responsibility. Through learning to sit with uncomfortable feelings instead of running from them. Through asking myself hard questions. Through choosing, again and again, the person I want to become.

Does it hurt when a big name decides you’re not good enough? Sure. But it doesn’t hurt nearly as much as abandoning myelf so someone else will approve of me.

I spent a lot of my life afraid of hurting other people. Keeping the peace. Making myself smaller. Putting myself last. Seeing approval at all cost.

I don’t do that anymore.

Because if I had been built for playing small, I would never have broken some of the cycles I was born into.

I would never have walked away from alcohol. I would never have chosen a different path when drugs and chaos were close enough to feel normal.

I would never have made the hard choices required to become the mother I wanted my son to have.

And I certainly wouldn’t be here now, building something from scratch and asking people to believe in a vision that doesn’t always fit neatly inside the systems already built.

I’m not made for the easy way.

I’m made for the honest way.

The hardworking way.

The loving way.

The way that lets me look myself in the mirror at the end of the day and know that even when I got it wrong, I was willing to own it, learn from it and try again.

So yes.

You can probably still find me taking the long way around. Turns out, there’s a pretty incredible view from here.

Thanks for walking with me.

Weaving a collaborative tapestry,

Tawny

P.s.
Shout out to Sea Breeze Meadows
For the most beautiful burst of colour in conversation and in flowers!

Fairview Farmers Market we will be back!
Masstown Creamery and Cafe 🥛 🧀 🍦 12 to 3 today free samples and PugwashFarmersMarket
Saturday 8-1

See you there!

09/10/2026

We are excited to (finally!) share that NovAlive Coconut Milk Kefir is joining the already amazing lineup up offerings by Nourishing Circles Food Collective.

Tawny, owner of Nourishing Circles Food Collective brings a woman-owned Indigenous business, rooted in the belief that healthy food helps create healthy people, healthy communities and healthy landscapes.
Her work is grounded in nourishment, collaboration and strengthening relationships through food.

We are thrilled that the product you already know and love will soon be available to a wider audience within the maritimes along with her Blueberry Products and Sourdough Starter. No changes to our ingredients or recipe…just a fresh new look that aligns with her other offerings.

Be sure to follow Nourishing Circles Food Collective to see when and where you can find our Coconut Milk Kefir along with her other great products (expected in early October)!

I’m not good enough.I don’t actually believe tha but it would be easy to, with the number of times I’ve been told some v...
09/10/2026

I’m not good enough.

I don’t actually believe tha but it would be easy to, with the number of times I’ve been told some version of it.

This week, another one landed. Our product isn’t performing well enough for Sobeys.

Okay.

I could spend my energy trying to convince a corporation that they’re wrong. I could argue numbers. I could point to the people who have walked up to me at farmers markets and told me they first discovered our sourdough starter on a Sobeys shelf.

But I’m not interested in a power struggle.

Big corporations have big teeth and deep pockets.

I’m just little old me.Although, let me tell you, if God had built me six feet tall, I’d probably be terrifying....apparently 4'11" was enough, because I am not built for backing down.

So I’ll take the farmers markets.

I’ll take setting up under the night lights, talking to people long after the sun has gone down.

I’ll take the quirky conversations. The customers who ask questions. The person trying sourdough for the very first time.

The independent retailer willing to make room on a shelf for something small, local and different.

I’ll take businesses built on foundations of strong values and mortared together with grit.

Every single time.

Small business survives because people choose for it to survive, not because everyone stops shopping at big stores and not because there is one morally perfect way to buy food.

But because every purchase is still a choice.

You can ask who made your food. You can wonder where the ingredients came from.
You can walk into the little shop you’ve driven past a hundred times. You can try the strange little package from the tiny company you’ve never heard of.

You can pull up a chair at a farmers market and have a conversation with the person who actually made what you’re taking home.

Those choices matter.

So maybe the question isn’t whether I’m good enough. Maybe the question is what kind of food system we want to be good enough to build.

And to anybody else who has been told they aren’t enough, aren’t big enough, polished enough, established enough, connected enough or successful enough yet:

I’m choosing to believe you are.

Keep going. I will to.

Weaving a collaborative tapestry,

Tawny

P.S.
See you at Fairview Farmers' Market today at 4.
Masstown Butcher Shop & Creamery tomorrow from 12–2:30.
And Pugwash Farmers' Market Saturday at 8. ❤️

We’re growing, and, in so many ways, coming home. We’re almost fully transitioned into our new kitchen, and we’re so exc...
09/09/2026

We’re growing, and, in so many ways, coming home.

We’re almost fully transitioned into our new kitchen, and we’re so excited to officially announce our new space-sharing collaboration: we’re now roommates with Fusions Bistro Nova Scotia in Pugwash!

After travelling so far to produce our products, it feels incredible to be working much closer to home and to be back in our own backyard, both geographically and metaphorically. We’re so happy to be calling the village home again.

This enormous fermentation tank is just one little glimpse of the changes taking shape behind the scenes. Our kitchen is coming together, our business is in a tremendous growth spurt, and we can’t wait to share so much more with you very soon.

As part of that growth, soon we will have a new behind the scenes face to introduce and we’re also heading out to meet a whole bunch of new faces!!

We love to share our passion for wild blueberries, exceptional local food, and supporting small-scale farmers so find us at today at Lake Echo Farmers Market and Fairview Farmers' Market tomorrow!

If we haven’t met you yet, we’d love to—and if we have, we’d absolutely love to see you again!

Weaving a collaborative tapestry,
Tawny

Every revolution begins with one person who believes something can change.Then another person believes.Then another.One ...
09/08/2026

Every revolution begins with one person who believes something can change.

Then another person believes.

Then another.

One person’s desire for change becomes the desire of many, and suddenly the impossible does not seem quite so impossible anymore.

The power has always belonged to the people.

That power is love.

It is trust.

It is faith.

It is kindness.

Most importantly, it is empowerment.

It is choosing to help one another succeed.

It is businesses collaborating instead of competing. Farmers working together and sharing resources. Retailers taking a chance on something new.

It is customers sharing our stories, offering feedback, inviting friends to follow along and showing up at farmers markets.

It is a page share.

An encouraging word.

A jar chosen from the shelf.

A conversation with someone who has never heard our story before.

That is how change happens.

It is not always loud or dramatic. Often, it is found in the quiet choices we make every day.

It is self accountability.

It is self responsibility.

It is recognizing our own ability to respond to what is happening around us, and then choosing to do something.

We are all creating change every single day, whether we realize it or not.

And if enough of us keep turning up, keep talking, keep sharing, keep choosing and keep believing, more people will join us.

That is how a ripple becomes a wave.

Thank you for believing in this crazy little food revolution.

And thank you for being along for the ride.

Weaving a collaborative tapestry,

Tawny

One yes.One open heart.One person willing to try.One person willing to trust.And just like that, a ripple begins.To our ...
09/07/2026

One yes.

One open heart.

One person willing to try.

One person willing to trust.

And just like that, a ripple begins.

To our farm family, and especially to Violet, thank you from the bottom of my heart and with everything I am made of.

Thank you for trusting yourself and, in doing so, trusting us.

Thank you for letting us in. For giving us safe haven. For seeing how hard we are working, understanding how little we have to work with, and still believing in our dream.

One retailer saying yes gave us the confidence and courage to keep trying.

One big farmers market made room for a new vendor.

Wolfville, your welcome and the card you gave us meant more than we could ever put into words. To be welcomed into someone else’s community is one of the greatest honours.

Yes, I am a little crazy.

But there have been crazier dreamers before me.

It does not take much to begin creating change. Sometimes it takes one person with crazy belief, crazy trust and crazy love.

We have all three.

As we reflect on an incredible three days, we know that we are transplants. But Nova Scotia is where we have planted our roots.

We are deeply honoured to bring our crazy ideas, our enormous dreams and our passion for Canadian food, Canadian agriculture and Canadian community to this province we now call home.

One yes can change everything.

Thank you for giving us yours.

Weaving a collaborative tapestry,

Tawny

China or Canada?I’m sure your answer is Canada.But is it really?Because this is what Canadian made looks like from where...
09/05/2026

China or Canada?

I’m sure your answer is Canada.

But is it really?

Because this is what Canadian made looks like from where I’m standing.

It looks like short sleeps and very long days.
Thousands of kilometres on the road.
High fuel bills, market fees and production costs.

It looks like the kindness of strangers, the open doors of fellow farmers and wholehearted parents, and the incredible support of farmers’ markets across this province.

Canadian made costs more because it costs more to make.

We pay Canadian wages. We purchase from Canadian farmers. We travel from community to community, not just to sell a jar, but to tell you why what grows here matters.

Wild blueberries are one of Nova Scotia’s most important crops. Protecting our blueberry fields means creating real demand for the berries grown here, and that means paying farmers fairly, putting those berries into products with value, and then showing up across the province to help people understand why.

That is our version of fair trade.

It may feel more expensive at the checkout, but cheap food always sends the bill somewhere else: to the farmer, the worker, the land, or the future of the communities we say we want to protect.

If you haven’t heard our whole story yet, look back through our posts. Send us a message. Ask us why we pay dollars on the pound for our berries, or keep following along, because we have much more to share.

There is no better time than now to start looking beyond the front of the package and asking:

Where was this made?
Who was paid?
What landscape does this purchase protect?
And does what I place in my cart match what I say I support?

Canada or China?

Your answer isn’t just what you say.

It’s what you choose.

Weaving a collaborative tapestry,

Tawny

There is something really special happening right now.We are leaning in.Into this province we call home.Into its small t...
09/04/2026

There is something really special happening right now.

We are leaning in.

Into this province we call home.
Into its small towns and farm markets.
Into the back roads, the conversations, the handshakes, the stories and the people who care deeply about where their food comes from.

Today, you’ll find us at the New Germany Farmers Market.

Tomorrow, we’re headed to Wolfville.

And somewhere between loading the vehicle, driving the miles, setting up the table and pouring samples, I keep thinking about how lucky I am to get to do this.

To take the food, the stories and the heart of rural Nova Scotia out into the province and share it.

To talk about the farms behind the ingredients.

To talk about why local food matters.

To meet the people who are going to take these jars home and put them on their own tables.

This business has never just been about making products.

It is about strengthening the relationships between the people who grow food, the people who make food, and the people who eat it.

And right now, we are out there building those relationships one market, one conversation and one community at a time.

So if you’re near New Germany today, come find us.

If you’re in the Valley, we’ll see you in Wolfville tomorrow.

We’re showing up with full hearts, good food and a whole lot of passion for this beautiful farmland we get to call home.

Nova Scotia, we’re leaning all the way in.

Weaving a collaborative tapestry,

Tawny

I used to have a very particular picture in my head of what being a “real farmer” was supposed to look like.A big garden...
09/02/2026

I used to have a very particular picture in my head of what being a “real farmer” was supposed to look like.

A big garden.
More livestock.
Everything grown here.
Everything raised here.
Everything passing through my own hands.

This year has been teaching me something different.

I didn’t grow the garden I imagined.
I raised fewer animals.
I downsized in places.
I bought food from other farmers.
I leaned harder into relationships, collaboration and figuring out what I can actually carry well.

And maybe that isn't doing less, maybe it is growing differently.

Because today, here we are.

Nourishing Circles is at our very first Halifax market at Alderney Landing, and I’m standing here looking around thinking about how much the dream has changed.

It isn’t just about what I can grow on my own piece of land anymore. It’s about connecting farms, food makers, communities and tables.

It’s about bringing a little more rural Nova Scotia into our urban centres, and I absolutely love that.

We’re here at Alderney Landing until 6pm today, so come find us, say hello, taste some good food and be part of this very first one with us. ❤️

And if you miss us today, don’t worry, we’ll be back.

In the meantime, you can find our products at Organic Earth Market and Arthur’s Urban Market.

There is a much bigger reflection behind all of this that I’ll share tomorrow.

But for today? I’m just really grateful to be here.

Weaving a collaborative tapestry,
Tawny

Address

Oxford, NS
B0M1P0

Opening Hours

9am - 1pm

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