Something to chew on
Food is part of meaningful memories in Cape Breton
For the past several years, I have been exploring ecological food practices on Cape Breton Island to understand its cultural and economic significance.
This research project arose from my academic interests in heritage tourism and sustainable communities, and from my experience as a lifelong resident of Cape Breton and a consumer of localorganic food.
Food is a potent medium of memory: familiar tastes and smells can powerfully evoke recollections of childhood, family histories, and emotional connections to the past.
Shared cuisines and culinary rituals are powerful sources of our identities and affiliation. I was intrigued by the growth of local-organic food production across the island and began to trace unfolding developments in order to highlight their role in sustaining memories, shaping local identities, and building local economies. This project is ongoing and I have discovered many committed and creative food producers across the island.
To learn about people’s involvement in ecological food practices, I conducted in-depth interviews with farmers, restaurateurs, ecological food advocates, and government representatives. I also visited farmers’ markets, food festivals, and other spaces where local-ecological foods are promoted and celebrated.
The farmers I spoke with have wideranging backgrounds. Some have direct familial connections, some had memories of visiting the island during childhood or young adulthood, and others relocated to Cape Breton to live close to the land. Several farmers have spouses working off-farm or collecting pensions from former off-farm employment. All participants in my study are conscientious consumers of local, organic, and free trade foods.
Although some participants had grown up in Cape Breton, others did not have lifelong memories of Cape Breton’s farming and culinary traditions. Yet all of the people I spoke with framed their activities in terms of personal memories and traditional values that they associated with Cape Breton. Many also had significant knowledge about historical food production practices on the island and described the island’s history of fishing, hunting, farming, and berry-picking as a rich environment for practicing ecological food production, reviving rural lifestyles and building sustainable economies. Their accounts thus reveal how personal, cultural, ecological and embodied memories give meaning to their endeavours and link present developments to historical practices.
Importantly, memory consists not only of recalling past events but also of weaving stories around events to make them meaningful in cultural life. Memory is a creative process and as localorganic food producers reflected on their activities, their stories unfolded as expressions of their identities and commitment to their communities.
These stories — combined with the embodied work of farming — are part of an ongoing process of memory production that gives meaning to shared practices and rejuvenates rural lifestyles. Ecological food producers’ intimate involvement with local environments and embrace of rural traditionalism reveals a deep attachment to place that contributes to the endurance and resilience of island communities.
Recently I have extended my research to local food tourism in Cape Breton. Exploring the cultural and economic significance of culinary tourism raises questions about how these activities contribute the production of memory for island residents and visitors to the region.
Tourism representations can validate local identities but disconnected or insensitive images can alienate host cultures. Studies in other regions have shown that local-food tourism is most successful when foods promoted are historically associated with the region and its cultural heritage. Importantly, local food experiences can provide opportunities for visitors to connect with people and places visited.
Building a profitable and sustainable culinary tourism industry in Cape Breton poses challenges. Difficulties include balancing restaurateurs’ need to minimize costs with small-scale farmers’ need to earn adequate incomes and balancing tourists’ expectations of consistency with the seasonality of local food.
These challenges can produce conflicts among various stakeholders but collaborative efforts to expand localfood tourism are expanding across the island and initiatives such as the Cape Breton Food Hub have been instrumental in facilitating networks between food producers, household consumers, and restaurateurs.
Cape Breton’s cultural diversity presents possibilities for developing meaningful and varied food experiences that resonate with local populations and invite tourists to experience the island’s distinctive heritage and culture. My research supports these endeavours and offers insights to assist further development.