After arriving in Canada in 2014, we intentionally stepped away from our former urban, non-profit environmental careers to seek a more grounded livelihood—at the intersection of nature, food education, and ecological farming. Three years of homesteading with a farming family in Bruce County, followed by seven years at Just Food Community Farm in Ottawa, helped clarify our calling. During COVID, the urgency of food security and sustainable living became impossible to ignore. We now focus on bridging and rediscovering healthful food and nature-friendly farming traditions from both the East and the West.
Through farmers’ markets, we’ve learned that while many people see what’s broken in our food system, practicing “food as medicine” is still hard—especially with Ontario’s short growing season, seasonal gluts, and avoidable waste. At the same time, most store-bought fermented vegetables are imported and often lack transparency, while local fermented options remain limited in variety. This gap is an opportunity to reduce waste, strengthen farm viability, and expand access to truly local ferments.
Since 2019, we’ve been teaching fermentation widely—on farms, in community spaces, online, and with cultural groups, seniors, BIPOC communities, and food businesses. We were also a vendor at the Ontario Fermentation Festival in 2019. Along the way, we met Sandor Katz and helped facilitate the Chinese translation of his documentary series People’s Republic of Fermentation, supporting intercultural exchange and inspiring people to reconnect with their own fermentation traditions.