In Newfoundland, chefs, foragers, and entrepreneurs are nurturing the Canadian province's culinary roots-and planting new seeds while they're at it.

"Life in Newfoundland is tied to the sea. For nearly 500 years, people here pulled a seemingly endless supply of Atlantic cod from the waters of the Grand Banks, then one of the world's richest fishing grounds. But by the early 1990s, industrial bottom trawlers had decimated cod stocks, and in 1992, the Canadian government instituted a moratorium on cod fishing, devastating the industry and ending a long-standing way of life."

"McCarthy told me how, following a stint in Ontario, she realized that visitors might better understand her home by tasting its traditional cuisine. She began showing up to restaurants in St. John's, Newfoundland's capital, carrying armfuls of bulrush and stinging nettle. Soon she was supplying chefs with a steady stream of foraged ingredients."

"Everyone told us there was nothing here for us anymore. But this place has so much. It's time we started telling a new story."

Newfoundland's economy and population were severely impacted by the 1992 cod fishing moratorium, which decimated Atlantic cod stocks and forced young people to leave the province. In recent years, many have returned and are creating new traditions centered on the island's wild ingredients and culinary heritage. Lori McCarthy, a fourth-generation Newfoundlander, recognized that visitors could better understand her homeland through traditional cuisine. She began foraging local plants like bulrush and stinging nettle, supplying restaurants with these ingredients and eventually launching cultural workshops through her company Food Culture Place. These initiatives preserve rural traditions and tell a new story about Newfoundland's potential beyond industrial fishing.

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