Like many people from Ontario who visit Halifax for school, Sean
Gallagher got hooked into Halifax pretty quickly, and decided to stay.
“I was in university doing commerce co-op and a lot of entrepreneurial
work terms,” says the Ottawa native, who enrolled at Dalhousie seven
years ago. “I figured that I should just start something here. The
feedback I was getting in the course was, ‘Sean, you gotta do something
with food, and something with an environmental bent.'”
He came up with the name Terroir for his catering business, which is
a play on French wine-speak, meaning “taste of the soil.” It was a
springboard from a lunch counter called Fresh on the Dal campus,
offering local food to students.
“Luckily I had the tagline ‘Local Source Catering’ underneath it,”
says Gallagher. “The majority of my clients were environmental
activists or real foodies. Surprisingly, those two demographics overlap
in Halifax. There are a lot of graduate students who like to eat
well.”
When the idea of a market and deli came up, it was because the
neighbourhood—the north end of Halifax—demanded it, says
Gallagher, who hadn’t initially planned to go that way with his
business. “Catering is beautiful because you can be booked solid for a
month and then take a month off, while with retail, you’ve got to be
open every day and have fresh food available.”
There’s no ignoring the success of both businesses, and its model is
being studied. To date there have been four university projects based
on Local Source (by two nutrition undergrads, an MBA at Saint Mary’s
University and a student at the University of London, pursuing a
masters of environmental economics).
Those who’ve grown accustomed to Local Source Market on Charles over
the past year since it opened have learned that the food available is
seasonal, depending on what Nova Scotia farmers are harvesting, and
each basket of produce has a sign on it that says where it was grown.
The kitchen is now also a bakery, offering its own breads for the deli
sandwiches, using organic flour from Speerville Mills in New
Brunswick.
“The bakery is still finding its niche,” says Gallagher. “The bread
is super-healthy and is as local as we could get.”
He doesn’t need to do much education for customers anymore—in
the past year a lightbulb has been lit about the benefits of buying
locally sourced food.
“This town has woken up to the fact that local food is a great way
to vote with your dollars and actively make a difference in your own
life, health and supporting your own economy. Especially with the
meltdown, that coincided well with the fact that global warming is a
big issue, and still is. And that we have the third best growing region
in the whole country, the Annapolis Valley.”
Many more corporate clients are interested in buying Local Source
food these days, even though it costs more than other places, and once
they’ve bought it, they come back. And with interest from the local
Slow Food people, the environmental NGOs and even the province getting
on board with Buy Local initiatives, business is good.
“The market is a daily drop-in spot,” says Gallagher. “It’s nice to
see that old-school resurgence of daily shopping. People notice the
difference and they’re hooked. And also, getting to know that things
are in a state of flux. We survived the first winter and next winter we
have great plans.”
This article appears in Nov 19-25, 2009.