Ark of Taste

The Ark of Taste is a collection of heritage foods from around the world. The project is designed to allow conviviums and Slow Food members work at a local and national level to acknowledge their food heritage in a meaningful way. In order to be on the ark a food must be a food product (e.g. domestic species, wild species or processed product) that is of distinctive taste, linked to a specific area and local traditions, produced in a limited quantity and at risk of extinction.

The International Ark contains over 1200 products, and more are being added all the time. In Canada our National Ark contains:
  • Tamworth Pigs
  • Chantecler Chicken
  • Red Fife Wheat
  • Saskatoon Berries
  • Nodding Onions
  • Miners Lettuce
  • Great Plains Bison
  • Herring Spawn On Kelp
  • Fundy Dulse Seaweed
  • Montreal Melons
  • Canadienne Cows
  • Gravenstein Apples
  • Tancook Sauerkraut
  • Ice Cider by Cryoextraction
  • Pawpaw-fruit
  • Highbush Cranberries
  • Lunenberg Pudding
Red Fife Wheat
creative commons photo by  urbanworkbench on flickr

Our convivium was very involved in helping to put Red Fife Wheat onto the Ark, but to also adopt it as Canada's only Presidia ark product. Presidia are products on the Ark that are at such risk of going extinct that a concerted, national effort on behalf of food producers is critical to save the product. 

Red Fife is a variety of wheat that leant its genetics to the majority of Canadian wheat strains. It was the standard for wheat in Canada until the 1900s, meaning it's a part of our Canadian agricultural history. Several years ago there were only a few weeks of Red Fife Wheat left on the Island.  After a concerted effort to raise attention across Canada through the Presidia project Red Fife Wheat and products made from Red Fife flour can be found across Canada!