OFF DUTY: A lifetime of loving healthy food

“I got into food the same way many of us do, while being a kid in the kitchen with my mom as she was making food, and anticipating eating something that she had made for us with her whole heart. If you’re lucky enough to have that when you’re growing up I think that really sticks with you,” says Jenny Osburn.

With a lengthy, acclaimed and varied journey throughout the food world, Osburn’s accomplishments include formerly co-owning and operating The Union Street Café with her sister, mother and aunt in their hometown of Berwick for 15 years, writing two cookbooks and being an advocate for Better School Food Annapolis Valley. Osburn says whether for her family at home, at the restaurant throughout the years or in the school system today, she has always cooked with the notion that cooking, feeding and serving her community is the equivalent to offering herself and her heart.

“I got into cooking because my mom loved cooking and I just absorbed that. And there’s just always been something about real homemade food, food that’s grown by farmers and other people nearby in my community that excites me,” Osburn says.

While travelling across Canada as a teen with a group of friends, Osburn landed her first job at a bowling alley on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia. She says after living in a tent for days in damp rainy weather, she wandered into the bowling alley one afternoon for warmth. There Osburn met the bowling alley owner, a woman whom she describes as sweet and friendly and asked the woman if she could come and work for her.

“I was 18 and travelling with friends from all across the Maritimes and when we landed on Salt Spring Island we wanted to stay for a while so I needed to do something to make money,” says Osburn. “I started off at the counter then gravitated out back to the kitchen.”

Osburn says the bowling alley served straightforward diner-style food yet everything was made from scratch. She says learning how to butcher whole halibut for fish and chips, roasting turkeys, making homemade soups, and more, gave her the impression that every restaurant kitchen ran the same way. She says the bowling alley owner was also a huge inspiration to her personally as a future business owner.

“She was so connected to her customers, the local people in the community. She kept a lipstick on top of the paper towel dispenser, and before lunch service, no matter how she was feeling that day, she’d put on her lipstick and become this vivacious hostess. She taught me that if you’re feeding people there will be a connection there,” Osburn says.

With a desire to put down roots Osburn drove across the country to home in Berwick just as a small restaurant in the town was coming up for sale. Osburn says she and her family had always had a restaurant fantasy when she was growing up, so when her mom brought up the idea to buy the restaurant and run it as a family business, Osburn and her sister thought, “Why not?”

“Our family always said, “If we win the lottery let’s open a restaurant,” which is actually smart because it’s so hard to make money running a restaurant,” Osburn says with a laugh.

Osburn, her sister, mother, and aunt, plunged head first into the world of restaurant ownership. She says though the restaurant was established, and had a pre-existing clientele, the four women wanted to showcase food being grown and produced in the surrounding community.

“And holy smokes people were so excited about it because when you think about it, all of those farmers, all of those producers, they’re our neighbours, our friends, friends of our friends,” Osburn says. “We care about them and they care about us.”

Five years into running The Union Street, Osburn’s mother and aunt stepped away from the business and 10 years later in 2015 Osburn and her sister sold the restaurant. With encouragement from family, friends, and the prospective buyers, all the while negotiating the final sale of the business, cooking, organizing live music events, and balancing family life, Osburn wrote her first cookbook called The Union Street Café Cookbook. She released her second cookbook, The Kitchen Party Cookbook in 2017.

“I had talked about writing a cookbook for almost ten years and honestly, even if I’d written the first one ten years earlier it would probably still be similar,” Osburn says. “A lot of those dishes are classic items, like coconut cream pie, our customers would never let us drop from the menu.”

These days, inspired by the work of Nourish Nova Scotia and The South Shore School Food Project, Osburn is passionate about (and focused on) her Better School Food initiative which promotes a switch to delicious, locally-sourced, made from scratch food in school cafeterias. With three children of her own she says she’s always had an interest in helping out at the schools in her community, and had seen the potential of food served in the cafeterias, however didn’t have the time to advocate for change until the restaurant sold.

“I believe we can use food as an entry point of learning for our children. Between the history of food, teaching simple economics, learning about the food of new immigrants, as well as populations that have been here for years, there is so much richness we can teach children,” Osburn says. “The kitchen is the heart of every home and I think cafeterias could become the heart of every school. We just need to convince people that it matters.”

TURNIP FRIES

1 large turnip, peeled and cut into French fry shapes

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 / 8 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400°F.

In a large bowl, toss turnip fries with olive oil and salt. Spread on a large baking sheet in a single layer. Roast 20-25 minutes, until browned.

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