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An iconic Maritime delicacy should be hitting grocery store shelves later this year.

Rebecca Tran, the owner/operator of the Station Food Hub, said her company was approached about a year ago to develop a green tomato chow to help fill the void after a national company stopped stocking it.

“There was a big gap in the marketplace because Habitant stopped making chow and it wasn’t available and people were looking for it,” she said.

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The Station Food Hub, a social purpose business based in Newport Station that focuses on supporting local farmers and creating quality food products by using imperfect produce, went to work and designed a product that Tran said will delight those missing the flavourful side dish.

“Ours is so good. It’s crisp, tangy and sweet,” Tran said.

“It’s not really like a relish because it’s green tomato, but everybody’s grandmother has her own chow recipe,” Tran continued. “We’re trying to replicate a traditional chow-chow so we don’t try to over spice it or make it too fancy. It’s a very simple, basic chow-chow recipe.”

For those unfamiliar with chow, it’s a mixture of green tomatoes, onions, vinegar (Station Food Hub uses apple cider vinegar) and pickling spices. It’s cooked and bottled.

“It’s a preserve and it’s shelf stable and it’s delicious,” Tran said.

It’s often used on charcuterie boards and as a side for fish cakes and other seafood. Sometimes it’s used as a condiment.

“It’s a traditional Nova Scotia delicacy.”

The chow will be available in two formats – 500 ml jars for retail and one-kilogram bags for larger customers, like nursing homes and hospitals. The jars feature sliced tomato chow while the bags feature diced chow.

“Based on the request from some of the long-term care facilities, they wanted more of a diced chow. It’s easier for some people to eat because it’s not big slices of tomato, it’s a bit softer for people’s palate,” Tran explained.

The chow is already available through Gordon Food Service and Sysco as well as some farm markets, like Noggins Corner Farm Market and the Falmouth Fruit and Vegetable Company. Tran said they’re currently in talks with larger distributors, like Sobeys and Superstore, and hope to have the chow on grocery shelves by the end of the year.

“The chow’s available right now in a couple of local restaurants,” she noted, highlighting Windsor’s Spitfire Arms Pub and Halifax’s Mic Mac Bar and Grill as two locations.

“Any restaurant that serves fish cakes should have our chow,” Tran said with a laugh.

Tran said they currently source the green tomatoes year-round from Prince Edward Island.

“For us to be able to find a year-round supply of green tomatoes from the Atlantic is great,” Tran said, noting the Station Food Hub’s business model focuses on supporting local farmers.

She was part of an Atlantic delegation that attended SIAL Canada – the largest food innovation trade show in North America – at the end of April. Her goal was to showcase the Station Food Hub’s products and spread the word about chow.

“I don’t think a lot of people outside of this region know what chow is, so we want to introduce chow to people that may not know what it is,” she said, showcasing some of the sample products they were handing out.

The chow is co-branded with Nova Scotia Loyal, a producer labelling pilot program launched in February by the provincial government to help people better connect with locally made products.

“The products that we produce here in Nova Scotia are some of the best in the world and Nova Scotians recognize that,” Growth and Development Minister Colton LeBlanc told The Chronicle Herald when launching the program.

“Nova Scotians want to support Nova Scotian businesses, buy Nova Scotia products and we want to make it easier for them to do just that. That’s what Nova Scotia Loyal is all about.”

Tran said she hopes the chow samples handed out at the trade show will help give “a taste of the Maritimes” and will lead to the product being picked up countrywide, if not internationally.

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