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As winter settles in, our newest Canada 150 video takes us back to the full bloom of summer at Natassia Brazeau’s acreage outside Saskatoon. I visited Natassia at her home and workshop in early August. I've been devotee of her natural body products for some time, so it was exciting to get a chance to see the process of creating them firsthand. We spent a gorgeous day among the lush, leafy green foliage of Natassia’s garden, and also wildcrafted in the woods near her home.

This is the second business I have profiled in this series - the first being Daybreak Mill, owned by Nicole Davis. I find it inspiring that there are women like Natassia Brazeau and Nicole Davis in this province who are dedicated to sustainability and local, community-minded business practices. Living heritage weaves itself through both of their businesses, naturally. I hope at this point in the series, as we near its conclusion, that it has become clear how living heritage weaves itself into almost every aspect of our daily lives, whether we’re aware of it or not.

I hope it goes without being said, but just to clarify that although I have featured Northlore and its products in lingering detail, this is not meant to be an advertisement, and Heritage Saskatchewan did not receive any kind of payment for this video. I reached out to Natassia and also to Nicole because I admire what they do and think it speaks strongly to the relevance of heritage in contemporary life. After all, what is more relevant thank making a living? These are inspiring examples of how we can utilize the resources we have right here to create sustainable, community-based, local economies.

Natassia started Northlore in 2014 at a time, as she explains in the video, when some of her interests were intersecting. She'd long made her own beauty products, but was also exploring the properties of wild and cultivated plants in her own backyard. This exploration grew out of her realization that she couldn't actually name most of the native plants she saw on her own property. As she began to experiment with making products from locally available plants, the idea for a small business took root. But not just any small business - one with a very clear and conscious ethical foundation. Natassia has a degree in Political Science, and during our conversation that day, she made the statement, "I believe the most political thing we can do is grow our own vegetable gardens," meaning, the less we rely on the globalized profit-driven economy, the more power we have to create sustainable, resilient, and connected communities. Natassia's business is more than just a business; it is a community of its own.

In growing, wildcrafting, infusing, distilling, and concocting, Natassia's hands are literally on almost every step of the process of creating Northlore's products. It is a cyclical, seasonal process - one which necessitates adapting to the rhythms of nature, rather than a production schedule. Consequently, sometimes certain products are only crafted seasonally, or, depending on the season itself, a product may be unavailable. This means that Natassia sometimes has to educate consumers about the nature of making truly natural products. As she states at the video's beginning: "there's something about slowing it all down and reconnecting to the land and the rhythm of this land." Living in tandem with the natural world was the only way our ancestors could survive, and throughout the milennia they collectively amassed a wealth of knowledge about the world around us. In the past century, much of this knowledge has been lost. But people like Natassia are consciously seeking it out, and so ensuring its survival into the future.

To learn more about Northlore, click here.