Rooted in Motherhood
How Nourishing Our Family Led to a Life and Business Grown Close to Nature
When I found out I was pregnant for the first time, we were faced with an important question: how do we best feed a baby?
As we searched for answers, we came across traditional principles of feeding children. They centred around whole foods, specially prepared grains, fermentation, broths, and nourishing animal foods. Something resonated, and we fell in love with the approach. It wasn’t just about choosing the right foods, but about supporting the needs of a growing baby.
We had just moved to a property with more space and started a garden and our first flock of laying hens. Our endeavours began to take on deeper meaning. Growing food was no longer just something we enjoyed doing. It became part of how we sustained and nourished our growing family.
We developed an appreciation for the soil our vegetables grew in and for the animals that fedus. We started sourcing from local farmers and growing as much as we could ourselves. Harvest season turned into buckets of mouth-watering sauerkraut and kimchi. Mornings were for baking loaves of golden-crusted sourdough bread and bottling kombucha. Evenings were for superfood suppers like liver pâté - a weekly staple to ensure we stayed topped up on essential vitamins. In learning how to best feeda baby, we found ourselves learning where our food came from, how it was raised, and what it meant to take part in that cycle.
Before long, we saw the results in our children: voracious appetites, steady growth, and a vitality that reflected the nutrient-dense food we were eating. Their resilience reassured us we were on the right path.
In the midst of it all, I began to realize that this aspect of motherhood had coaxed me into a better sense of what it means to be human - to be sustained by soil, animals, seasons, and the people behind the foods we consume. I felt purposeful in guiding our girls and have been in constant awe watching them come into themselves.
Naturally, we began spending more and more time outside in the garden, and as the girls grew this expanded into daily hikes in the woods. What began as learning how to nourish our family became immersion in the place in which we live.
This immersion revealed its gifts. The girls’ curiosity deepened. Their observations surprised me. Their joy was genuine. They were fully engaged in the natural world, not separate from it but part of it.
Our hikes were now filled with details we once would have missed: the woven architecture of a squirrel nest high in the branches, the resinous scent of warm fir needles underfoot, and the eerie call of the Varied Thrush. As we observed the pattern of the seasons, the girls’ questions led us not only to learn names and descriptions, but uses as well. We started collecting elderberries to make a healing syrup for our herbal remedy collection, making comfrey and pine resin balm to soothe cuts and burns, and brewing rosehip and grand fir needle tea to add to the coziness of our winter mornings.
Through a particular cookbook, we discovered that the same nourishing fats we were using in our meals had long been used in soap and skincare. That discovery caught our attention.
We began making our own soap using tallow and lard, followed by balms suitable for the face and body, incorporating our wild-harvested finds. Merging traditional fats sourced locally with healing botanicals from our region felt like everything coming together. I loved making a product that was simple, effective, and reflective of the place in which we live. The idea of turning it into a business grew from a wish to maintain our lifestyle while remaining close to our children. It became a way to share what we were already living. And that’s how Kootenay Tallow Bar began.
About the Author
Devon Mihalyi is the founder of Kootenay Tallow Bar, a small-batch, handmade skincare company inspired by traditional principles and locally sourced ingredients. Learn more at kootenaytallowbar.ca.
