Raina McDonald is a mother, artist, yoga instructor, ecological designer and grower practicing permaculture design, land stewardship, and seed saving. She owns and operates Back Road Farm & Forge with her husband Ruben Irons. Guided by ancestral ways of being with each other and the land, Raina's work spans regenerative approaches to community building, placemaking, and cultivating food sovereignty.

Her passions are currently at play in her role as Regional Garden Mentor for Nourish Nova Scotia, where she is collaborating to create a provincial network of school food growing spaces through resource development, infrastructure expansion, and capacity building for garden leaders. All of this is informed by her past work as founder and coordinator of the Scotsburn Community Food Forest project, an edible, medicinal hub of intergenerational knowledge sharing and resiliency.

At Back Road Farm & Forge, Raina and her family steward 150 acres of Wabanaki Forest, wild blueberries and edible forest gardens in Mi'kmaw'ki / Brookland, Nova Scotia.

Current Offerings:

• Ecological Consultations
• Community Yoga