Inside the Cardamom Pod Café in Pugwash, N.S., delicious homemade pies, filled with locally grown Nova Scotia blueberries, line the counter.
The blueberry lemon and cranberry custard desserts are part of the café’s festivities for Pi Day – an annually recognized day that takes place on March 14 or 3.14.
Pi Day is an opportunity to celebrate the mathematical constant, but, more commonly, it’s used as an excuse to eat the delicious dessert.
“I’ve heard of it before, but I thought ‘we know how to make pie, we like pie, so we might as well celebrate as well,’” explained co-owner Emma Nelson.
Nelson decided to challenge her customers on Friday by asking what Pi meant mathematically and, if they got it right, they received a free coffee.
“When I was looking into Pi Day a bit more and what people do [to celebrate], I realized I don’t know what Pi is or I’ve forgotten over the years,” said Nelson.
“My understanding is it’s the ratio, the circumference of the circle to the diameter of a circle and it’s a constant across all circles, so it would be the same no matter if your circle is tiny or if it’s big. That ratio would be 3.14.”
Nelson said there was one customer who knew what Pi was off the top of his head.
“Everyone else kind of had to think about it, but eventually they got it,” she said.
The Cardamom Pod Café launched last June, but Nelson and co-owner Cal Ceaser, have been selling baked goods at the farmers marked since 2022.
The pair do a lot of little events to help draw the community out and keep spirits high throughout the year.
They’ve hosted a ‘we’re going to try and contact aliens’ event that drew a large crowd, a planet parade event, and will be celebrating the solar eclipse at the end of March. Nelson said hosting a special challenge for Pi Day just made sense.
“Lots of people are excited about the pie, not as excited about the math,” said Nelson.
The Cardamom Pod Café is open Thursday through Saturday from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. and rents a room from the Pugwash Farmers Market, which can be rented by anyone in the community to “incubate” their business.
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