Just the Beginning!

While the official book tour ends on the coast of Vancouver Island, the real odyssey of Canadian cuisine is just beginning.  Across the land, Canadians are claiming local food as their own and these days they're making the choice, not out of necessity as was done in the earliest days of settlement, but out of pride.  Never before has a food book on Canada hit the Globe and Mail's best seller list, not just for one flash-in-the-pan week, but for two.  More than anything this speaks to the hunger Canadians have for an understanding of our collective food ways.  

Stay tuned!  The journey together continues. 

Culinary Campbell River

There are old businesses like Crabby Bob's which began selling seafood in the early 1980s.  The image I was able to take today was the first time I've ever been able to extract a smile - perhaps because he's finally decided to retire.  Having said that, Bob has been selling the liveliest Dungeness crab and spot prawns, fresh oysters and perfect frozen (local) swimming scallops for decades his barge-like floating store anchored near the Pier Street Market.  Bravo!  

One of the new, totally neat shops is Cheddar and Co on Shoppers Row in downtown CR.  The revitalization of the core is proceeding with lots of creativity and this shop could

easily be at home in any large urban centre.  From the superb cheeses of Saltspring Island - David Wood's gorgeous goats milk concoctions to Over the Moon Dairy's artisan cheeses from the cows that each have names, owner Michelle sells the finest cheeses from across Canada.  She also shops locally for her ingredients.  She tosses freshly steamed prawns onto Patterson Farms stunning greens...her breads are from Cakebread Artisan Bakery in Courtney but all the rest of her baking is done in house by a lady simply named Madonna.  How perfect.   

Roderick Haig Brown

Roderick Haig-Brown was a wise, ecologically brilliant magistrate - a naturalist - who lived on the banks of the Campbell River.  He fished and observed the life cycle of all the salmon species of the coast.  His legacy is profound. 

Today his home is used as a writers' retreat.  But it is is writing that, even today, rings true.  His message was simply that if there was ever a time that the salmon don't return, human-kind will be closer to its own extinction.  If only we would listen. 

Pier Street Market

This place is such fun---and it really is the soul of Campbell River. You can buy west-coast fished albacore tuna or buy a warm whole wheat crepe cooked on the spot and stuffed with cream cheese before being dolloped with stewed fresh rhubarb and whipped cream. Island-roasted, fair-trade coffee in any urban-esque variation you choose is made to order.

In the distance, beyond the ocean, are the snow capped mountains of the coastal range. Behind is the Marine Heritage Centre where BCP 45, the B.C.Packers ship that once appeared on our $5 bills, is being rebuilt by a cadre of local shipwrights.

The Museum at Campbell River

When I re-read my book, I realize how much material relates directly to the weeks I've spent here in this coastal community. When museum curator, Lesia Davis (recently nominated as Campbell River's Citizen of the Year), and city councillor Morgan Ostler, got wind of its publication, they organized a signing and celebration at the museum.  Outside of the galleries in a glassed in area overlooking Discovery Passage, we toasted the food of the coast and the stories that weave us together as a nation.  We ate local cheeses, drank good wine and finished off with Peggy Morris' Amazing Butter Tarts. 

Culinary Boot Camp in the Cowichan

At the end of every one of Mara Jeringan's culinary boot camps at Fairburn Farm in the extraordinarily lush Cowichan, she invites neighbours and friends over for an impromptu meal. Thankfully my timing was perfect! She began this one outdoors at here huge brick oven while her students and for me the most impressive part of the entire evening was the first buffalo milk mozzarella made in North America while the shy water buffalo pastured nearby.orth America while the water buffalo pastured nearby.

Landing on The Island

No trip to Vancouver Island is right unless I have even the briefest sojourn at Sooke Harbour House. At night a red heart hangs as a welcome sign over the driveway. At dawn, the sun streamed over the magnificent property filled with flowers. Even my morning eggs were strewn with blossoms.