Salt Spring Diary

I had the great pleasure of traveling to Salt Spring Island this March Break to visit with friends and check out their ‘local food scene’.

Coming from the East, we have the perception that those living on the West Coast can ‘eat locally’ all year long. The west coast was the home to the 100 mile diet authors Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon, who spent 12 months eating only foods that were grown within 100 miles of their downtown Vancouver apartment.

Bruce's Kitchen on Salt Spring Island

While visiting Salt Spring I spent time with my good friend Bruce Wood in his new business, Bruce’s Kitchen located in Ganges Harbour. Each Saturday night, Bruce hosts a farm-to-table dinner featuring a locally inspired menu using seasonal ingredients. The Saturday night I was there we were enjoying morels & stinging nettles served with a house made, Moonstruck cheese, and the season’s first halibut served with prawns & mussels.

My Saturday & Sunday were spent visiting the island’s farmers & cheese makers, collecting local treats for a dinner Bruce and I planned to cook together on Sunday night.

Pauline picking leeks in March!

We had the pleasure of visiting Foxglove Farm, a 120 acre organic farm that grows strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, asparagus, melons, and a wide range of Mediterranean vegetables. The farm also boasts fruit orchards where they grow peach, plum, apple, pear, quince, persimmon, fig, chestnut & cherry.

The farm hosts a series of workshops for artists, writers, farmers and children. On this cold wet Sunday we were able to pick lettuces and leeks for our farm-table dinner, as well as watch Pauline collect eggs from their flock of hens.

We visited both Moonstruck Organic Cheese & Salt Spring Island Cheese Company, where we were able to sample all of their lovely cheeses.

Feisty Crabs

We visited a sheep farm to pick up our organic leg of lamb and returned to Ganges where we sent the kids off to the docks to procure the live crab that would serve as our appetizer course. The crab were so lively that we ended up chasing them around the kitchen until Bruce was able to corral them in a big bowl and put them in the fridge to ‘cool off’.

I can’t talk about this trip without mentioning the stunning breakfasts that we enjoyed at the Sky Valley Inn. If you are looking for peace, quite, beautiful views, stunning gardens, and a breakfast that will knock your socks off, then this is the place to stay.