Salt Spring Wild ~ a craft cidery on Salt Spring Island

It's an amazing setting. But then again Salt Spring Island is amazing in itself.












Salt Spring Wild is a new craft cidery and it's set in a beautiful spot on the northern half of the island, not far from Ganges.






The cidery itself is the coming together of a philosopher and a stone sculptor, and their passion to create cider from the wild apples that grow on Salt Spring.

Some of the apples come from 100-year old trees, some from organic orchards and some from the wild apple trees that live along the island's roadsides. The sculptures are more recent.




The cider is a work in progress. There's less sugar involved than what many might expect, and the direction is clearly English with dry and semi-dry ciders, and some interesting local variations including apricot and plum.













Salt Spring Wild is owned and operated by Mike Lachelt and Gerda Lattey, and it's well worth a visit. Bring a picnic lunch, enjoy a flight of cider. And linger.

Photos by Jeem. Copyright 2016 by Jim Murray.

Spot Prawns!

It happens every May and it only seems to last a month... spot prawns from our own local waters!

What we call spot prawns are the largest of seven commercially harvest shrimp found in Canada's left coast waters. Large females (and they are pretty much all females by the time we get them) can measure 23 cm in total length, though the edible tail is much smaller.




We get our prawns live, from Oakridge Fish Market, which is our favourite shop for fresh seafood. The owners, Annie and Jimmy, offer great service and reasonable prices, and they've had their store since the mid-1990s.

The prawns are put into a plastic bag, which is then wrapped in paper. Of course the prawns try to escape and the bag is often punctured and the paper wet. The whole thing smells of the ocean, and that's a good sign. In theory the prawns should last a day or two in the fridge, but we always cook them up the same day.










Getting the prawns into a pot or pan can be challenging as the creatures flop about irrationally. This can be annoying.





Their ultimate fate is to be thrown onto an already heated barbecue, which can be a wee bit upsetting, especially for the prawns. It's either that, or drowning them in tap water first; we've opted for the straight-to-the-coals approach. And no, those weird sounds coming from the barbecue are not the prawns screaming in horror. At least that's what I tell myself.

After two minutes on the barbie, give-or-take, the prawns are ready to be served, and here to the barbarism continues as the prawn's large head (it's most of the creature's total body size) is torn off with bare hands. I suppose one could use a sharp implement, but after death by fire it seems only fitting to continue the savage nature of this feast.





The barbecued tail, shell removed, is tender, delicate and sweet. Dipped in a bit of melted butter can be nice, but the prawns are fine just by themselves. Scrumptious in fact.

A salad, a wee drop of wine, and slightly less than a kilo of spot prawns between two makes for a wonderful dining experience. The resulting mess of heads and shells is all that's left.











Most of our prawns come from the inside waters of Vancouver Island. They are harvested with traps and not by the more destructive practice of bottom trawls used for most other shrimp harvests. About ninety percent of our commercial harvested spot prawns are frozen and exported to Japan. The balance is sold fresh and live to people in BC. Prices can fluctuate dramatically and that's been the case this year already, with prices going up almost forty percent in two weeks.



Of interest, spot prawns are protandric hermaphroditic meaning that each individual initially matures as a male and then passes through a transition stage to become a female. In BC waters, spot prawns usually live about four years. Apparently they spend the first three years as males, and then transform into females for their final year of life. You can't make this stuff up.

Delicious!

Photos by Jeem. Copyright 2016 by Jim Murray.

Lakeside Gardens in early May

Lakeside Gardens on St Mary Lake on Salt Spring Island is a special place. In early May, during an unseasonably hot spell, we spent another glorious weekend at number 7.

















Located right on the lake, the small cabins are a world away from all the cares of the world. One small step above camping, the cabins are under ten square metres in size but provide a luxury not easily found elsewhere: songbirds in the early morning. shorebirds through the day, eagles soaring overhead in the late afternoon, and the gentle sound of frogs to lull one to sleep at night.

And through it all, the ever-changing view of the lake.

It's rustic to be sure, but on a beautiful day on Salt Spring, nothing could be better.

Lakeside Gardens Resort website.

Photos by Jeem. Copyright 2016 by Jim Murray.

Laburnum ~ the golden chain

Laburnum, sometimes called golden chain, is native to the mountains of southern Europe, and here on the left coast, its flowers herald the beginning of spring.














All parts of the plant are poisonous, especially the fruit, which develops as a pod. Symptoms of poisoning include convulsions, coma, and a slight frothing at the mouth, among other things equally distasteful. Why anyone would want to eat laburnum might be a mystery, though it has been used as a poison in earlier times.



On a more positive note, laburnum has been used for cabinetmaking and musical instruments like flutes. At one time it was a popular wood for the making of the most beautiful sounding of all musical instruments: the bagpipes.

For us, it's become a sign of spring, warm weather and the coming months of summer. Just don't eat it.

Photos by Jeem. Copyright 2016 by Jim Murray.

Spring gets more colourful at VanDusen Gardens

This year spring on the left coast has been, at times, quite like summer; temperatures in the mid- to high twenties and dry and the colours of our favourite Vancouver backyard have come earlier this year.

Photos by Jeem. Copyright 2016 by Jim Murray.

Beyond Bread at West 4th & Alma

Near the corner of West 4th and Alma on Vancouver's west-side resides a fantastic bakery/coffee house. Right near a bus stop it's busy, but a bit of a relaxing oasis too.








Stylishly appointed this bakery is one of Vancouver's best; the croissants are indeed exceptional. The bread is always fresh, which makes Beyond Bread's take on sandwiches difficult to resist.

The coffee comes from several of our favourite sources: Forty-ninth Parallel, Phil & Sebastian, and their own roasted-in-house Social Coffee. We've tried them all and they are all all nicely crafted and consistent in flavour and texture.







Service is usually friendly and efficient, but on a few occasions we've noticed a wee irritation on the part of counter staff. However, that might be due to all kinds of things and most of the time all is fine in every way.

Beyond Bread is a wonderful stop on the way to the beach!

Photos by Jeem. Copyright 2016 by Jim Murray.

Finally! A quality Canadian sparkling water... Montellier

Jeem et Sherry love sparkling waters. Perrier and San Pellegrino are good waters and readily available across Canada. Badoit is an excellent water too, slightly lighter than the other two,though much less visible in our stores and restaurants. Badoit is distributed in Canada by Coca Cola, though it is actually owned by the great French company Danone. Perrier and Pellegrino, one sourced from France, the other from Italy, are both owned by Nestle, which is unfortunate, given the nasty nature of that Swiss transnational.

Now. Finally. There's a water to call our own. It is Montellier and it's rapidly becoming available across Canada, at stores like Safeway, Save-on, PriceSmart and possibly London Drugs (Jeem isn't quite sure about them).  Montellier is from the Quebec-based company called Alex Coulombe ltée. It tastes and feels great, just like the sparkling waters of Europe.

Alex Coulombe ltée began operations in 1905 and it's still a family owned and operated business, mainly bottling products of the Pepsi Cola company in Quebec. Thirty years ago Alex Coulombe ltée found a pure and naturally protected spring source in the lowlands of the St Lawrence valley, and Montellier water was created, based on the Coulombe family's belief that Quebec deserved its own local, quality sparkling water. The dream was always to expand Montellier's reach across Canada, and it's finally happening through a distribution deal with Pepsi.


Just as Canadians turned away from Heinz ketchup in favour of the Canadian-sourced French's, maybe it's time we all discovered a truly great Canadian sparkling water. Montellier is naturally spring-sourced, in Canada, by a Canadian family-owned business. And it has the official Jeem Seal of Approval on every bottle - and as we all know, that's not easily come by.

Photos from the website of Alex Coulombe ltée. 

Copyright 2016 by Jim Murray.

Fire in Fort McMurray

All of us have been watching as a wildfire devastates one of Canada's most strategically important cities. Regardless of what we might think of the oil sands, Fort McMurray is home to almost 100,000 people, and most of them have been forced to evacuate their homes by the supreme power of nature itself.


This photo was taken by a friend-of-a-friend as he attempted to leave Fort McMurray earlier this morning. My thoughts and prayers are with him and all the others forced to flee.


My thoughts and prayers are also with those who remain behind to fight the fire. We should pause a moment and consider those left in Fort McMurray, and first responders everywhere. Without them, in times like this, where would we be?

Copyright 2016 by Jim Murray.

The Crow & Gate ~ BC's first neighbourhood pub

It was BC's first neighbourhood pub, built in 1972 in the rural community of Cedar, near Nanaimo. The Crow & Gate is located on four hectares in a rather pastoral, almost British kind of setting.

It's décor is much like the now disappearing English-style taverns of my youth (when I backpacked across the United Kingdom as a lonely teenager): exposed beams, massive stonework, two wood burning fireplaces, friendly bar maids, cozy booths and the comfort food of home.





Orders and settling the tab takes place at the bar, which creates a wee trifle of congestion at times. Just as it did during my youthful sojourns to the UK.

On our afternoon at the Crow & Gate, the weather kept us indoors by the fire, but on finer spring and summer days and evenings patrons enjoy their beverages and meals outdoors in the beautiful gardens.







The food is better than your average pub, nicely presented and reasonably priced. My Reuben sandwich was excellent, and the other plates that went by all looked fine too. Much of the menu is locally-sourced and made in-house.

So it's a great place all round. The Crow & Gate is screen-free: no big screen televisions screaming a hockey game or any other sport. Likewise, there isn't the deafening sound of music that Vancouver establishments seem intent on providing. Here, you can actually have a conversation with your friends. Come to think of it, that's what neighbourhood pubs were supposed to be all about in the first place: good food, great friends, and "the crack was good too."

Photos by Jeem. Copyright 2016 by Jim Murray.