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Canada Day on the Gorge
I got back to Victoria just in time for Canada Day, last Tuesday, which is a happy time on the Gorge, as they block the road off and throw a big party, starting with a parade
and featuring music
(Morris) dancing
and food, including these popular items from Café Vieux Montreal.
We had earlier seen some besieged diners walking down the road bearing bbq salmon with pea shoot salads, asked at every turn where they’d got them, and this was where. They also served cream puffs with maple syrup, chocolate tarts with strawberries and Montreal smoked meat sandwiches.
But nothing beats the popularity of Mr Tubesteak.
Walking along the pathway, we saw what looked like an alien invasion on some wild roses and asked the plant guy, who told us it was rose canker. But it doesn’t look like any picture I’ve seen of rose canker, so I’m still thinking it’s more likely extraterrestrial.
There’s a vintage car show and a few crafts stalls and eventually everyone wanders off for a Canada Day barbeque. By the time night falls on the Gorge
gangs of youth, red and white and drunk all over,
make their way to the Inner Harbour to see the fireworks.
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Saturday on the bay and Sunday at the Monkey
Saturday morning’s mission was shopping. We started at the Hubbards Farmers’ Market,
which, luckily, was in a barn, as it drizzled all morning. We found just about everything you could want on a Saturday morning: coffee
bread
jam
and lots of other good things.
In fact, by the time we got out of there, stuff was starting to grow in the back seat.
That didn’t stop us from stopping at another garden place
where the organic compost machines were living a pretty good life
and the bird houses came in all kinds of shapes, sizes and flotation devices.
We had a stop at Chester
where we paid our respects at the Matlady’s Gift Shop
and admired her giant clematis
and then went on to Mahone Bay, where the Deli Market and Bake Shop is rather beautiful
and the fancy swing doors are weighted with bags of carrots!
At the Cheesecake Cafe there was lots of local art, including some nifty stained glass. 3 out of 5 diners at our table enjoyed their meals.
Our real and ultimate destination, however, was Frenchy’s, a Maritime institution where you join a host of other shoppers all armed with big plastic laundry tubs, and poke through bins of old (and not so old) clothing to find bargains, priced to sell, and where (a different) 3 out of 5 shoppers found stuff.
Sunday we went to the Wooden Monkey,
where the food is organic and local and the ambience laid back.
And then it was Monday, and time to say farewell to Nova Scotia.
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Digby doings & fun on the Fundy
Nova Scotia rocks.
On Thursday, I stayed over in Digby
where there is an excellent used/rare book shop called Crooked Timber, packed to the rafters with all kinds of everything.
The B&B; owners sent me in the welcome direction of the Boardwalk Cafe, which was a wonderful spot. I had some extremely good seafood chowder (featuring Digby scallops), accompanied by excellent home-made dinner roll
and I had to leave room for the strawberry rhubarb pie which was sublime.
After a lunch like that, supper needed to be light, so I wandered into O’Neil’s where I had earlier bought some dulse
and opted for some steamed Cherrystone clams, which the waitress explained were baby quahogs; but smaller, richer and less sandy. They were just the thing.
I had been thinking about lemon meringue pie since lunchtime, having just missed the last slice at the Boardwalk, but this was a perfect size to finish.
And then I was off on a hyper-tour of the Annapolis Valley, Canada’s first breadbasket.
First stop was Meadowbrook Meat Market, where they had some nice bacon. Then on to Port Williams, where the Fox Hill Cheese House lives,
and where they sell something called “Parmesran” which I can assure the buying public is nowhere near the item it seeks to imitate. They had a few aged cheeses (Gouda and Cheddar) which were good, but told me they didn’t have the space to age anything longer than that.
Had some coffee at Just Us! Coffee Roastery & Museum, where they’ve spent a lot of time and money making a righteous display about Fair Trade and coffee production, and they have a fair trade products shop and cafe. I picked up a very good lemon square for the road…
I didn’t have time for a tasting or tour at Grand Pre Winery, but I did make it to lunch, where I had something they called gnocchi, which I wouldn’t have called that, but which was good and covered in local mushrooms (oyster, portabella and button) and Fox Hill cheese curds.
I spent the second half of my day on the Bay of Fundy, watching the waves gallop in. Getting there, I found some of the back roads a bit less than perfect.
The shoreline is dramatic.
We had a little walk on the beach before the tide started coming in.
Then we were treated to some of Ian’s local, line-caught (by Ian) grilled trout with spicy mayo
while Susan demonstrated the amazing portable pedal organ
and then we ate some salmon pesto pasta
and the strawberry rhubarb crisp was steaming on the table
as tragedy struck the cream jug, but it made a fair map of the United States, so that was cool.
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In her latest collection, Rhona McAdam navigates the dark places of human movement through the earth and the exquisite intricacies lingering in backyard gardens and farmlands populated by insects and pollinators, all the while returning to the body, to the tune of staccato beats and the newly discovered symmetries within the human heart.
“…A beautiful, filling collection, Larder is a set of poems to read at the change of the seasons, to appreciate alongside a good meal, and to remind yourself of the beauty in everything, even the things you may not appreciate before opening McAdam’s collection….”
Rhona McAdam is a writer, poet, editor, and Registered Holistic Nutritionist with a Master’s in Food Culture from Italy and a deep-rooted passion for ecology and urban agriculture. Her work spans corporate and technical writing to poetry and creative nonfiction, often exploring the vital links between what we eat and how we live. Based in Victoria, BC, and available via Zoom, Rhona is always open to new writing commissions, readings, or workshops on nutrition and the culinary arts.
