Salt Spring Island

We went to Salt Spring Island today. It's about 30 minutes or a short ferry ride away from Vancouver Island. It was quite an interesting place, very laid back, they don't even have a traffic light or speed limit. Most of its residents are either artists, artisans, craftsperson, an organic farmer, somebody who does sustainable fishing or somebody who is happily retired and grateful to have escaped the hustle and bustle of city life. It sure has a funky hippie feel to it. Somebody told me that during summer or fruit and veggie season, you can drive around and do your food shopping picking up stuff along the way from the so called honour stands. The farmer would put up a little shack with all the day's harvest and leave a little box for you to drop whatever you feel is the appropriate amount for the item you took. During the summer up to the fall months, they have a very popular open market where everything that is sold in it is either personally made, produced, caught or planted by the person selling it. It is apparently one of the best of this type of market in Canada.

It's not tourist season or fruit and veg season yet and the market is only open during the weekend so we just drove around town (Ganges), checked out everything and looked at some galleries and shops in town. Of course we had to eat so we went and grabbed a bite or two. I was ravenously hungry so we went to a very interesting, charming, funky and totally hippie shack called The Tree House. It's a cafe built around a big oak tree and you come in, grab a seat, help yourself to some real good coffee and if you feel like it, grab your own menu and chat with some regulars. Yes it's that laid back it's almost like walking into your own kitchen. You'll find out as you stay longer that the regulars are mostly vegan or vegetarian. The menu is sort of Tex-Mex vegetarian but they'll be happy to give you some chicken if you ask for it. It was only 11:00 a.m. and as I said I was ravenously hungry because we left without even having coffee let alone a bite to eat so I ordered some of their quesadilla with chicken for protein and their roasted pepper soup (see the picture). I really liked my order, the soup was very good and quite refreshing, you can tell it's vegan. My buddy on the other hand was not very lucky (see the picture, it actually doesn't look too appetizing). He said the potatoes were probably made the day before and were just reheated. The black beans though was very good he said and the jam was probably home-made and it was quite tasty too.

We wondered around a bit more around Ganges and eventually ended up at the Visitor's Centre to ask what we can do in town for the next 3 hours. The guy there was awesome, he really knows the place well and even told us where the best fish and chips place in the island is. Of course we wouldn't pass that up so we took the long route to work up some appetite. It was a nice drive, the roads are surprisingly as good as any Canadian highway. Great views, the cherry blossoms are in full bloom and the island is covered with trees. If you look up, you'll see eagles flying about. We even spotted at least 5 to probably 8 black tailed deer or maybe more, geez, there's just so many of them it's hard to keep track. There are a lot of signs warning drivers of deer crossing. Unlike here, they seem to love their deer (not as venison stew or something), the locals don't seem to mind sharing their lawns and farms with them. They look really adorable but they're voracious feeders too, they can easily decimate a well manicured lawn in no time at all so the very keen Vancouver Island gardeners are understandably not very fond of them.

Anyway, we kept driving until we reached that place where the best fish and chips in the island is. It was not disappointing let me tell you. The batter was fried to a perfect crispy golden brown. It was very light and not doughy like the other fish and chips I've had. The halibut was very fresh, firm, white and has that sweet fresh straight out of the ocean taste to it. It was probably one of the best fried fish I've had in a long time. I didn't order the standard fish and chips with coleslaw and tartar sauce, I had Caesar's salad instead. My buddy had the traditional fish and chips and he was happy about it. Yeah, we ate like little piggies today.