– by Suzanne Morphet –
Who wants to travel far from home in summer when it’s so beautiful right here on Vancouver Island?
I was reminded of this last summer when my husband and I joined some friends from back east in Nanaimo for a weekend. We had a great time exploring Newcastle Island, relaxing at a gorgeous B & B in Yellow Point, and eating lots of fresh seafood.
This summer I’m looking forward to an adventure even closer to home, in the Cowichan Valley. When my husband asks how we could possibly fill a weekend around Duncan, here’s what I’ll tell him.
Beginning in Cowichan Bay one fine Saturday morning, we’ll fill a picnic basket with warm, crusty bread from True Grain bakery and locally made cheese from Hilary’s Cheese and Deli. By mid-morning, Duncan’s Farmer’s Market will be in full swing downtown. We’ll stop by to pick up some more picnic fare and browse the market’s wide assortment of arts and crafts.
With our basket full and stomachs rumbling, we’ll head to Damali Lavender & Winery on Telegraph Road, where we’ll choose a bottle of their signature fruit and lavender wine to wash down lunch, eaten at a picnic spot overlooking the 13-acre farm. I also plan to take home a few lavender plants from their 25 varieties for a new hedge.
Our next stop will be Teafarm, half an hour north on Richards Trail. In 2010, former Vancouverites Margit and Victor latched onto the idea of growing tea – yes, Camellia sinensis, the real thing – inspired in part by Margit’s love for sculpting tea cups and pots from clay. Tea plants normally mature in five years, so this year it’ll be available for the first time, giving the 100-mile diet a whole new flavour.
I’m already savouring dinner. It’s going to be at the Stone Soup Inn on the Cowichan River. Chef/owner Brock Windsor prepares a five-course tasting menu that changes daily with the season and locally available ingredients. Named one of Canada’s best new restaurants when it opened in 2010, a visit here is long overdue. We may even spend the night. Stone Soup has two well-appointed guest rooms upstairs.
Wherever we awake Sunday morning, it’ll be a leisurely one before we leave for Lake Cowichan and a fun morning of tubing down the Cowichan River. Wet and refreshed, we’ll catch a shuttle back to the village courtesy of The Tube Shack, then hop on our bikes and cycle south on the Cowichan Valley Trail. We’ll cross numerous trestles on the former rail line before reaching the historic Kinsol Trestle, the highest freestanding wooden rail trestle in all of Canada, if not the entire British Commonwealth.
After cycling back to Lake Cowichan, we’ll head to our final destination, Merridale Cidery. Every Sunday evening in summer, Merridale throws a pizza party with live musical entertainment and pizza baked in their wood-fired oven. If we have time before dinner we’ll tour the orchard and cellar, and enjoy a guided tasting of Merridale’s unique ciders, made from heritage varieties of English and French cider apples. I’m also keen to taste their new craft gin, distilled from B.C. fruit and flavoured with botanicals foraged from the Cowichan Valley.
With so much to look forward to, I can hardly wait for the weekend.
