I love Meyer lemons – they’re a cross between lemons and mandarins and are wonderful in a G&T

I hate to be a roaring cliche but sometimes when life hands you a giant sack of lemons, it makes sense to make a bucket of delicious lemonade. That’s what I tried to do in April. Flattened by an injury I had to stay at home for the whole month, lying on my back, my foot propped up high, icing it every couple of hours. Blee. So after a weekend having a good cry and feeling sorry for myself I decided that this was the perfect time to try the Sunday Morning Ice Cream service – after all – when else could I be certain I’d be home every Sunday morning to receive it?

My favourite: a base steeped in freshly popped, buttered popcorn layered with homemade salted butter caramel, pralined almonds and fleur de sel.

It’s a great idea. You sign up to a month’s delivery. You have no idea what flavour you’ll get – only that it will have been home-made by gelato super-gal, Genevieve and that it will come – freshly-churned – to your door. Each Sunday morning you get an email with the flavour profile, appropriately, that first week it was Meyer Lemon and Buttermilk – lemons into lemon ice cream then.

Some say you shouldn’t combine florals with coffee. Not I. And not the Sunday Morning Ice Cream Co.

The pots are small – sorry – there’s no way I’d share and yes, for the first week there was a lingering snarky feeling of “Ouch, I just paid $40 for a small pot of heaven…” The next week that $40 faded into the ether and all was left was the best freaking ice cream I’d ever had. So for the next three weeks there was an overwhelmingly joyful feeling that a lovely lady was, for no reason, bringing me a treat each Sunday morning.

Hand-made ice-cream, home-made labels

I tried to eke each pot out to make it last longer than Sunday. But that never happened. It was a bonus if it made it past Sunday lunch to be truthful. If you’ve no plans to leave the house each Sunday morning – sign up. For a gift, I’d say it’s one of the best you could get for someone living in Vancouver. Four mornings of the perfect treat, a whole month of something special.

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Tart rhubarb and sweet cream. I basically inhaled this…

They love their spot prawns here…

So, today was the much-heralded Chefs’ Table Society Spot Prawn festival down on Fishermen’s Wharf. In its seventh year more than 2000 sustainable seafood fans poured into False Creek to dive into the new season of spot prawns. Sweeter than many other prawn varieties and much-loved by BC chefs, there are several spot prawn festivals and dinners (like this series at yummy Italian Campagnolo)  across BC for the season. Try to get along to one of them because oh, those prawns are good!

Gotta get ‘em while they’re here

1. No one knows how long the season will be. I chatted with Chris Sporer, the Executive Director of the Pacific Prawn Fishermen’s Association, who told me that, “In 2009 the season lasted for 66 days and in 2012 it was just 44 days. The fishery is monitored to check the health of the stock and count the number of spawning prawns. When the threshold is reached, that’s it, season over.” This is what makes the BC Spot Prawn season one of the most sustainable there is.

2. Prawns change sex. Seriously. Spot prawns have a natural four-year life cycle. All prawns are born male but around aged two, they become female and then start to spawn in their last year, so every adult prawn you eat is a female.

Boil ‘em up for two minutes…

3. Commercially-fished BC Spot Prawns go through vigorous checks. Spot prawns are caught in traps which get dropped to the ocean floor – so there is no trawling. The traps stay on the bottom and the fishermen can only haul up once a day. The first check comes from the prawns themselves – the holes in the traps are fairly large, so first the smaller ones swim in, then the larger ones arrive and chase the little ones out. Once they are hauled in, because they are hand-sorted, any remaining young prawns are thrown back in the ocean and those that remained are checked against a size requirement.

Buy your prawns fresh off the boat – the queues were huge!

4. If you buy them fresh – off with their head! Yup, turns out that unless you want to cook and eat those prawns immediately, if you’re keeping spot prawns at home in the fridge, you need to take their heads off as soon as you get them home as they start decomposing and that affects the taste. I drove home from Fishermen’s Wharf with my bag of prawns jumping away on the floor next to me, raced upstairs, boiled them (heads on to get the best taste) for a minute and a half and then doused them in cold water to stop the cooking. Then I ate them dipped in aioli. Oh, yes please! So when you buy them from a fishmonger, make sure they’re live in a tank or already have the head off.

Just an hour from dock to table. That’s what I call fresh

5. Support sustainable fishing – ask where the prawns came from You can buy spot prawns from Washington State or Alaska – but nothing beats the taste of a fresh-off-the-boat BC spot prawn. And nothing feels better than knowing that you’re supporting one of the most sustainable fisheries in the world. Sure, the season’s short but that makes it all the sweeter… Ask questions and make sure you support the good guys!

Nothing tastes as good as sustainable seafood!

Everything you ever wanted to know about spot prawns from Organic Ocean

So… these are mine. What are YOU having?

If there was any kind of polite or non-insulting way to compare someone to ‘Moby Dick’ I would absolute declare that right now, I feel a little like Captain Ahab. For the past four years I’ve heard tales of this mythical character who roams the oceans… I’ve listened to stories about him from every single great chef I’ve met in Canada and I’ve gleefully cleared my plate whenever one of his fish has been on it. So when I realised that the ‘Steve’ I was sitting next to tonight at dinner was Steve Johansen from Organic Ocean I had this sudden flash of fan-girl Ahab-ness, but there the metaphor kind of breaks down because A) he’s the fisherman and really, B) you can’t call someone ‘Moby Dick’ and hope to not be slapped in the face with a haddock next time they see you – but I hope you see my hideously laboured point? You do? In that case, I’ll go on…

I’ve been so inspired by Steve’s vision of sustainable fishing; it simply wasn’t something I gave a lot of thought to before but the more I stay here in Vancouver eating the freshest, most seasonable produce and learning more from the excellent folk at Ocean Wise about sustainable fishing, the more I see he’s quite the visionary.

The A Team

I’ve been reading and hearing about the Spot Prawn festival for so long and this weekend I’ll finally get to experience it. I quizzed Steve about starting it along with Chef Robert Clark seven years ago: “For years almost all our Spot Prawns went to Japan, and here we were in BC eating farmed Tiger Prawns – all exported.” he said, rolling his eyes, “Robert and I were talking one winter and he said,  ‘I want these prawns to stay here.’ So we came up with the idea of the Spot Prawn festival. The first year there were 300 people, last year there were 2500 people. People love the idea of a local sustainable seafood and these prawns right here,” (he jabs the glistening silver-pink raw prawn on his plate for emphasis) “They were caught just six miles from this table.”

I was booted out of the way by iPhone-waving seafood fans – so apologies for this not-great image!

He’s right – it’s a great story and one that Chef Ned Bell is telling from the kitchen at the Four Seasons Yew Restaurant. I’d been invited along to taste the very first of the season, and for once being late paid off for me, I skittered across the steps by the hotel just in time for the first catch of Spot Prawns to come in. There were TV crews there, hordes of eager photographers all to snap the first sight of the Spot Prawns. Steve and his fellow fisherman Frank bounded out of the back of the truck with their haul and raced inside to the kitchens with the chefs.

Quivering slightly and translucent, the raw ones tasted candy-sweet

We were treated to five courses of table-bangingly wonderful food – a joint venture between the chefs Clark and Bell that was a deft masterclass in showcasing wrigglingly-fresh ingredients. I ate raw candy-sweet Spot Prawns and Thai-style pickled ones with a peanut-y crunch, spiked with mint. I could have happily inhaled a satin-smooth pea soup made rich with prawns cheerily bobbing under the surface and spangled with salty crisp fork-shatter bacon. But best of all, a ‘Surf ‘n’ Surf’ where Spot Prawns met the most juicy succulent halibut and basically made out all over my plate.

Oh. My. God.

Thai-style with an un-Thai like (but perfect) Mascarpone-lime swirl

There are just a few short weeks of the Spot Prawn season, Yew are running a ‘Fans & Followers‘ five course menu from Saturday May 11th till Friday May 31st. Dive in; it will be wonderful.

I was a guest of Yew but – as ever – my words are 100% my own. I loved this. Really, really loved it.

Spot Prawn season begins…

I’ve never lived anywhere so ‘seasonal’ before; and I don’t just mean the weather, Vacouverites seem to live and breathe seasonality in their food. I noticed it first just before christmas, it was ‘pumpkin season’ and everywhere there was pumpkin pie, pumpkin latte, pumpkin doughnuts, pumpkin ales… you get the picture. Then it was ‘egg nog season’ and  again – ‘nog was to be found in absolutely everything. Then the arrival of the exotic King Crab… most recently there was halibut hysteria when, remarkably, even the big name supermarkets were proudly shouting about their fresh, seasonal, sustainable fish.

Spring morning on English Bay

I spoke to a friend Sophia about this and her theory is that because the weather is so fiercely seasonal, people are more in tune to eating what’s fresh. She may be right, you are in no doubt what time of year it is in Vancouver; in autumn, you crunch ankle-deep through a patchwork of colourful leaves, in winter you wilt under relentless torrential rain and grey, grey skies with snow-covered mountains appearing once in a while through the gloom, and now spring is here flowers are bursting from ever corner. I cannot wait to see what summer has up its sleeve. There’s also the matter that chefs here in Vancouver are rock stars, followed and adored by their foodie fans. And of course, these rock stars want the very best produce to create their masterpieces – which means sticking to the seasons.

I took a photo. You never want to forget your first time…

The Spot Prawn season began yesterday at precisely 12pm, I was lucky enough to get my first taste at Yew and I’m off to the Spot Prawn festival (seriously) at the weekend. It’s a four-to-eight week season and I intend to dive in head first and try them as many ways as possible. If living seasonally is the way to live in this town, count me in. I love the excitement and anticipation of enjoying something for a brief period of time. Now I know that when the last of the cherry blossom has fallen, it’s Spot Prawn season… I wonder what happens next.

Essentially how I’d like every Friday at 3pm to start, please.

I had a fun afternoon ‘cocktail’ tea at the gorgeous Fairmont Chateau Whistler as part of the Cornucopia festival. I’d imagined this tea was going to be a traditionally sober affair, but hooray! I was wrong. We started our feast with an glass of bubbly, which is a hugely cheery thing to do on a Friday at 3pm, and I absolutely recommend it.

The most tricky task of the afternoon was picking which tea to have; the menu is pleasingly large and infuriatingly tempting with some two dozen blends to pick from. I ummed and ahed over the Maple Maple or the Empress Orange Pekoe but in the end went for the divine-sounding Versailles Lavender Earl Grey – after all, I was about to eat cake so why not go for something Marie Antoniette-ish? I’m a fan of florals, I know they’re a kind of love-them-or-hate-them flavour but I’m definitely in the ‘love’ camp. Anything with a rose, violet or lavender taste, count me in. There was just enough perfume in this blend to not overwhelm, I decided against adding milk and wondered where I could find some to have at home. Tea worth buying a kettle for? Maybe.

*Muffled sounds of greedy applause*

It was tough not to whoop when our three-tiered stand of delights arrived; scones on top, delicate patisserie in the middle and itsy-bitsy sandwiches on the bottom. The formality and utter indulgence of an afternoon tea delights me in every way. It’s always been one of my favourite things to do and the Fairmont didn’t let me down. The scones were a little too sweet, but I think this has to be a Canadian thing as everywhere I’ve had scones they are always a touch over-sugared for me, but the patisserie – one little raspberry pastry flecked with gold leaf in particular – superb and the crispy bacon on one of the sandwiches had me gurgling with delight!

Who can resist a smoked salmon pinwheel? Not I.

I leaned back on the padded armchair (with wheels! so you can adjust your chair in ultimate comfort) and looked at the room; all gilt-edged and old-fashioned glamour, I was definitely in my happy place. I think I’ve found my new favourite Friday afternoon treat – now, who’s coming with me next time?

*Dribble*

I was a very cheerful guest of the Fairmont Vancouver hotel for tea – but all my words, as ever, are 100% my own. Admittedly, they were mostly moans of pleasure as it was glorious, but still. 

Need to know:

Book afternoon tea at the 900 West Lounge at the Fairmont Vancouver at 1pm or 3pm here or call call (604) 443-1807 to reserve.

Afternoon tea is $39 per person, a glass of Moet & Chandon champagne an extra $20.

Yup. I’m swooning over flowers.

And so it would seem that I have become the kind of nature-worshiping hippy who drools with glee at the sight of FLOWERS and TREES. The rot set in during autumn when I found myself beaming broadly whenever I walked outside to see the leaves doing their annual colour-burst parade. But the start of spring, with the cherry blossoms in full bloom like so many pink and white pom poms on the trees, has done for me. Oh Canada, I blame you entirely for being way too pretty. You have completely turned my head. 

Everything seems about to burst into flower

It’s good, I suppose, to see that all that torrential rain for months and months and MONTHS had some purpose: to create the riot of jaw-clanging natural beauty that I see everywhere in Vancouver right now. I took these photos on a ten minute walk around my neighbourhood. Everywhere buds on plants and trees are aching to pop; I know that I’ll see new flowers from day to day and I’ve found myself eyeing green shoots and thinking, ‘Ooh – what colour will that be tomorrow?”.

Flowers all the way down to the sea

Most wonderful of all is the feeling of walking in a confetti-swirling storm of cherry blossom shaken from the trees whenever it’s windy. I come home and shake flowers from my hair. I walk down the streets, strolling on a carpet of crushed blooms. It’s intoxicating. And in the exact opposite to sweet-smelling blossom, I saw my first skunk as I came home late last night. How odd that skunks by night and blossoms by day should be my clues that we’re closer to summer than winter.

In every corner of the city there are flowers

Wind-spun art and faux- Sussex farmhouse

Hastings House was built in 1940, a reproduction Tudor-style manor house, it became a hotel in the 1980s with some of the old estate buildings repurposed as luxury country house-style accommodations. I stayed in the west wing of the farmhouse; a two-storey cottage which made me feel I’d stepped back into my grandma’s home, everything was pleasingly old-fashioned with just the right soft touches of luxury. From the stone fireplace with its stack of logs to the invitingly cosy sofa and feather-soft bed, here was a hotel that I could happily have moved into.

I pottered around the grounds, admiring the vegetable and herb gardens – all of which are used in the kitchen – and snapping photos of the wind-spinning sculptures dotted around the gardens. I wound up seeing these mesmerising pieces all around the island; Salt Spring is quite the artists colony and there’s a trail that you can follow, taking in the various studios around the island. That first day I took it easy; curled up on the sofa and read a PG Wodehouse novel by the fire. It was lashing with rain outside and there’s no happier feeling than listening to the rain thrum on the roof, feeling toasty-warm, as you toss another log on the fire.

Perfect Ganges Harbour view

As I strolled across to the Manor House that evening for dinner, I was already beaming contentedly, but the prospect of my meal tipped me over into idiot-grin territory. I’d read nothing but raves about the food here and after my meal I can see why. The most plump and perfect buttery prawns, pan-fried in Armagnac piled high on fresh-from-the garden greens. A succulent duck with the most ludicrously creamy, just-right dauphinoise potato. A swirl of watercress soup that almost had me licking the plate. A table-bangingly rich chocolate and raspberry confection to finish. There’s a reason why people wax lyrical about this place; it’s exceptionally good. Pair that with deft service, a crackling fire and wonderful room and you’ve a recipe for perfect happiness.

Table-bangingly good food

I strolled the few steps back to my farmhouse, the rain had stopped by now; the stars were coming out and I could hear the sounds of the sea from the harbour below. Tomorrow I’d explore Salt Spring Island, I’d wake to a warm pre-breakfast muffin and fresh juice delivered to my porch at 7am, but tonight I’d stoke the fire up again and listen to the wood pop and crackle as I drank herb tea feeling oddly at home, as though I were in Sussex, yet thousands of miles away from Brighton.

I stayed as a guest of Hastings House. Thank you! But – as ever – these are 100% my own words and opinions.

Cool touch

As well as being the social conscience of the seafood world, those splendid Ocean Wise types from the Aquarium like to have a party, so I headed down to the Four Seasons to join them to toast the Naramata Bench wineries’ first spring releases. I’ve tried hard to immerse myself in BC-only wines and now spring is on its way, I’m excited to have the chance to finally head up to the Okanagan and see where these ambrosial wines come from.

Shh! It’s under the seal…

I’m amused by the sassy names of some of the wineries in the Okanagan; Therapy, Monster, Misconduct – no stiff French formalities here. I tried a decent spread of reds and whites and my favourites from the night were from Red Rooster, Laughing Stock and La Frenz. My pick of the night? A white with a secret, ‘Blind Trust‘, Laughing Stock’s Cynthia Enns explained it to me, “We like doing blends, the idea behind Blind Trust was you have to trust the winemaker so we didn’t tell anyone what the blend was. We wanted to keep it secret but people were crazy to find out, so we hid it on the bottle, so if you have to know you can, but otherwise you can guess what it might be.”

Passionate about sustainable seafood? Just a bit.

Of course, all that wine needed something delicious to pair with it; enter Yew’s chef Ned Bell and team with a showstopper of a sustainable seafood display, “We’ve got albacore tuna, our Chef’s Table Society ingredient of the year and in my opinion, the only tuna you should eat,” says Bell, brandishing a crab claw at me, “fresh dungeness crab, prawns, all from our local waters and Effingham oysters from vancouver Island.”

100% sustainable and delicious. Look at that ‘Effing oyster!

Finally because it’s all about staying Ocean Wise, what’s Ned’s sustainable fish tip for this month? “Right now halibut – it’s in season and everyone is loving it. At Yew, we’re got a wicked halibut burger, halibut ceviche, roasted halibut – it’s a versatile, meaty fish, it’s a sponge, it just loves to soak up flavour.”

Find out more about who’s smart and signed up to Ocean Wise. 

 I attended as a guest of the Aquarium as always – my words are 100% my own, and in this case mostly about how great ‘Effing Oysters‘ are. 

Welcome to “The Rock’

The largest of all the Gulf Islands, the more I got to see of Salt Spring, the better I liked it. Not so small that you’d feel isolated, yet spacious and wild enough to let you feel that you’d got away from it all – and best of all – packed to the gills with exceptional small-batch businesses making lovely things. Each Saturday from Easter weekend through till the last week in October, you’ll find them – and many others – at the weekly market.

Mt Maxwell Coffee

Happy is the hippy who roasts in his yurt

When life points you towards a hippy in a yurt, roasting coffee beans, only a fool does not visit…. I had an excellent coffee at the lovely Auntie Pesto restaurant down on the boardwalk in Ganges village. Turns out it was blended specially for them by John over at the Mt Maxwell Coffee Roasters. I drove up to see him, tucked away on his farm up on Mount Maxwell. Trying hard to not run over the chickens scurrying around, I parked up and ventured inside the yurt for a tasting. I’ve written before about my frustration finding coffee that’s to my taste in Canada (not over-roasted and burnt) and this is perfect – a mellow, medium roast that has me cheering every morning when I make it.

Must have: The Black Crow espresso blend.

Moonstruck Cheese

If you made that amazing cheese, you’d be that happy too

You can hear the Jersey cows moo-ing when you arrive at the Moonstruck Cheese farm. I must confess a love of Jerseys; their milk is so rich and fat it always makes the best butter and ice cream, which is why Julia Grace uses nothing but her own herd’s milk to make her award-winning organic cheeses. “Jersey milk is complicated,” she explained to me, “It’s so fat you need to gently blend it, it’s really a milk designed for small producers but it gives cheese with a sweetness and wonderful mouth feel.” Julia makes hard cheeses, French-style succulent soft cheeses and creamy blues too.

Must have: The Tomme D’Or somewhere between a Parmesan and a Cheddar and absolutely delicious.

Saltspring Soapworks

Because the family who makes soap together, stays together

When it comes to beauty products for me the more natural the better and if it’s organic and hand-made then I’m in heaven. So no wonder I flipped for these guys. The SaltSpring Soap Works began  as a kitchen table hobby back in 1979 has grown into a family business creating everything from body gelato and lip balms to bath bombs and ultra-moisturising body souffle. I love that it’s a family concern; founder Linda still creates her skin-loving products, alongside her son Gary, who makes soap every day, daughter-in-law Amber and also her grandson Owen who’s begun experimenting with making bath bombs.

Must have: the Rose d’Amour soap. Creamy with a gentle petal-soft fragrance.

Garry Oaks winery

All wine should be this bling-y

OK, so you can’t buy wine at the market, but you have to pop along to their tasting room and buy some at the source instead. You can see the vines lined up on the hillside as you drive towards the winery on the slopes of Mt Maxwell. After quitting the corporate world 15 years ago to live their dream of making wine on the island, Elaine and Marcel founded Garry Oaks on a 100-year old farm. Growing Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer, Zweigelt and Leon Millot varieties, Elaine creates award-winning blends and varietals. I adored their 2010 Pinot Noir, which was unusual as I’ve not been too excited by BC reds so far, “It’s very Burgundian,” explained Elaine, “Elegant and complex, it’s not a big wine, it’s more European.”

Must have: The Pinot Noir – it’s a wonderful French-style red.

I whizzed about visiting everyone in a car from Salt Spring Island Car Rental. LOVE that they are an independent not a chain. So – leave your car at home, chill and enjoy the view from the BC ferry and support ‘em.

Nope – still not the caribbean – welcome to the Gulf Islands…

It’s as we cross the slender bridge which joins north and south Pender Island together, that I realise I really should have hired a car. I’d cheerily walked off the BC Ferry at Otter Bay and hopped onboard my shuttle ride to Poets Cove Resort, but twenty minutes drive and we still weren’t there. In my head, everything had been an easy hike away; in reality Pender was a lot bigger than that, steep hills and narrow roads put my usual ‘borrow a bike’ plan off the slate and an already wonky ankle definitely put any long-distance hikes out, so as we drove along I tried to formulate a cunning Plan B

On the road and the view is wonderful

Poets Cove is pretty much all that’s on the south island. It’s a family-friendly holiday spot with its own bar, coffee shop and restaurant. Windy pathways lead down to the pretty sandy beach and from my room, I could see the boats bob on the shallow waves down at the marina. I’d arranged to borrow a resort car for the morning before I was scheduled to travel to Salt Spring Island, but that left me with a day and half to do… nothing. I’ve no practice at just staying put, so to find myself with a suddenly blank schedule sent me into a tailspin. Until I realised – this is what people do on holiday… so, Plan B: experience a holiday resort as though I am ‘on holiday’.

I read a book, I watched the sea, I pottered around a little and even had a nap. My major activity was visiting the ‘steam cave’ in the spa; a fun way to re-design the typical steam room, it really felt like a cave and I spent a happy hour flitting between the cave and the hot tub on the deck overlooking the sea. And yes, I felt really relaxed, but I was definitely ready to go when it came time to explore. Turns out that I’m no good at ‘being on holiday’ after all.

I would have demanded we move here if I’d seen this when I was 8

Pender Island landmarks seemed to have been named by a committee of Disney employees; Magic Lake, the Enchanted Forest and I even found a junction where Shark Road met Pirate Road.  Less densely forested than Galiano, Pender seemed to tend more to rolling farmland which let you peek away from the road to see the cliffs and sea beyond. I drove over to the north island, to Hope Bay and took a stroll along the boardwalk there. It was closed for the winter season when I visited, but it was easy to see how lovely it would be in full swing of summer, to visit the little parade of shops and stop for lunch at the Cafe. I read later that a group of 27 islanders banded together to buy the land after a fire destroyed the original historic buildings there as they were worried the site would be over-developed. They achieved their goal and maintained the spirit of the original and now it’s owned by a local island family.

I’m glad they managed to preserve this site…

Alas the cafe there was closed, so I drove on to the Bakery Cafe where I could happily have tried one of everything. Double-chocolate mint cookie sandwiches, vast slabs of peanut butter fudge-y tarts- I wished I’d stopped here on the way to Poets Cove and picked up a few treats.

Excellent car-lift share scheme

On my whistlestop tour around the island, I discovered that it was a rather beautiful place – and smart too – as I was driving around, I discovered one of its nifty ideas -  the ‘car stop’ system. Dotted around the island are designated areas where you can stand and wait for a lift. There are a few simple rules and the system apparently works well. On Salt Spring I had a car and picked up a few teenage hitchers myself. So maybe all isn’t lost if you don’t have a car after all…

Find out more: http://www.penderislandchamber.com/