He Says, She Says… Synthesis

Hello, Dear Reader:

It’s getting rather late in the day, but we didn’t want to let a Sunday pass without including something in the ‘He Says, She Says…‘ section of our blog.  As it happened we invested much of our day today at the ‘Organic Islands Festival and Sustainability Expo‘, billed as Canada’s Largest Outdoor Green Festival.  The festival was held this weekend at Glendale Gardens & Woodland, itself a beautiful collection of gardens at Victoria’s north end.  In a way our being there today was a coming together of things for us, and we wanted to take a moment or two to mention some of them. Continue Reading →

Eating Our Way Through Victoria – To Market, To Market!

Hi Folks:

In our last several ‘Food‘ posts we’ve discussed our adventures at several of Victoria’s restaurants, from the humble coffee shop to the Bengal Lounge at the Fairmont Empress Hotel.  There are still many more fine dining establishments to visit, but it’s summertime and in summer one’s thoughts turn to picnics and backyard barbecues.  There are quite a number of markets that pop up in the Greater Victoria area (from Sidney to Sooke), on up the island to Duncan, Nanaimo and points north and also out into the Gulf Islands, but since we live in this ‘City of Gardens’ we’ll refine our discussion to the ones down here in the south (at least for this post… 😉 ).  We haven’t been to all of the markets here yet, but virtually all of them share one common theme: one must make it, bake it or grow it in order to sell it.  Eating local food is definitely a ‘green’ choice, but there’s a different feel, a different energy to local markets.  One connects directly with those who are providing their wares, and each bunch of carrots, each loaf of bread and each link of sausages have a history.  There’s also a more direct sense of community, and we appreciate that.

So, starting from the north and working south and west, here are at least some of the markets you can discover for yourself.  If you know of others, please feel free to leave us a comment below! Continue Reading →