A Shore Thing - Open Kitchen

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A Shore Thing. On Prince Edward Island, where foraging and locavorism were long-standing traditions before they became culinary buzzwords, it takes a.
G E T A W A Y

A Shore Thing On Prince Edward Island, where foraging and locavorism were long-standing traditions before they became culinary buzzwords, it takes a village to make a meal. W O R D S VA L E R I E H O W E S P H O T O S F R A N C E S J U R I A N S Z

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T They call this place the Gentle Island. As I drive past Guernsey cows in buttercup fields, wooden houses in bridesmaid-dress hues and blue herons in wind-tickled rushes, I get that. But on an eating, sipping, cooking and foraging road trip through Prince Edward Island, between the capital city and the north coast, I also get the sense it’s a lot more intense than it first appears. I discover fierce loyalties and dynamic collaborations between those who produce, harvest and serve the island’s outstanding land-and-sea delicacies. “My business partners and I are the hardestworking lazy people I know,” says Robert Pendergast, pulling a tray of country, oat and Red Fife loaves from the oven, glancing over to check on his sleeping baby, Beatrice, and garnishing my meal. We’re in Pendergast’s kitchen at the very back of Youngfolk & The Kettle Black, Charlottetown’s newest coffee house – a breakfastsandwiches-and-burgers place where the smoky maple syrup on your French toast is bought in small batches from a local forager, and the fresh dill and chives on your lobster roll are snipped from the overgrown gardens of neighbourhood restaurants where Pendergast has the kinds of ties that make pilfering okay. At Youngfolk he’s becoming known for the specialty breads he bakes each day: only three or four kinds, but each the result of obsessive experimentation with heirloom grains grown by local organic farmers. After hours, the native Islander is setting up a wedding catering company with culinary adventure operator and chef Ross Munro to ferry feasters – and their feasts – to secluded beaches in a small boat. He throws five-course beer dinners with Gahan House brewery and is refining his rye bread for an upcoming throwdown with Montreal’s famous smoked-meat restaurant, Schwartz’s. So I’m not convinced by the “lazy” part (I’d go with “calm”). Pendergast has the air of a man doing exactly what he should, on a scale that keeps him busy yet sane, buoyed by likeminded people. BEACHY KEEN A view of the Cavendish shore on northern PEI; breakfast at Youngfolk & The Kettle Black

The art of cooking After breakfast, I head northwest from Charlottetown > on Highway 2. Salt-and-fir-scented air wafts

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in through the open window as I pass emerald potato plants pushing through rust soil, buoys bobbing above a mussel farm, a trotting fox. Then, just after the prim white house of Anne of Green Gables author Lucy Maud Montgomery, in New London, I pull into the car park at Annie’s Table, a new culinary school in a converted church where the focus is on island flavours. I’m soon aproned-up with half a dozen locals and learning to bake gluten-free with Tracey Allen, a hog farmer-turned-cookbook author who’s teaching her very first class. The school invites everyone from sommeliers to chefs to mussel fishers to serve as special-interest instructors, and today in-house chef Norman Zeledon is on hand to ease Tracey through her debut. Norman dashes outside to gather basil, tarragon, savory, mint and lemon balm from his kitchen garden so we can customize Tracey’s dough. He suggests fanning PEI pear slices on top of her biscuits and sprinkling them with brown sugar, salt and pepper. And for dessert, he shows us how black garlic with a paste consistency – developed by island farmer Al Picketts and a world exclusive to PEI – can be used as a sweetener, much like dates. “I’d never have thought of that,” says Tracey, increasingly animated after every tip. By the end of the class, the two instructors are talking quietly off to the side about co-authoring Tracey’s next book. Teamwork and improvisation are the lifeblood of this school. “Sometimes our neighbour Herb, an organic farmer, will drive right up to the door

on his tractor with a bucket of green beans and ask, ‘Do you want them?’” says Norman. “We’ll take them and tell the students we’re switching up the recipe.” Norman also asked a local artisan, Suzanne from Village Pottery, to use his Thai garlic rasp as a prototype for ceramic versions in her studio. Now, when people admire his, he can send them over to her place to buy their own after class. When I pop in to see Suzanne, she tells me she’s working on Dutch ovens and tagines, too. “Every time I see Norm, he has a special project for me,” she says, chuckling at her potter’s wheel. There’s just time for an afternoon walk along the beach before dinner in North Rustico. The huts sit empty – lobster fishers start at 4 a.m., so they’re done by early afternoon. But there’s action to spare in a speedboat piloted by two sunburned dads. As it comes into the harbour, a freckled kid

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MOST OF OUR partners are small-scale organic farmers who want to be certain their product is treated well. john pritchard, chef

ISLAND TIME Clockwise from top left: baking bread at Youngfolk & The Kettle Black in Charlottetown; a water-side scene in Naufrage; antique signs at Water-Prince Corner Shop and Lobster Pound; Village Pottery in New London; brunch at the Pearl Café

on board yells, “Everybody first!” All four children and a sheepdog abandon ship at once, a leaping blur of sunblock-streaked limbs and wet fur. I drive on to the Pearl Café, where the menu is built around iconic local ingredients such as Raspberry Point oysters, grass-, potato- and grainfed beef, and of course PEI spuds. The garden is alive with blooms and driftwood sculptures, a taste of what’s to come inside. Owner Maxine Delaney greets me in the art-filled dining room, cutting a striking figure with her poker-straight red hair and bangs illuminated against a bay window. I’ve sipped my way through an entire cocktail (concocted by Maxine using vodka, Cointreau, lime and a cordial of forsythias from her own flowerbeds), before I notice I’m surrounded by naked people – on the walls, that is. This year’s exhibition, Exposed, showcases nudes > by local artists.

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I point out my favourites to Maxine: two stripped-off cyclists, a golden bum and a naked knitter. In that last one, a young woman sits crosslegged, casually plain-and-purling in the nude beside serious grandmothers decked out in full twin-sets. It’s hilarious. “Oh, I painted that!” says my shy server as she pours my tea. A broad grin lights up her face. “And I’m the knitter.” A painter herself, Maxine often hires up-andcoming artists, both for the back and front of house. You get the sense that their creativity adds to the magic that draws people out to her rural restaurant, not just for dinner (well-executed as it is) but for a dining experience.

Plants and animals

BOUNTY HUNTER The Inn at Bay Fortune’s sous-chef Melinda Gorman forages for local ingredients. Opposite page: Julie Shore of Prince Edward Distillery; a pier view by Confederation Landing Park; glutenfree pie at Annie’s Table; apple brandy

i THE MERCEDES-BENZ GL 350 BLUETEC 4MATIC is a joy to drive along the hilly, winding roads of PEI’s backcountry or down red-sand paths leading to the sea. This is an amply proportioned, confidence-inspiring SUV that offers a commanding view of the road, an airy cabin with seating for up to seven adults, an industry-leading suite of security features and a level of luxury that you’ll appreciate as much on vacation as on the daily commute. What’s the catch? There isn’t one. Thanks to cutting-edge technology like the energy-saving 7G-TRONIC PLUS transmission and new low-sulphur diesel fuels, the powerful GL 350 BlueTEC 4MATIC delivers compact-car fuel economy and low emissions in a glorious full-size package.

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On day two, I head to Terre Rouge Bistro Marché in Charlottetown to load up on charcuterie and cheese. Here, locals come by for morning coffee, their weekly grocery shopping or even date night. It’s a joint venture, opened in 2012 by chef John Pritchard, who once taught skills like making edible underwear on his own TV cooking show for men, and chef Dave Mottershall, nicknamed “Animal” after the wild Muppet drummer for his frenetic kitchen pace – a must in this 360-degree enterprise. At the back is a chalkboard-walled fine-dining area. Up front they sell everything from mini turnips to yellow artisan butters from suppliers they’ve come to know over the past 25 years. “Most of our partners are small-scale organic farmers who above all want to be certain their product is treated well,” says John. I head east, stopping at Dalvay-by-the-Sea resort to rent a bike for the four-kilometre stretch to Covehead Harbour along marsh-lined coastal trails. I turn off at a red-and-white-painted lighthouse toward Richard’s Fresh Seafood, where I scoop out fresh-from-the-sea steamed mussels > with an empty shell.

SOMETIMES OUR NEIGHBOUR Herb will drive right up to the door on his tractor with a bucket of green beans and ask, ‘Do you want them?’ , norman zeledon

chef

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G E T A W A Y ADDRESSES

Prince Edward Island The Great George Book the signature island flavours experience, Savour! – which includes an improvised chef’s dinner – at this heritage boutique hotel. 1-800-361-1118 t h e g r e at g e o r g e . c o m

Charlottetown Farmers’ Market Spend Saturday morning meeting local artisans selling everything from quince jam to hand-sewn undergarments. 902-626-3373 c h a r l o t t e t o w n fa r m e r s m a r k e t . w e e b ly . c o m

Annie’s Table Explore island flavours and traditions with PEI chefs and producers. 902-314-9666 a n n i e s - ta b l e . c o m

The Pearl Café Enjoy hyperlocal food while surrounded by hyperlocal art. 902-963-2111 WATER WAYS Oyster fisherman George Dowdle; Naufrage beach; a batch of clams ready to steam

I have just enough time to check into the Johnson Shore Inn on the northeast coast before my last meal of the day. It’s run by Prince Edward vodka distillers Arla Johnson and Julie Shore, and in the mornings they serve up ham from their own pigs in your morning omelette – or shellfish or beef that they’ve bartered for their coveted meat or booze. I sip tea for five minutes in an Adirondack chair, perched on a point where two ocean-battered cliff walls meet and the crashing waves are at their loudest. I leave for dinner feeling replenished. Chatting with sous-chef Melinda Gorman on a tour of The Inn at Bay Fortune is a similarly amped-up experience. Melinda on the pork belly she made yesterday: “I took a chainsaw to this tree for applewood to put in the cold smoker.” Melinda on salmon-skin risotto: “I want to make it here soon. It’s metallic silver! People will be shocked.” Melinda on waste: “I just don’t like throwing things in the garbage. I need to know how to use every part of an animal or vegetable.” One of Melinda’s favourite aspects of the job

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is training apprentice chefs in this kitchen. They’re not just here to stir pots, they’re expected to figure out how to forage for kelp on the beach, strike deals with cheesemakers at the Charlottetown Farmers’ Market and make everything in-house, whether it’s sweet-potato brioche or chicken liver crème brûlée. When I peek into the kitchen halfway through my dinner on the veranda, I’m surprised how calm the staff is, under such a firecracker. But Melinda knows how lucky this next generation of island chefs is to be in such a unique place, and she takes passing on her knowledge seriously. “When the restaurant closes for winter, I go work in Montreal,” she says. “There I’m always aware, when I’m cutting open a package, that if I were on PEI I’d be making that same thing from scratch.” Above all it’s the ties on this island, forged over seven seasons, that seem to pull her back. “You can get our oysters all over the world, but there’s nothing like having them dropped off by the fisher > you drink pints with at the local pub.”

thepearlcafe.ca

Johnson Shore Inn Get cozy under a handmade quilt, with the sound of the ocean off the rugged north shore to lull you to sleep. The hosts here are awardwinning potato vodka distillers. 902-687-1340 johnsonshoreinn.com

Prince Edward Distillery Meet Prince Edward Island’s happiest pigs, fed on vodka mash, and sample spirits made from local potatoes, grains and fruits. 902-687-2586 p r i n c e e d wa r d d i s t i l l e r y . c o m

The Inn at Bay Fortune Dine on scratch cooking made with ingredients from the chef’s garden and local suppliers at this institution celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2013. 902-687-3745 i n n at b ay f o r t u n e . c o m

Happy Clammers Dig for and boil up your own clam lunch with a shellfish fisher and his wife on Point Prim. 1-866-887-3238 experiencepei.ca