It all started with a sack of potatoes.
A decade ago, we were camping—my husband, our two daughters, and I—on Prince Edward Island, in the Canadian Maritimes. We were enchanted by the wide, unspoiled beaches, the rust-colored cliffs, and the eagles, seals, and seabirds we spotted on our hikes. But we were sick of the food. At “family” restaurants and snack bars, the menus were always the same: fried chicken fingers, fried fish, fries. Figuring there had to be a better way, we bought a bag of Irish Cobbler potatoes from a roadside stand and roasted them in our campfire.
Now, I’m not saying that P.E.I. (as the island is known) grows the best potatoes in the world, but I am saying that if you are camping, and ravenous from a day at the beach, and you cook up a bunch of local spuds, you have the beginnings of a great meal. Add some mussels grown in a nearby bay, and a dessert made with wild blueberries that you picked yourself at the ocean’s edge, and life starts seeming very good. So good, in fact, that we have made Prince Edward Island our summer-vacation destination ever since. So good that we have bought land there and built a one-room cabin on a cliff overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
It was the experience of buying the potatoes that made us realize we were smitten with the place. We got them from Rose Cheverie, who, with her soft-spoken ways, brings the word gentlewoman to mind. Her son, Fred, a junior-high science teacher, grows the potatoes. We know all this because we visit with Rose and Fred every summer now. Life on P.E.I. is like that: You go out for potatoes, and you come back with a new friend. When we return each summer, local merchants ask us how long we’ll be “home.” This is what keeps us coming back.
I’ve often told friends that P.E.I. is “like Vermont, with ocean,” but it is closer to the truth to say it’s like my husband’s native Wisconsin, with ocean. Gently rolling hills are dotted with prosperous-looking farms, and dairy cows and beef cattle graze almost to the water’s edge. Two-lane roads cut through verdant fields, and traffic backs up behind tractors pulling bales of hay. Neat lines of laundry flap in breezes so stiff that early settlers planted row upon row of spruce trees as windbreaks. Even Cavendish, the most touristy section of the island—where Green Gables, the setting for Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables saga, brings in more than a quarter of a million visitors annually—looks understated and quaint to an old Jersey-shore hand like myself.
It’s also the kind of place where you make your own fun: walking on a beach, camping at national and provincial parks, paddling a sea kayak, cycling along the ancient railroad bed that has become the island-long Confederation Trail bike path. It’s a popular spot for birders, for deep-sea and fly fishermen, and for devotees of Celtic music. But because we like to cook and eat, we spend a lot of our time looking for dinner.
Acquiring meals on P.E.I. has taken us out on boats and into barns, landed us in fields of potatoes and berries, and plunged us knee-deep in clam-digging muck. One day last year, for example, we went in search of spareribs. Our neighbor, George Roach, had a yen for barbecued ribs, and, having heard good things about a market near Montague—one of the last remaining slaughterhouses on the island—we set out to find some.
Inside the well-scrubbed premises of the L&S Meat Market, we found a gleaming glass case of meats—pork chops, beef tongue, liver, kidney, fresh bacon, poultry, and (success!) spareribs. The clerk behind the counter cheerfully discussed the finer points of a traditional island meal (salt fish, potatoes, fresh bacon, mashed turnip, and green tomato chow) as she wrapped our purchase. Since we were in the neighborhood, we started down the road to the U-pick at Nabuurs Gardens, in Lower Montague. But on the way we spied a hand-lettered sign for a lobster pound; we soon found ourselves outside a shed—“Honk Your Horn for Service”—and in the company of Stella Vuozzo, whose sons are lobster fishermen. They sell not only lobsters but also homemade jam and quart-size Mason jars of chopped bar clams (huge clams harvested by hand) that Mrs. Vuozzo processes herself. We bought several jars, and a few days later I made one of the most spectacular pasta sauces I have ever been able to take credit for.
Then it was on to the berries and a stop at Island Baking & Milling, just north of Culloden. Steve Knechtel runs his eccentric operation out of a converted schoolhouse; steady customers can retrieve their orders from the rusting school bus parked outside. Among his specialties is Vollkornbrot, a whole-grain rye that we love to eat with salmon smoked by Kim Dormaar, of Medallion Smoked Salmon, in Ebenezer, a tiny hamlet farther west. Visiting Dormaar the previous day, we had purchased not only salmon but smoked scallops and eel. On our way home from the bakery, we stopped at Colville Bay Oyster Co., in Souris West, where a strapping high school student in waders retrieved some oysters from the water for us: $6 a dozen. They had a flat top shell, a deeply cupped bottom, and a lovely blue-green tinge.
So there was our meal: smoked fish and raw oysters for appetizers, ribs for the main course, and fresh strawberries for dessert. The oysters were a few hours out of the ocean, the berries just a few hours out of the field, and the ribs had been pig within the past four days. Even the island-grown rye in the Vollkornbrot had been milled earlier that morning. We had a salad made from Fred Cheverie’s potatoes, seasoned with summer savory we’d purchased in South Pinette from a laid-back young farmer named Kevin Ryan. We had the pleasure of knowing the name of—and having met—every provider of every course. Sure, it took the better part of the day to get dinner, but what a dinner. And what a day.
Staying There
See “Eating There” for Dalvay by the Sea and The Inn at St. Peters. For a copy of the free Visitors Guide, published by the province and listing more than 1,000 separate accommodations, including some 600 cottages, apartments, and homes for rent, call 888-734-7529 or visit peiplay.com.
Eating There
At the historic Sir Andrew Macphail Homestead (off Route 1; 902-651-2789), in Orwell, hearty meals are served on the shady porch. Here, a traditional—and excellent—island feast of fish cakes, baked beans, bannock, and chow will cost you only $5. Home cooking is also a trademark at the Seaweed Pie Café & Irish Moss Interpretive Centre (Route 14; 902-882-4313), in Miminegash, where the Women in Support of Fishing own and run the restaurant, and chef Gladys (“Nick”) Doucette extracts carrageen from the Irish moss her husband collects daily. She uses the gel in chowders and in a sweet, chiffonlike “Seaweed Pie,” but it’s her buttermilk biscuits that stand out. The Prince Edward Island Preserve Co. (2841 New Glasgow Road; 800-565-5267; preservecompany.com) is one of the most popular destinations on the island. In addition to offering scores of made-on-the-premises preserves and jellies, it has a sunny café overlooking the winding River Clyde. The homemade ice cream (try the strawberry rhubarb) is arguably the best in the province, and the café serves 25 blends of tea. Dalvay by the Sea (902-672-2048; dalvaybythe sea.com), a Victorian mansion that is now an inn and restaurant, boasts a spectacular location—within the Prince Edward Island National Park—and a menu emphasizing local products. Steamed Malpeque oysters shine in a simple dressing of green onion, ginger, and sesame oil, while shrimp and scallops are paired with herbed polenta and seasonal vegetables. (Rates, which include breakfast and dinner, run from $162 for a double room to $311 for a sleeping cottage without kitchen facilities.) Island-born chef Greg Aitken, at The Inn at St. Peters (1668 Greenwich Road, St. Peters Bay; 800-818-0925; innatstpeters.pe.ca; from $159), honors his roots and at the same time shows his range with dishes like local shark cured with nori and lemon, and pistachio-crusted arctic char. The inn, near the magnificent parabolic dunes at Greenwich, offers views of St. Peters Bay.
Shopping There
Charlottetown, the provincial capital, is home to several points of culinary interest. At the Queen Street Meat Market (368 University Avenue; 902-894-7336), Myron Turner runs an old-fashioned butcher shop that features a large tank of beef corning in brine and another holding live lobsters. Turner also sells fish cakes, potted meat, headcheese, and berries and seafood. The Gahan House Pub & Brewery (126 Sydney Street; 902-626-2337), located in one of the city’s charming 19th-century brick homes, produces six different ales. Not too far away, in the town of Winsloe North, is Cheese Lady’s Gouda Cheese (1423 Winsloe Road; 902-368-1506), where Dutch émigré Martina ter Beek makes a mellow Gouda from the milk of her Holsteins. The jewel of Charlottetown, however, is the Farmers’ Market (100 Belvedere Avenue; 902-626-3373), a year-round indoor affair offering some of the finest produce on the island, including organic goods from Raymond Loo, of Springwillow Farms (near Springfield; 902-964-2502). Saturday mornings (and Wednesdays in July and August), some 50 vendors gather to showcase local produce, honey, maple syrup, herbs, meat, and more. At Steve’s Seafood (417 Red Head Harbor; 902-961-3200), in Morell, lobster fisherman Steve Gallant offers smoked mackerel, farm-raised arctic char, lobster, scallops, halibut, hake, cod, and Solomon Gundy, a dish of pickled herring. For mussels and clams, try the place we call “the yellow house in Souris” (48 Main Street; 902-687-2717); a sandwich board outside will tell you whether anyone’s around to transact business. Also not to be missed: Fred Cheverie (East Point; 902-687-3436); Pinkie’s Bakery (106 Main Road, Souris; 902-687-2768); L&S Meat Market (RR #6, Cardigan; 902-838-4892); Nabuurs Gardens Limited (RR #2, Lower Montague; 902-838-4510); Vuozzo’s Lobster Pound (208 McDonald Road, Montague; 902-838-4934); Island Baking & Milling (RR #3, north of Culloden; 902-659-2443); Medallion Smoked Salmon (RR #10, New Glasgow Road, Ebenezer; 902-964-3001); Colville Bay Oyster Co. (83 Lower Rollo Bay Road, Souris West; 902-687-3640); and Kevin Ryan (RR #3, South Pinette; 902-659-2933).
Getting There
By car: Take the 10-mile-long Confederation Bridge (888-437-6565; confederation bridge.com) from Cape Jourimain, N.B., to Borden, P.E.I. (Tolls start at $27 and are collected when you leave the island.) The Northumberland Ferries (888-249-7245; nfl-bay.com) run between Caribou, N.S., and Wood Islands, P.E.I. (Fares for vehicles start at $35 and are collected when you leave the island.) Air Canada (888-247-2262; aircanada.com) has flights to Montreal from most major U.S. cities, with connecting flights to Charlottetown, P.E.I. —M.C.