On the most south-easterly end of the country, Canada’s Maritime provinces seem to me to be very different to the rest of the country.
Dominated by the Atlantic Ocean, they step to a different beat – one that you can’t help but be charmed by almost immediately. When I told my Canadian friends I was coming, a smile sprung up on their faces, as if they had been caught keeping a secret from me.
But it’s not a sleepy beat here – far from it. Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, has a kicking live music scene, along with a fabulous market culture. The city’s Seaport Farmers’ Market on the waterfront is the oldest continuously operating farmers’ market in North America, open seven days a week.
The market is the hub for a long list of cheese makers, fruit and vegetable producers, and wine growers from the plentiful farms in the nearby Annapolis valley. At the stall for That Dutchman’s Cheese Farm, I sampled Dragon’s Breath – one of the stinkiest, creamiest, most kick-ass blue cheeses you could imagine.
But it is Halifax’s craft beer scene that rivals anything I’ve seen anywhere else. At the Good Robot Brewing Co, the female brew team of Erica Fraser and Kelly Costello create beers with locally foraged herbs and medicinal plants. The list of brews is extensive – on reflection, I may have investigated it a little too thoroughly.
And the restaurants also punch way above their weight. I had a delightful brunch at Edna on Halifax’s hip Gottingen Street, and found classic comfort food at 2 Doors Down, where the braised Prince Edward Island beef short rib is knockout.
As I headed out of Halifax I began to realise that this area is dominated by water – the interior is full of beautiful lakes of all shapes and sizes and no point in Nova Scotia is more than 42 miles from the coast.
More than 3,800 islands make up Nova Scotia – and next up for me was a visit to Sober Island, to Trevor and Michelle Munroe’s oyster farm. A relatively new venture, it was created when a large storm in the 90s blew a hole in the beach to the coastal pond behind it. It wasn’t long before they started finding mussels and oysters in the shallow sea lake. They now have close to 7,000 floating baskets with over 4m oysters growing in this saltwater field.
I jumped into a boat with Trevor and his son and was soon plucking fresh oysters off the seabed. They were small and succulent, with a real slurpy sweetness. It takes over four years for oysters to grow to a marketable size, and they taste like heaven shucked on the boat just as they are.
Inspired by this experience, I grabbed a big bag of oysters and headed to one of Nova Scotia’s most iconic locations – Peggy’s Cove, a small fishing community with a famous lighthouse. I decided to cook an oyster po’ boy with tartare sauce and a seaweed seasoning outside the statuesque structure and ended up feeding the workmen who were giving it a lick of paint. One abseiled down from the top to get his share.
From here I headed over to the Annapolis valley. The area is a sheltered lowland and consequently has its own microclimate. I had no idea what a big and healthy wine industry Canada has – especially here. Traditional-method sparklings and dry, crisp white wines do particularly well. The valley has a collection of fantastic wineries and chef Jason Lynch of Le Caveau Restaurant showed me round its vineyard, Domaine de Grand Pre, which has over 14 wines to choose from and some really interesting tipples. The Haskap sparkling wine, made from blending two of the house wines, has some fermented haskap juice added for colour and flavour. It gives a lovely fruity sweetness, which makes it really quite quaffable in the afternoon heat.
I chose a crisp, cold, sharp glass of riesling, paired with Jason’s locally caught scallops. The combination of the wine with the salty, firm, griddled scallops, cooked on the vineyard barbie in the afternoon setting sun, had me reaching for another glass.
My next stop was the Bay of Fundy, one of the best places in the world to watch whales, with 12 different species parking up in the bay throughout the summer months. It also provides the perfect environment for a plethora of seafood – and it grows big here.
At Hall’s Harbour Lobster Pound, I encountered a 50-year-old, 3.5kg beast. Its claws bigger than my head, I had to use two hands to lift it. Almost every Nova Scotian I spoke to told me that they’d “seen bigger”.
The Bay of Fundy is also known for having the highest tidal range in the world. Waters rise as high as 16 metres twice daily, transporting tonnes of silt and mud up and down the local rivers.
We headed to the Shubenacadie river, where we were told we could ride the tidal bore – a strong tide that pushes up the river, against the current – on speedboats, with the ominous warning to wear clothes we didn’t want to wear again. Gulp.
It was startling how quickly the brown, silt-heavy water rose. A vast area fills up with water the colour of hot chocolate in minutes. As more and more water pours back upstream, everything starts getting very exciting and choppy. Soon we were riding the waves of the bore, which felt like we were in a vast bowl of cappuccino froth. Brilliant.
I’ve travelled all over Canada, from east to west coast and I can’t believe I only just discovered Nova Scotia. No wonder my friends were shyly smiling. It’s going to be the next big location to visit in Canada. You should go before the secret gets out.
For more information and inspiration, see explore-canada.co.uk
