Seafest on Cortes Island
This popular culinary event is just one of the things to take in
The aromas hit us first: the union of shiro miso with sake, the tang of garlic mixing with Sriracha sauce, the yeasty bouquet of fresh baked breads. Thank heavens this lineup is moving briskly.
Soon we’re staring down at oysters in miso sauce, oysters in a delectable lime marmalade glaze, mussels luxuriating in white wine, steamed clams Bordelaise, and prawns in sweet chili Thai sauce.
“Sautéed, poached, steamed, or barbecued, and we have new recipes every year,” says oyster grower, Kristen Scholfield-Sweet, who along with her partner John Shook, has organized the Cortes Island Seafood Association’s Seafest since 2009.
We shoehorn them all onto our plates and move to the gazebo, close to the entertainment. Alongside the pond, the beer garden is doing a rousing business while local musicians David Blinzinger and Steffano Perdisa stoke up a little jazz on saxophone and guitar, the first of a myriad of acts.
For the past three years, Seafest has been held at Gorge Harbour Marina on the Saturday of the May long weekend, and with 10 acres of grassy fields, an orchard campsite, a well-stocked store, restaurant, good facilities and awesome water views, this is one sweet place to hold it.
This popular culinary event is only one of many things to take in on Cortes.
For the art lover in me, the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery and the craft shop at Squirrel Cove have both opened up for the season.
For the foodie me, there’s a farmers’ market at the community hall in Manson’s Landing where I can score some hard-to-come-by fresh produce, and for the inner gourmand, I can hit the organic, well-stocked Food Co-op across the street, the island’s year-round social and culinary hub, where bread and baking goodies mix with coffee and buzz.
Then, my inner child wants an early season swim in the locals’ favourite playground, Hague Lake, with its sugar sand and topaz waters. We’ve also booked a Mansons Lagoon tour with longtime resident, Lynne Jordan, who has been giving enthralled visitors close up looks for years at the lives of the lagoon’s critters in the inter tidal zone, in return for donations to the Cortes Island Museum and Archives.
“Cortes has wonderful parks. Be sure to visit Smelt Bay Park, too. It’s a sandy beach that’s swimmable, where you can walk for ages. The annual August Sandcastle Day is held there on the day of the full moon,” says our host, realtor Martha Abelson.
“Whaletown Commons is an inland park with magnificent trails that take you through a different forest with cedars and fir and beautiful tall maple trees and fern covered ravines. It’s a different experience.”
And there is a short but steep hike up to Easter Bluff with views west to the Gorge and the mountains of Vancouver Island and east to Cortes Bay.
And there is Smelt Bay, along with nearby Hollyhock Leadership Institute, now 35 years old, whose gardens, accommodations, classes and instructors have drawn guests from around the world and whose organic buffets are also open to the public.
We also must visit the museum, which Scholfield-Sweet enthuses about.
“It’s a must-see. It’s shocking in the scale and diversity of its constantly changing exhibits and territorial knowledge. The newest exhibit, curated by artist, educator and writer, Judith Williams, is on the history of Refuge Cove, an historical and colourful settlement on nearby West Redonda Island.”
When people get this excited about a museum on a small island, we know we have to go.
Cortes is one of the Discovery Islands, the unofficial but widely used name given to the archipelago of islands lying along the Inside Passage at the Strait of Georgia’s northern end between Campbell River, north-central Vancouver Island and mainland British Columbia.
With a population just over 1,000, comprised of long established Klahoose First Nations, descendants of 19th-century settlers and more recent arrivals looking for a casual lifestyle, Cortes is definitely off the beaten track. Named in 1793 after the Spanish conqueror of Mexico, Hernando Cortes, it’s approximately 25 kilometres long and 130 square kilometres in area. Its remoteness and large tracts of wilderness are part of its allure for both islanders and visitors.