Vancouver Island Bed & Breakfast in the Cowichan wine region

Bed & Breakfast innkeepers not only provide accommodation and serve delicious breakfasts, they also often serve as ambassadors for their community and assist their guests with all kinds of information to enhance their stay. The question we are probably asked more often than anything else is “where to go for dinner”.

Fortunately the Cowichan Valley is home to a number of very fine restaurants so it is very easy to recommend these to our guests. We always ask them afterwards “how was dinner” and almost always the recommendation has led them to a great dining experience, often featuring locally grown or harvested foods.

Just around the conrer from Cobble House B&B

In Cowichan Bay, just a 15 minute drive away, you will find The Masthead Restaurant, another favorite with our guests. They specialize in seafood, but have something for everyone’s taste. All their entrees are served with “pot au feu” fresh vegetables and duck spuds, and they have a great wine list.

Back in Shawnigan Lake Village is another of our recommended restaurants, Steeples Bar & Grill, an “adventure in casual dining”. Located in a converted church, Steeples is a big part of the community as well. They have just launched their new fall promotion “Mediterranean Nights” and had a very successful Asian fusion promotion this spring.

While the bistro at Merridale Cidery is mostly open just for lunch, they offer hugely popular pizza nights on Sundays during the summer. Currently they are open on Saturday nights until mid December for Field to Table 3-course dinners. We met some of our guests at Merridale at one of the last pizza nights of the season and they really enjoyed the food and the ciders there! La Pommeraie Bistro is another popular choice with our guests, and it too, is just around the corner from Cobble House B&B.

While in a very rural location, Cowichan Valley restaurants are among some of the best restaurants on Vancouver Island. We’ll happily book a table for you when you come to stay, so you too can enjoy really fine dining in the Cowichan Valley.

It may surprise you to hear that on Vancouver Island, and in the Vancouver area, dozens of small farms are making maple syrup.  Traditionally, areas of Quebec and Ontario are known for making the famous Canadian maple syrup from sugar maple trees, but in the last decade tapping big leaf maple trees, especially on Vancouver Island, has become a growing agroforestry business, boosted by the “100 mile diet” and niche food production.  Many farmers involved in the production of maple syrup are hobbyists, but the business is growing and demand is far outstripping supply at the moment.

Big leaf maples are a different species than the sugar maples in eastern Canada.  There are some differences in the sap and how it can be collected.  There is a lower sugar content in Big Leaf sap and the syrup that can be made from it varies from golden in color to a dark chocolate tint.

On Saturday February 5, 2011, the BC Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan will host the 4th annual Big Leaf Maple Syrup Festival.  Events run from 10 a.m to 4:30 p.m.  Visitors are invited to participate in workshops featuring tapping demonstrations, presentations and displays.  Cooking with maple syrup will be featured, as well as maple food.  There is also a maple syrup competition, judged by celebrity chefs from Vancouver Island, awarding ribbons for Judges’ Choice, Best in Show, and light, medium and dark syrup.  More than 2000 people attended the 2010 event and all the syrup available for sale sold out.

Vancouver Island maple syrup is obviously becoming a very popular local food product.  Spend a weekend at Cobble House Bed & Breakfast in the Cowichan Valley and explore this new industry.  If you have time left over, visit one of the many award-winning wineries and enjoy fabulous gourmet dining at several excellent Cowichan Valley restaurants such as Amuse Bistro, The Masthead, Steeples or the newest addition to fine dining in the Valley, the Stone Soup Inn.