Canada's insider blog

Is there anything those foodies up in Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island won’t dream up?

For years, we’ve savoured creations from  Hilary’s Artisan Cheese, the Stewart’s True Grain Bread and the Udder Guy’s Ice Cream Parlour.

Now, there’s a guy making sea salt. Andrew Shepherd, a former chef, started gathering buckets of sea water and boiling it in a pot in his front yard to extract the salt.

Friends and neighbours wouldn’t let him keep it to himself, so Shepherd started the Vancouver Island Salt Company. People like that it’s natural and  unrefined.

Shepherd believes his salt even has its own terroir – or maybe that should be meroir – just like grapes.  In addition to his regular artisanal salt, he also creates a maple-flavoured variety by smoking the salt with maple wood and “Salty Andrew” has just announced on Twitter a new alder flavour.

Shepherd doesn’t ship his salt outside the country, so now you have another reason to visit  “Canada’s Provence.”

Note: people are welcome to visit, but Andrew says they should contact  him ahead of time to make sure the pots are boiling islandsalt@gmail.com)