Salt Spring Island - Day 2 - Lavender, Goats and Beer

We started day two at Ruckle Provincial Park. It was on the South East side of the island and promised some good hikes along the water. When we got there and were in the woods a bit it seemed cold but once we got into the sun, despite the wind it was a great day for a hike. We walked along the ocean for a bit before heading inland. The park includes a working farm and with Oliver with us we were limited on where we could go. I think I would like to go back at some point without a dog.

We didn't do a lot of research on where to go on Salt Spring other than looking up "Top 10 things to do on Salt Spring". On this list included a local goat cheese farm. There were chickens in the yard and lots of options for goat cheese. I stayed in the car so I still haven't had a chance to taste any of it yet but Kerry and the kids insist it is excellent. The social distancing at the goat farm was well done and Kerry was surprised at how knowledgable the teenaged staff was.

I think the highlight for me was the lavender farm. It wasn't very big but they had quite a few products and the owners were happy to share their trade. I bought a lavender plant as well as an Immortal plant to try in my garden. They gave me some tips on where to plant, how to water and most importantly how to trim it back each year. Lavender grows from the top of the last years growth so you want to cut it back as far as you can without going past the current year. It means it gets a bit bigger each year but I can then use cuttings to get new plants.

After one more farm that makes beer we headed back to the cabin to wander around and think about plans for dinner. Our cabin is just up from a small lake that included a dock and some water sport equipment. The lake looked swimmable though we didn't find the time to try it out ourselves. Carter and I also discovered that our Cabin has the potential for another full floor on it. For some reason it's just set up as a crawl space but you could definitely put a room down there. Maybe a good investment opportunity. We went back to Ganges for dinner for calamari and pizza on the boardwalk.