Oceanside Wild, as the name suggests sits perched on a knoll looking out over a picture-perfect maritime bay to a foghorn and two rocky headlands that protect the cove of Little Lorraine. Beyond lies the open ocean. Facing south as we do, the nearest landfall as we look out is Venezuela. Due east is Bordeaux in France.
The trails snaking out around the cove and along the coast wind through low spruce woods and along open taiga habitat carpeted with crowberries and blueberries, mosses and lichens. Seaweeds of many varieties, shapes, and sizes wash up, storm-tossed on the multi-hued rock and sand beaches. At low tide, we mooch through the exposed strands of kelp and kombu, wracks and dulse, harvesting small amounts by hand, being sure to leave each plant base intact on its holdfast to grow back again.
This wild east coast of Cape Breton runs from Arichat in the south to Glace Bay in the north, washed by the waves and winds, storms and tides off the vast ocean, tickled by warm summer breezes and pounded by icy winter surf.
We have registered our land and surrounding natural shoreline and coastline as an ARK, practising Acts of Restorative Kindness through www.wearetheark.org , founded by the visionary Mary Reynolds in Ireland. We are the first such Ark on Cape Breton Island, and in Nova Scotia.
And so - from the sale of our organic farm in the hills of southern Ontario - it was only natural that we - farmer Pete and glass artist Gundi
( www.gundi.com ) - would find our home and new calling at Oceanside Wild.
With all manner of sea greens from our nearby shores to harvest and dry; fish from rivers and ocean to smoke; wild berries from the hillsides to be picked; greens and herbs from raised beds to be grown, we are happy to introduce you to Oceanside Wild Fine Foods. Taste the wild, deep flavours of sea and shore!
Peter Finch
Gundi Viviani-Finch
Visit us at www.oceansidewild.com
