Tight Little Island

Darkening sky hangs over a Prince Edwards Island farmhouse.

Back on another ferry – this time we crossed over the water to Prince Edward Island – and this time it was actually free! The 75-minute voyage to the island costs nothing. You pay when you leave the province. We came in on the eastern side of the island and drove to a perfect little campground that had a spot for us that perched us on a cliff overlooking Seal Cove. The crash of the waves spooked the cats. But they adjusted. They always do.

Everything about PEI is in miniature. We plot our course on our computer and when we measure the distance to the next stop it turns out to be only 28 miles away.

Tuesday morning broke with fog and rain. We took our time in leaving this lovely spot. And our trip up-island took less than two hours. We came to Red Point Provincial Park, again on the coast. We drove the car, coated in red dirt now, past fields of potatoes, to East Point which is exactly that – the most easterly point of the province. This is a unique place for three different currents converge off the point, the Northumberland Straits, The Atlantic and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The waters off the point were a roiling maelstrom of competing waves tumbling over each other. It looked like a sailor's nightmare.

On our way back to the campground, we stopped at a beach that touted itself as the “singing sands”. No siren song was heard, though. We were told the sands were too wet. When conditions are right, the sands chirp and chatter as you walk along.

East Kings is a bump in the road, so small it doesn't even get mentioned on a large, detailed map of the eastern section of PEI. But we arrived at East Kings' Community Center at 8 p.m. for a ceilidh on Tuesday night. And what a ceilidh it turned out to be. Three hours of music from about eight or nine groups – and tea and biscuits and jam at the intermission. A group from the Catskill Mountains of New York, a guitarist from Ontario, local talented fiddlers, an Irish player of the bodhrain, a fiddler from Brooklyn, NY, a piano player and her guitar-playing husband from West Charlottetown, PEI, two singing ladies called Ding and Dong (they were retired telephone company workers!) and an exceptional local group playing a mandolin, banjo, base fiddle and guitar. Wow. All this for $5! It truly doesn't get better.

We have joined a new group, called Harvest Hosts. This makes farms and vineyards available to us throughout North America. We are invited to park in the farmyard at no charge and, in exchange, we are invited to buy a bottle of wine or maybe a few pounds of potatoes or peas or blueberries.

Our first experience came on Wednesday and Thursday when we visited Shepherd's Farm in PEI. Finding it was the hardest part. I stopped two times along the way, asking directions. But we arrived at the end of a tarred road and drove into the farmyard.

Everyone was away except for Daniel, the 12-year-old son of the house. He showed us where we could park alongside a barn. Water, electricity and a sewer dump were there. He told us his dad was teaching a class in organic farming in Charlottetown and wouldn't be home until late. Then, he said, they were planning on taking off for a fishing trip on a friend's boat.

Jo and I roamed the farm. It has turkeys, chickens, rabbits, pigs, lambs and beef cattle – all of them organically fed. It was very quiet, apart from the bleating of the sheep and lambs and occasional cattle sounds.

On Thursday morning we met with Steven Cousins, the farmer, and his wife Cindy. This is one incredible couple. They have a certified organic farm and he leads the certified farming group in the province. He presented us with the gift of a bag of new PEI potatoes, then took us up to the fields and gave Jo a bunch of garlic, lettuce and a tomato. We then picked our fill of raspberries. Daniel, as well as the other Cousins children, Hannah and Naomi, own parts of the farm and each have responsibilities for their portions. Daniel owns the raspberry patches and sold us two pints. He also owns the pigs, meat chickens and a handful of geese. He won't continue with the geese, he told us, because they are pretty hard to raise.

Daniel has some young workers in the raspberry field, picking away. He pays them from his profits and the raspberries are then sold in town. Steven Cousins has focused on producing foods that can be sold to high-end restaurants. He said they particularly like his small PEI potatoes. But he also sells chocolate mint, orange mint and many vegetables. In addition, he raises sheep and sells the meat to local restaurants.

This introduction to Harvest Hosts program was a winner and we look forward to stopping in at another farm in the northwestern tip of the island in a couple of days.