Tag Archives: Cortes Market

Arts, Gardening

The 2024 Creative Spaces Garden and Studio Tour On Cortes Island

The Creative Spaces Garden and Studio Tour is Saturday June 22, from 10 am to 4 pm. This is an annual fundraiser for the Cortes Island Museum, as well as a showcase of some of the island’s hidden gems.  

“It’s a great opportunity to feature creative talents of people on the island, and it’s a self guided  tour of studios and gardens that takes you all the way around from Whaletown, down to Smelt Bay, and Cortes Bay. We’ve got painters, textile artists, weavers, spinners,  ceramicists .  We’ve got a number of potters and pottery studios that are participating. And then some beautiful spaces with gardens that range from low bluff to high bluff. You pick up a map, which includes a button, and you just go around the island visiting people with talents you may not have known about, or see spaces that you were curious about but never had an opportunity to actually walk into. Walk through the gates and see what people are growing there,” explained Melanie Boyle, Managing Director of the Cortes Island Museum.

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Arts

Getting Ready For Love Fest 2024

Ben Coey is co-producing this year’s Lovefest, which returns to Linnaea Farm on Saturday August 10th.  

“Rex, Amy and Rick have been running and producing the festival for a number of years. They’ve  decided that they need to have a bit of a break from doing it. I’ve worked with Rex on a number of projects previously.  He asked me if I liked to get involved and help out with co-producing and I said, ‘yeah, sure,’” Coey explained.

“I’m good friends with Rex. I’ve toured for many years as a drummer in a band with Rex’s son, Jack. I’ve always loved coming to Lovefest, and played in it a couple of times. I’m spending more time up in Cortes and gradually moving up here. This is a nice way to just get involved with the community.”

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Animals, Environment

FOCI’s Create, Connect and Conserve series

The Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) summer programs have long been popular with tourists and summer. This year FOCI wanted to offer something for the year round community. 

“ The inspiration is partly wanting to make sure that more members of the community know about FOCI. We do a lot of projects, but they’re not really shiny and we don’t really advertise them.  They’re on our website, but if people don’t go there and read about them, they don’t know that they’re happening,” explained Soma Feldmar, the society’s Administrative Assistant.

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Farming, Food

This year’s blueberry harvest on Cortes Island

This started out as a story about the incredible blueberry harvest in the midst of this year’s drought. 

One of the seniors picking at Sunnybrae Farm gave Cortes Currents the tip, which Mike Manson subsequently confirmed.

“We are seeing what we think might be the biggest crop ever. In terms of pounds per bush, and the fruit is ripening differently. It’s ripening in a more condensed manner, which is good for picking. The big crop is probably due to favourable conditions for pollination in the spring. Whether or not that had anything to do with dry weather, I’m not sure. Maybe the bees were glad it wasn’t raining and cold and wet, but certainly pollination was key, without that you don’t get a crop. For whatever reason, conditions were favourable for bees to be flying and doing their job,” he said.

“We’ve never seen a dry year start so early.  This year, the dryness started mid May. I remember May 13th was 30 degrees Celsius.  I think  the early heat this year has affected  the way the fruit has ripened. I haven’t seen it ripen in this fashion before.” 

However, there are three blueberry farms on Cortes island and, as I was soon to learn, they are in different micro-climates. 

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Arts

Better than ever: Lovefest 2023

Lovefest will be returning to Cortes Island on August 12. 

“Lovefest just has its own momentum. It exists because the community wants it. There’s nothing political about it. We get to enjoy some good music, have fun together and just be with each other as a community,” explained Rex Weyler, one of the key organizers. 

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