When I was a little girl of 5 years old, Iowa Public Television featured a weekly installment of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s world-renowned, literary masterpiece Anne of Green Gables. As my mom fondly recalls, every Monday I would repeatedly ask, “Is Anne on yet?! Is Anne on yet?!” I was enthralled by the story of the imaginative little red-headed orphan girl who finds a home on Canada’s beloved Prince Edward Island.
In the last 25 years, I have watched the movie series enough times that I basically have them memorized, and I have read the books almost as many times as I have watched the movies. As soon as I had my own little girl I made sure to purchase a children’s adapted version, and I took great joy in reading it, chapter by chapter, to my kids before we left for this trip. So, no trip to PEI would be complete without an “Anne day,” yes? Today was our “Anne-day.”
Our first activity of the day was a Mother’s Day gift from Brian to my mom and me: “A Taste of the Past Culinary Experience” at The Table Culinary Studio, with the following description:
The classic Anne literary series was written by Lucy Maud Montgomery who was born right here in New London! In this experience we will visit the birthplace of L. M. Montgomery for a tour of the museum located only 150 meters from The Table. We will then return to The Table and use Lucy Maud’s Cookbook to transport us back to her time as we create dishes from her era using meat and produce from our local farms. Can we interest you in a glass of raspberry cordial?
Thought we didn’t quite know what to expect, Gee Gee and I were very excited for our culinary experience! Located in an old and lovingly renovated United Church of Canada, The Table features rustic white washed rafters above a large airy kitchen and dining area with beautiful stained glass windows located all around. We were greeted pleasantly and were surprised to learn that we were the only two students for the class today.
Chef Derrick, Chef Roark, and Chef Michael provided us with aprons and hand towels, and — after washing our hands— we got started on prepping our menu of homemade beet bread with onion and “black garlic” (more on this delicacy later), fish cakes with succotash, Boston cookies from L.M. Montgomery’s family’s cookbook, and homemade raspberry cordial.
I’ve decided there is no better way to cook than cooking with real chefs who have already measured your ingredients and who instruct you on what to add, when, and why. Real chefs are also excellent at clean-up as you go, which comes in very handy. The Table focuses on fresh, local, and seasonal ingredients, and Taste of the Past narrowed that focus even further to meal items that would have been popular in Anne Shirley’s time.
The first item we worked on was our homemade bread made with beets, onions, and black garlic. Black garlic is garlic that has been sort of fermented and caramelized by being heated at high temperatures for long periods of time. It is described as having a sweet but savory taste and being a cross between basalmic vinegar and chocolate. It’s a bit pricey, but whatever; it’s delicious!
Michael taught us some of the science behind bread baking, rising, yeast, and we also learned that the baking process with this particular bread would pull the sugars from the beets to the outside of the bread resulting in pretty red crusts while the inside stayed nice and the color of traditional bread. Next we worked with Chef Roark who browned some bacon and onions to begin some succotash, mixed some boiled potatoes, onions, bacon, and salted cod, and instructed us on how to form fish patties.
Then it was back to Michael who instructed us on creaming butter and sugar and LM Montgomery’s cookie recipes. Throughout the cooking experience the chefs offered a continual stream of island, cooking, and ingredient knowledge.
While the Chefs finished up some cooking tasks, Chef Derrick took us up the block for a tour of the home in which LM Montgomery was born. This house is open to the public and features some artifacts from the author’s life.
The room where author L.M. Montgomery was born.
We returned to The Table and, after smashing some cooked raspberries through a sieve to help start the raspberry cordial, we were escorted up a staircase to a small alcove where we were served the lunch that we helped to make. It was fresh and delicious! Our lunch concluded slightly earlier than planned so we sat around chatting with the guys and taking ‘Anne’ photos while we waited for Brian and the kids to pick us up.
Joy toasts with her homemade raspberry cordial.
View from our dining alcove.
Brian recaps his morning with the kids:
With Amanda and Gee Gee occupied for four hours with their culinary experience, I was in charge of counter-programming for Noah, Emmie, and Eilidh. The rain and cold put a damper on pretty much any outdoor activity, so we started our time with a grocery store visit (one of my favorite indoor vacation activities) and a trip to McDonalds (one of the kids’ favorite indoor vacation activities.)
I’d been to PEI’s capital city of Charlottetown a few times, so we instead went to the province’s second largest city, Summerside. Boasting a population of 13,000 residents, the city was large enough to have an Atlantic Superstore and McDonald’s, perfect for our agenda. The grocery store was complete with a clothing section, where I found a cute Canada onesie for Eilidh and hat for Emmie.
Eilidh was loaded in the cart, and the kids were ready to shop.
Noah’s favorite part of the grocery store was the storage section. He had ideas for his room.
Emmie posed with a variety of Canada gear for July 1st’s Canada Day holiday.
Large ordering monitors were recently installed at the Summerside McDonald’s and were a big conversation point for the locals in the restaurant. One suggested they were taking away jobs; others were skeptical of the process and instead stood in the much longer register lines. Regardless, we had a good ordering experience with the monitors, and once our order was placed, we found seats and the staff delivered the food to our table.
Four monitor kiosks were present for diners to place orders.
Emmie and Noah enjoyed coloring as much as they enjoyed their Happy Meal lunches.
Emmie was happy to pose with her new Canada hat!
We drove further west to an attraction Noah was excited about, the Bottle Houses. Dating to the early 1980s, there are three buildings constructed of cement along with over 25,000 glass bottles. The worker gave Noah the activity of counting the number of blue bottles used in the buildings; he counted 11, a rare find compared to thousands of clear, green, and brown bottles.
Noah points to a blue bottle he found in the final house we visited.
When Brian arrived to pick us up, he was allowed a sample of the aforementioned black garlic, and we decided to set off in search of the black garlic supplier, Al, to get some of our own.
Al’s operation was located a few kilometers down the road in a completely nondescript barn behind his house. We were able to buy a half a pound of black garlic and hear Al’s detailed story about how he became a black garlic dealer. It involves Paris, a dream, copious amounts of copper tubing, and an old refrigerator.
The headquarters of Al’s Eureka Black Garlic enterprise.
Al references his trusty garlic book when explaining the growing process.
Our next stop was the house on which L.M. Montgomery based Anne’s home: Green Gables. Unfortunately, the Day of Anne fell on a rainy, dreary day. It was recommended by everything we’d read and everyone we’d talked with to enter the Green Gables property via “the back way” — a path from “the haunted wood” up to the house, to experience Green Gables as it is written about in the book. But with the cold, wind, rain, and three small children, one of them a baby, we decided to enter via the touristy parking lot side.
Also unfortunate, we arrived just after a giant Japanese cruise ship docked in Charlottetown and bused its passengers to Green Gables. This rendered the tour of the grounds and house crowded, slow-moving, and very cold. (Anne of Green Gables is extremely popular in Japan.) Oh well. On the bright side, we did manage to snap a photo with “Anne,” and we did receive many compliments from the Japanese tourists on our “beautiful,” “cute,” and “fair” baby. Those are always nice to hear.
Us, the Green Gables house, and lots of Japanese tourists.
The McMillin girls and Anne.
Gee Gee joins the girls for a photo with “Anne.”
Brian writes about his evening with Emmie:
One of the agenda items we missed yesterday in Charlottetown was a stop at Lucky Fox Snack Company, Prince Edward Island’s only local potato chip manufacturer. Emmie and I made the trek southward, stopping first at Lucky Fox to fulfill one of the trip’s primary missions. We sampled several varieties of chips and popcorn, then proceeded to buy more snack food than we could possibly eat on the last 3 days of our trip.
When that stop was complete, we shifted our focus to the town’s large Atlantic Superstore. We were mostly looking for a Canada shirt in Emmie’s size, but found time to peruse several of the store’s aisles. Emmie was particularly infatuated with the sunglasses, and she tried on several pairs before we checked out and returned to our rotating house in North Rustico.
We also stopped at David’s Tea in Charlottetown, where Emmie smelled at least a dozen flavors.
Emmie tried some raspberry cordial at our house.