A small town in the middle of Nova Scotia. Close to Digby, actually. The first I heard of it was through an ad on social media for the annual Cherry Carnival. Summer is the time for all kinds of festivities in Canada and Nova Scotia is no exception.
The Cherry Carnival is the oldest festivity in a community in Canada, as well as the longest-running.
So, we left for Bear River. It’s a little less than 100km away from the house, so not a big deal. The first view of the town was like getting into a touristy town in the south of France. Full of people, cars parked “wherever” and no law enforcement in sight. In other words, busy and cozy.
The Bear River
Just the way I like it for spending a hot summer day. It turned out to be low tide, so much of the water exposed hot, sun-warmed rocks. Everything in place for a full experience for cherries and cherry products.
Dubious foundation
Except that the local cherries we were looking for had been imported from Ontario, a local disaster involving an infection had wiped out all the cherry trees in the area. We were welcome to buy small boxes of Ontario Cherries, though. Since we can get those at home, we declined.
Original way to cool your feet
Other festivities included bouncy castles for kids and a Dunk ‘em! for adults with good hand-eye coordination. The person in the saddle on the receiving end remained dry for as long as I was watching that game unlike the guy in the picture above, who had been wading to that rock in the middle of the water. I guess he wanted to cool down his feet. Not long after, he was gone. I don’t think he was swept away by the current.
Destination Unknown
Walking back to the car parked on the outside of town, I found this pile of timber, that must have been something important not so long ago. Given the low tide and the line of mud for high tide, this may have been a patio for a restaurant or something. I’m not sure what happened there.
Bear River
Then we went looking for a bite to eat. Only to find that the least full place announced a one-hour wait before any place to sit would become available. We declined to wait and went back to the hot car instead.
Bear River Winery
We left to visit the Bear River Winery, a few hundred meters away from the town center. Located in a building from 1881, it has a lot of character. Even if the winery was only started in 1989. Renovations in the building have preserved its original character, unlike many other wineries I have seen where the outside looks great and the inside is only drywall and stainless steel.
Original
This is the only gravity-powered winery east of Ontario. While this may sound exceptional, all wineries were originally gravity powered when electricity and pumps were not available.
Wine Cellar
The wine cellar is a modest operation, with bottles still capped using real cork. Therefore, the bottles are stored horizontally. Well, kind of. In the above picture, nothing looks straight, and that is because nothing IS straight in this cellar. The bottles are stored on a slight angle, the old Greek pillar is not a straight one either and the diagonal tiles on the floor don’t inspire straight angles either.
Press
The winery produces 7 different types of wine, some straight, some blended. Certain grapes only produce some 100 to 150 litres of wine per year. This is a very small operation; they don’t work with the Liquor Marts and don’t export their wines. This is as local as you can get.
A view I could enjoy every day
The view over the vineyard is fantastic. At the bottom far end of the field the tidal river that tempers the climate considerably in hot and cold times.
Panoramic view of the vineyard
I think you can guess what part of the trip to Bear River caught the most of my attention, right? Having lived near the French vignobles for a long time, this was a nice place to find something similar.
Until next time…