When Penderites say, “I’ll meet you at Medicine Beach,” they usually mean the shopping area parking lot, right?
Not to be confused with the beach itself or the Medicine Beach Nature Sanctuary.
I’m referring to the conglomeration of three Pender Island favourites at the foot of Schooner Way: Slow Coast Coffee, the Medicine Beach Liquor Store and its newest addition, Truss Farm Foods.
Another popular draw (though not as attractive) is The Pender Waste Management Depot, the Garbage Bins.
The Medicine Beach Crossroads
Whatever you call the spot, I think it should be called the Medicine Beach Crossroads, a transition point between the Magic Lake/Trincomali area and the rest of Pender. A resting point, a gathering place, an oasis, a sanctuary, a respite.
Jennifer and I have been “camping out” there most Fridays for the past three years, working the Happy Monk Bread pick-up. We park next to the bulletin board, near the entrance. And that’s our vantage point to observe the wash of Pender humanity.
It’s where you can get a few things done — drop off your garbage or get a bottle of wine for the weekend — then meet a friend for coffee at the Slow Coast. Or pick up your bread on a Friday, and have a chat with the Happy Monk baker.
Full of Pender life
It’s a special place. A little wild, a little unruly, but full of Pender life. The parking lot fills abruptly at lunchtime. Loud motorcycles and pick-up trucks entering the lot turn people’s heads. Dogs bark in cars while owners linger inside the liquor store. People duck into Truss Farm Foods and come out holding paper bowls of ramen, salads or beautifully shaped pasta.
When things are busy, there are cars everywhere. The few parking spaces in front of the buildings are one of the only signs of order. All higgledy-piggledy around the perimeter, a small group gathered by the garbage bins, others clustered (Happy Monk included) around the bulletin board.
You might stop in the middle of the lot to exchange a few words with a neighbour, but you’re constantly on the watch for cars turning in a wide circle or suddenly backing out of a space.
A gang of tough guys
Nobody passed me by.”
Two years ago, a couple of enormous pick-up trucks rolled into the parking. It was a Friday. Jennifer and I had the hatch of the Subaru open, and we were greeting customers arriving for their bread. Everything in the parking lot stopped as the two trucks took a wide turn around the lot, each hauling large firewood trailers. They stopped in front of our Subaru.
You might think it was a gang of tough guys taking over the lot. The driver-side doors opened, and a couple of older fellas came around the front. It wasn’t the Hells Angels. It was the Pender Green Angels, the wood-choppers. They were there to pick up their bread!
When the late, great Penderosa Pizza joint flourished, the owners, bless them, had a rickety picnic table outside and a collection of lawn furniture. You could meet some real Pender characters there as you ate your slice of meat-lovers pizza and sipped a can of coke.
“Do you know Gord?”
One day, a fellow walked over from the liquor store and asked me, “Do you know Gord?” I was a little confused. Yes, I was friends with a Gord Beatty back in the 1970s. “Yup,” he said. “That’s the one. His wife told me they knew a guy on Pender who was a baker. Just thought I’d ask!”
If you stand in the Medicine Beach parking lot long enough, you’ll run into every Penderite you know and some you don’t know. 1
When I closed up the Subaru that day, I was singing the song “Crossroads” (Cream version) to myself:
I went down to the crossroads, tried to flag a ride
(with apologies to Robert Johnson)
Down to the crossroads, tried to flag a ride
Everybody seemed to know me, nobody passed me by
Another type of crossroad
What about the Driftwood Centre, you might ask? Another type of crossroad, yes.
At least once a week, I thank heavens for the Driftwood, which makes Pender Island a more comfortable place to live. The Driftwood’s a lovely suburban commercial hub, a shopping mall with all mod cons. The Tru Value, the Post Office, Pharmacy, Jo’s Place, the Vanilla Leaf, Hardware, Garden Centre, Jo’s Place, Talisman’s Books … where would we be without them?
Most visits to the Driftwood are always longer than if you were at a city supermarket. You’re sure to run into more neighbours or friends and spend at least a few minutes chatting. Same for Medicine Beach, but you can’t compare the two places. They each exist for different purposes.
But I’ve become more relaxed at Medicine Beach over the years. The rough and tumble, the character, the happy vibe. I’m part of the wash of Pender humanity, there.
On the outside looking in
I used to fantasize about opening a bricks-and-mortar Happy Monk Bakery there. A few racks for bread, muffins, pastries and maybe a soft ice cream machine for the summer. And there’d be room for a wood-fired oven out back of the store. Sandwiches at lunchtime. It would be a perfect location!
But sometimes, it’s better to be on the outside, looking in. Mildrith’s my oven. My home is South Pender looking out on the Salish Sea. And there will always be someone or something drawing me up-island to the Medicine Beach Crossroads.
A new outlook for the Happy Monk Baking Company, a shift of focus from oven-to-home bread delivery to the community of the Pender Island Farmers Market [ See Link in Profile ]
Jan 29
![A new outlook for the Happy Monk Baking Company, a shift of focus from oven-to-home bread delivery to the community of the Pender Island Farmers Market [ See Link in Profile ]](https://i0.wp.com/happymonkbaking.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png?w=980&ssl=1)
A bread-fail last week produced great-tasting Sesame-Miso Frisbees or Umami Chapeaus! What to do with the remnants? Hard-bread, rusks, croutons, or what have you. And the Ravens get their fair share, too … O come to me Huginn and Munnin! Fill your beaks and carry my greetings and blessings to Odin! [ See link in my LinkTree in HappyMonk Profile ]
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#showusyourfuckedloaves, #sesamemiso, #sesamemiso, #sesamemisobread, #hardtack, #hardbread, #croutons, #huginnandmunnin, #odin, #penderisland, #southpenderisland, #happymonkbaking, #southerngulfislands|
Jul 21
Latest Happy Monk Blog: The World is Too Much With Us - In our little Island paradise, how to embrace all the beauty when the world is going to hell in a hand basket? ALSO: Baker`s Choice - Brown-Rice Miso and Sesame Sourdough [ See LinkTree in Profile ]
Jul 17
Latest Happy Monk Blog: "A Bird Came Down the Walk," a brief flirtation with ChatGPT that was awkward but offered an exquisite poem by Emily Dickinson. [See LinkTree in Profile ]
Jul 3
Resurrected a couple of Salish Sourdough loaves forgotten inside Mildrith, the wood-fired oven. They emerged charred and hell-fired, sadly, so I took a knife to them and made them almost new again!
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#woodfired #woodfiredoven #coboven #Mildrith #Mildriththeoven #woodfiredovenbread #sourdough #sourdoughbread #penderisland #southpenderislands #happymonkbaking #burntbread #showusyourfuckedloaves
Jun 9
Strongly recommend installing the Smell-O-Vision™ feature on your device to appreciate the aroma of these Rye-Currant Sourdough loaves, just out of the oven. Wish I could capture it in a jar, or make a scratch ‘n’ sniff postage stamp (like the recent French stamp commemorating the baguette). And this loaf tastes just as lovely as they look!
Jun 1
The Happy Monk Baking Company
Happy Monk Tidings - May 15, 2024 🍞 - BLOG REDUX: "Saving Grace"; BAKER`S CHOICE: Sprouted Purple Barley Sourdough; REGULAR: Seed Feast.
May 15
It’s late at night and chances are there’s a baker near you having fun with bread dough …
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#bakers #bakerslife #bakersofinstagram #bakerslifeforme #nighttime #nightlife #nightsky #bakingmagic
May 5
All spelt, all the time … well, with a few glugs of maple syrup
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#spelt #wholegrain #tinloaves #realbread #breadbakers #breadbakersofinstagram
#artisanbreadbakers #speltbread #speltsourdoughbread #speltbread #wholegrainspeltbread #penderisland #southpenderisland #happymonkbaking #happymonkbaker
Apr 20
New Happy Monk Blog: Spring brings mixed blessings! A sense of loss, along with warmth and a new cast of light, "That Science cannot overtake / But Human Nature Feels." Westeros and Emily Dickinson`s sensitive heart. [ See LinkTree in Profile ]
Apr 3
This little guy is a workhorse, plain and simple. A brute! Thursday, it milled over 27kg of incredible flour for a recipe that needed the freshest flour possible. And its output was beautiful. Wheat, spelt, rye and buckwheat. A larger mill could have handled that in a fraction of the time, but who’s complaining? Some amazing bread was the result, milled and mixed the same day. A Country Miche from an article by Eric Pallant @epallant in the Winter/Spring 2023 issue of Bread Lines.
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#spelt #speltbread #buckwheat #buckwheatbread #bread #realbread #naturallyleavened #baker #bakery #bbga #artisanbread #breadhead #naturallyleavened #artisanbread #realbread #rusticbread #flourmilling #flourmill #komoflourmills #sourdough #sourdoughbread #penderisland #southpenderislands
Mar 2
Latest Happy Monk Blog - The Living Rock Island – Our Little Corner of South Pender Island 🍞 [See LinkTree in Profile]
Feb 28
O, for a slice of raisin sourdough! that hath been
Warm’d a long age in the deep delvéd oven,
Tasting of Hestia and the ocean green,
Rest and a slow moving song and sunburnt mirth!
O for a loaf full of the warm South
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded raisins winking at the crumb,
And cinnamon-stainéd mouth;
That I might eat, and leave the world unseen,
And with thee fade away into the forest dim.
— Apologies to John Keats for my butchery of his “Ode to a Nightingale”
Feb 25
At the outset of the Happy Monk Baking Company, I cherished those early mornings, working alone with Mildrith in the dark before the birds began their glorious morning chorus. The world was silent, unhurried. Mildrith and me, the trees, the solid earth, a passing deer, the baskets of bread dough waiting for the oven.
Going to work in the pre-dawn hours was something bakers did, I thought. They sacrificed sleep and delivered their bread early to appreciative customers. It was a romantic notion on my part, a naïve commitment to the baking trade without fully understanding the consequences, i.e. sleep debt.
It was satisfying to have loaves ready for some customers before noon; it was a triumph! But by the time most of the bread was ready for delivery, bagged and labelled, my eyelids were growing heavy, my mind fuzzy, my body slowing down.
And it wasn’t safe driving up-island.
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#bakerslife #bakers #sleepdeprivation #woodfired #woodfiredoven #woodfiredovenbread #bread #realbread #naturallyleavened #baker #bakery #bbga #artisanbread #breadhead #sourdough #sourdoughbread #penderisland #southpenderislands #happymonkbaking #happymonkbakery #happymonkbakingcompany
Feb 1
Milling a little corn to mix in with some marinated olives before they go into a tapenade infused dough. Big olive flavour … plus a rare shot of Mildrith, the wood-fired oven!
Nov 19
Happy Monk Tidings - November 15, 2023 BAKER`S CHOICE this week: Olive Sourdough Loaf; AND: An Emotional Weather Report [ See LinkTree in Profile ] 🍞
Nov 15
Happy Monk Tidings - November 1, 2023 🍞 - BAKER`S CHOICE: Sourdough Sandwich Loaf; BLOG: Don`t Let That Wonder Lawyer Tell You It`s Not Real Bread! [ See LinkTree in Profile ]
Nov 1
Dylan Thomas, one of my muses, would have been 109 years old this Friday, Oct. 27. One of a small-handful of poets whose words are cherished and summoned often for their music and wisdom. They soothe, they sing, they evoke. I`ll be thinking of him this bread day, under "the mustardseed sun"….. and the "switchback sea"…. as he "celebrates and spurns his driftwood thirty fifth wind turned age."
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#dylanthomas #poetsofinstagram #poetrylovers #poetryisnotdead #poetryofinstagram #poets #poetryislife #poetrylove #poetrydaily #poetryworld #poetryinstagram #bakerpoets #poetryforbakers #southpenderisland #penderisland
Happy Monk Tidings - October 25, 2023 🍞 - BAKER`S CHOICE - Sprouted Emmer Sourdough; BLOG: Happy Birthday, Dylan Thomas! [See LinkTree in Profile ]
Oct 25
Happy Monk Tidings - October 18, 2023 - 🍞: BAKER`s CHOICE: Seedy Spelt and Rye Bread; BLOG: It Starts With Wonder? What`s That?
Oct 18
Happy Monk Tidings - October 11, 2023 BAKER`S CHOICE: Potato Rosemary Bread; BLOG: Swimming with Otters 🍞
Oct 11
Happy Monk Tidings - BLOG: Abundance: Season of Apples; Baker`s Choice: Pender Island Apple Bread with Pender Apples and Twin Island Cider - October 4, 2023 🍞 [ See LinkTree in Profile ]
Oct 4
Happy Monk Tidings - September 27, 2023 🍞 - BAKER`S CHOICE THIS WEEK: Harvest Bread; BLOG: Positively Fourth Avenue - [ See LinkTree in Profile ]
Sep 27
Happy Monk Tidings - September 20, 2023 🍞 - BAKER`S CHOICE: Garlic Levain Bread; BLOG: Harumph! Author Says Leave the Baking to the Professionals! [ See LinkTree in Profile ]
Sep 20
A hefty Country Miche, formula from Breadlines published by Bread Bakers Guild of America. Hefty in size, hefty in flavour. Four flours (Sifted Metchosin Wheat, Rye, Buckwheat, Spelt), a super-active levain and an intense crust colour. I think I’m addicted! It’s kind of finicky, though, and trying to work out a reasonable schedule to produce 40 loaves for Happy Monk customers.
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. #bread #realbread #naturallyleavened #baker #bakery #bbga #artisanbread #breadhead #sourdough #sourdoughbread #penderisland #southpenderislands #happymonkbaking #happymonkbakingcompany #wholegrainbread #breadhead #michebread #realbread #rusticbread #southerngulfislands #southerngulfislandsbakers #southerngulfislandsbakeries
Sep 14
With a tip of the hat to the proverbial English expression, “If you stand in Piccadilly Circus long enough, you’ll run into everyone you know!” (Thanks, Peter!) ↩