Water's Edge Ucluelet Blog

By Jacqueline Windh

Yes, you heard that right.

Many people want to do the right thing both environmentally and healthwise, but lament the high price of local organic food.

Well, out here on the west coast, we have local organic food available for free, six months of the year!

Wild berries are one of the most delicious and easy-to-find food sources here on the west coast. And yes, the season really does run for six months or more. The first salmonberries appear in May, and evergreen huckleberries (also known locally as cinamock or winterberries) remain good for the picking in the cool temperatures of early winter, through November and even December.

By Jacqueline Windh

This long-running annual festival presents a lot more than just fun. Ukee Days is also a window into Ucluelet’s logging heritage, both past and present. The rich natural resources of the west coast: furs, fish and timber were what drew Europeans to this coast.

In the Ucluelet, one of those very first European settlements was the Sutton brothers’ sawmill, established in 1861—you can still see the site of that original mill across the harbour from the Ucluelet docks.

Logging and fishing were the two industries that drove this remote outpost into the town that it is today.

Although logging is no longer the mainstay of Ucluelet’s economy, many of Ukee’s logging families still live in town and some of them still work in the industry.

By Jacqueline Windh

Summer is a chance to step back in history from the docks of Ucluelet.

The historic ship MV Frances Barkley sails the waters of Alberni Inlet year-round, servicing Bamfield and smaller settlements along the inlet from Port Alberni, but it only stops in to Ucluelet over the summer months.

> Read more on the A-Life Blog to find out why you should set sail on the MV Frances Barkley to get yourself from Port Alberni to Ucluelet this summer instead of taking the highway.