Staying with old friends at Yubari Forest Farm Hostel
Travelling offers so much, and like most things in life, you get what you give. Our daily travels on our trikes give us incredible interactions with locals, access to wonderful places and the satisfaction of being able to go where we choose with independence. Another perk for us is to make meaningful connections and being able to return as we have done in coming back to Yubari and the Hostel.
The dining room is cosy. Note the canned and pickled food on the shelves…all sourced from the family farm.
We met this fellow at the Hostel. Miwa told him that we were from Canada and he was keen to meet us as he has spent time in British Columbia. He is a fly fisherman and is a guide…it turns out that he has been to Saltspring Island and done some fly fishing on St. Mary Lake…small world. He is giving my trike a test ride.
What a great time we had with him. When he was younger, he came to Canada for a year and lived on Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island which is close to Salt Spring Island, our home. He wanted to explore his passion for fly fishing and had a great year in Canada. We really enjoyed chatting with him.
Miwa took the three of us for a walk to explore the farm. The majority of their plantings are in greenhouses. It is a family affair with her brother and his wife her mother and Miwa working the farm.
In our walk around the farm, we learned a bit more about the Yubari Melon and how a farmer gets the ultimate quality from this special fruit. These small melons are pruned from the vine to enable the best ones to thrive. The volcanic ash in the soil also contributes to the success of these special melons. Our fellow guest is taking several of the smaller melons home for cooking.
Miwa extended our visit to the farm with a walk to her home where we got to meet her working pets, the roosters. She also has two sheep which she brings to the Hostel everyday to feed on the grass and be close.
These two beloved sheep are very domesticated. Miwa walks them over from her home nearby and they graze on the extensive yard for the day. Before dinner they go back to her home for the night. A charmed life.
