Originally founded by Trish Tacoma and Julie Higginson in Victoria, Smoking Lily has now been around for over a decade and grown to have a sister store in Vancouver (yipee!). While their clothing, accessories, and home decor are made from great high quality fabrics, and cut to flatter, what makes them instantly recognizable is the screenprinted designs that set them apart from the rest.

One of my favorite things about their designs is that most of them are science and nature themed. They're known for printing images that help you show your hippest nerd, by sporting the periodic table, various plants, a microscope, or a creepy but beautiful swarm of insects. They even had a tea cozy with Louis Riel on it, that I can't believe I didn't buy last time I was there--it hit home with my prairie girl roots, but there were just too many amazing things and I had to leave it there for another day. Be prepared to find something you'll fall in love with and just have to take home with you when you walk in the door. Their stuff is so unique, with the perfect balance of artsy hipster and inner geek, that there's really no way to go wrong.

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You know what I love? I LOVE me some fine tasty desserts! But people are always filling their tasty sweets full of dairy and gluten and things that are on the ick list, and so I have a long standing dessert deficit... I mean, if it weren't for soy ice cream and gelato, I don't know what I would have done this long! But some days a frozen desert just isn't what you're looking for. What's a girl to do? Two words: Chi Cake.

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Salt Spring Gelato is a small artesian gelato and sorbet company on Salt Spring Island--their claim to fame: being (as far as I know) the only Canadian company wholesaling organic gelato and sorbetto. Pretty cool stuff! They also use the most high quality ingredients they can get their hands on, local and organic whenever possible, including using certified organic milk from the island and from Avalon dairy in their gelato. Some of their flavourings like their chai gelato and black currant gelato come from other small businesses on the island, as it's one of their priorities to help support the other farmers and producers in their community. Their sorbettos are dairy-free, which makes them great for vegans and those with food allergies. They are even a carbon-neutral [Wikipedia] company, and work with Lifecycles' Fruit Tree Project--how cool is that?!

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UPDATE SEPT 2011: Sadly Plenty recently closed, and has joined the RIP file. Trevor still occasionally updates the blog if you want to stay in touch.

Last time I was in Victoria, in the early spring of this year, I discovered what is now one of my all-time favourite food shops. I can't really call it a grocery store, even though with the variety of foods available there, it could qualify as one, but it's more of a gourmet food shop, or maybe a food lover's equivalent of a kid in a candy store. When I first walked into Plenty, the thing that blew me away was that there were so many things there that I'd never seen before! I've shopped in a lot of crazy food stores across the country, and seriously, this is one of the best.

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