After five months of touring the restaurants of Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., I thought we'd break for the month of August to explore the wonders of B.C. cheeses. Forget about the famed Quebec goat cheeses that give the French and California chevre makers a run for the money in terms of texture, style and flavor. Our culinary mission is to hop on an imaginary ferry and take a virtual trip to Salt Spring Island, the largest of the Southern Gulf Islands, nestled in the triangle of glistening blue water between Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo.

Let's climb aboard the B.C. Ferry at Swartz Bay just outside of Victoria (you can also get to Salt Spring from Vancouver/Tsawwassen) and enjoy a brief 35-minute trip to scenic Fulford Harbour at the southern end of an idyllic island known for the best open-air food market in B.C. and the best goat and sheep's milk cheeses in Canada.

Let's focus our attention on the search for David Wood, the genius behind the Salt Spring Island Cheese Company. After zig-zagging through the checkerboard pattern of coffee shops, art galleries and colorful local characters that adorn Fulford Harbour, it's only a short drive to Chez Wood. A long and winding dirt driveway leads to an army of chickens and roosters, hell-bent to either commit suicide under slow-moving tires or protect Wood from having to answer the questions of curious food writers.

Finally, the chickens decide to part (much like the Red Sea) to allow my Mini Cooper (dark blue and white much like the Emilio Largo's yacht in Thunderball), to go bump-bump-bump up the hill to the fabled cheese house.

Our guide is a cheerful, red-faced and polite-to-a-fault 19-year-old named Joshua, who leads me into the family kitchen while he fetches his father. While waiting no more than a moment, I turn to see a carbon copy of Joshua standing to my left (his identical twin brother Daniel) and before fainting away before even getting a glimpse of the legendary local product, David and Joshua return to bring me up to speed on one of the most successful cheese-making operations in Canada.

Goat Story: A short history of the Salt Spring Island Cheese Company
Over plates of the best goat's milk camembert in North America, David Wood - an erudite, intelligent and sophisticated fellow, reveals the inside story on his cheese business: "I moved to Salt Spring from Toronto in 1991 after selling a gourmet food store (The David Wood Food Shop) and burning out on running a high-stress retail business," said Wood.

"I didn't know the first thing about making cheese when I bought my house in Salt Spring, but I worked for six years to learn the chemistry and art of converting the finest local sheep and goat's milk into cheese, and in 1997 we produced our first batch of goat and sheep's milk cheeses."

Despite the early emphasis on sheep's milk cheese, Wood turned his attention to goat's milk for two important reasons: "Goat's milk can be produced on a year-round basis (sheep are seasonal milkers from March-thru-October) and the quality of the goat's milk comes through more clearly than the quality of sheep's milk," said Wood, who does produce the best sheep's milk yogurt (albeit in very small supply) in Canada.

After experimenting with a sheep's milk camembert and deep-sixing it in favor of goat's milk because the latter has superior flavor, texture and consistency, Wood decided to decorate the classic goat-cheeses with fresh flowers right before vacuum-packing them and sending them off to gourmet food stores.

The success of this Zen-like flower design/packaging - Wood's daughter Thea, 18, is particularly gifted in the art of cheese decoration - spurred interest in adding various flavorings, and within months Wood was producing unique gourmet cheeses infused with green and pink peppercorns (a Christmas favorite), garlic, basil and olive oil and hot chili.

Where To Find Salt Spring Island Goat Cheese
Despite its brilliant success, this product is still produced on a small scale (20 tons of cheese per annum) and is available in top-rated restaurants, gourmet food stores and supermarkets in Vancouver, Victoria and Salt Spring Island.

If you are lucky enough to make it to Salt Spring in the summer months, you may find Wood selling his cheeses on Saturday mornings and afternoons at the Salt Spring Market-check out www.saltspringmarket.com for complete details, directions and information on farmers, vendors and artists native to this B.C. island paradise.

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