Farm Gate Store on B.C.’s Mayne Island is a wonderful combination of grocery and eatery

Here’s how good the grilled sandwiches are at *Farm Gate Store, a little place along a country road on Mayne Island, one of B.C.’s southern Gulf Islands. While delivering the sandwiches to our shaded picnic table, our server slips and drops them onto some construction dirt. She sheepishly heads back inside to make them afresh. Me? I would have just wiped them off and dug in.

The caramelized onion sauce brings this fantastic ham-eggplant sandwich together

What makes these meat or veggie sandwiches ($7 apiece) so delectable? Layers of ham, melted Havarti, truly ripe tomatoes and wilted eggplant, all loaded onto Seeded Hearth bread, from Victoria’s Portofino Bakery. The clincher is a sauce of caramelized onions, balsamic vinegar and cream cheese, bringing everything moistly together. A similarly moist, dense carrot and coconut muffin, in…