Tod MaffinCanadian Commentator, From Far and Wide · Emotional Support Canadian

Shirts, art, graphic novels, hot sauce, and shrubs

10 Nov 2025 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:48

In this on‑camera segment filmed at the Cedars Farmers Market near Nanaimo, the host showcases a curated selection of uniquely Canadian, handmade gift items. The segment begins with Kindred Coast T‑shirts, noted for their ultra‑soft feel and sustainable construction from cotton blended with recycled water‑bottle fibers, featuring iconic Vancouver Island place‑name designs. Next, a local artist’s original acrylic paintings of Vancouver Island scenes are highlighted, each enhanced with hand‑cut driftwood overlays, accompanied by a range of hand‑cut linocut cards and stickers featuring local motifs such as hugging bears. The host then introduces a graphic‑novel series created by a yoga teacher‑by‑day; the series follows separated roommates navigating an alternate world and tackles themes of mental health and climate change, with all production and printing done in Canada. The segment moves to a hot‑sauce vendor from Courtenay, showcasing a flagship sauce that scores 405,000 Scoville Heat Units, made from fermented Carolina Reapers and ghost peppers blended with blueberry and black garlic. Finally, the host explains “shrubs,” a sweetened, concentrated vinegar‑based drink popular during the holidays. All items are available for purchase through the host’s curated online guide (giftguide.todmaffin.com), which also invites viewers to submit their own Made‑in‑Canada products.

Chapters

If you're looking for unique gifts handmade by Canadians, I'm at the Cedars Farmers Market just outside my hometown in Nanaimo. And here are a few. Start with Kindred Coast. I have like 3 of their t-shirts. This Made in Canada one you probably recognize if you've seen one with Vancouver Island and place names. I got it from there, from these guys. Super soft, most beautiful feeling fabrics. And they're made from cotton and recycled water bottles, of all things. All right, this fellow has got some beautiful artwork. He paints them all himself. It's acrylic. Each one is original. It's based on a scene of Vancouver Island. Then he overlays it with driftwood. That he finds and cuts it. You can see the texture, really nice stuff in here. He's got all sorts of stickers. He's got really nice linocut cards. We've got some of these cards. I love the bears hugging up here at the top. This woman here is a yoga teacher by day, but she's designed, illustrated, and wrote this graphic novel series about this— these couple of roommates who get separated and they have to find each other in this other world. It's about mental health. It's about climate change. It's about all sorts of stuff. It's a series and it's— she's Canadian and it's printed in Canada as well. This guy and the hot sauces. First of all, he's got a ton of hot sauces, as you can see here. But the one that gets him the most attention is— it is his hot sauce. All of these are made in Courtney on Vancouver Island, and it is 405,000 on the Scoville Heat Index. It's this one he's holding up here. Fermented Carolina Reapers and ghost peppers with blueberry and black garlic. It sounds amazing. No, I'm too scared to have even tried it. And shrubs. If you've never had shrubs, they're like a concentrated vinegar drink, but don't worry, they're sweet. They're really, really good at Christmas holiday time. We've had these since we moved here. All of these can be bought at giftguide.todmaffin.com, and if you have a Made in Canada product, you can let us know about it there as well.