Tis the time of year

where one can feel a little on the disconsolate side, a little melancholia sets in, one feels a little blarh, ok you get the point.
In years yore it did not affect me that much, but the past few years I notice a change in mood come the middle of spring.
It could be that the springs seem to be longer, the transition from pure white pristine snow and ice to the clean fresh colors of summer seems to take forever.

No one can deny that the browning of the town along with refuse of winter blowing constantly around town is less than attractive. Despite many householders cleaning and raking up around the homes trash seems to blow in from all over the place. Even after the “town clean up” the thoughtless continue to not use the trash receptacles at any time, so it is constant. We have cleaned along my place and the land next door 4 times since the snow went, invariably in a couple of days it looks like no one bothered to clean up, pisses me off no end, and lets not get into the plastic bags.

The week long RDF did not help, and then one goes into the stores with their ever depleting stock, it is no ones fault just the way it is. We are far from starving but it is the little things that can effect ones mood and w feeling of well being.

Take yesterday for example. Having been informed that freight planes with fresh food supplies were coming in we sauntered down to the shops later than usual, around 11. In store A they had only a shipment of fresh bread in, the fruits and vegetables were still to come in. In store B they had not even the bread let alone the fresh stuff. No big deal, still lots of root vegetables and cabbage, but we had that in the larder.

Around 4 we go down to store B to see if anything had come in. The shelves still empty except for some tomatoes and 2 lettuce that were not there in the morning. The manager informed that their shipment came in around 1, by 2 all had been scooped up. Seemed store A had still not received their fresh so we did not bother going down there. So we wait till next Thursday, weather permitting.

On a not unrelated issue is the closure of the fish plant this year, or rather the non opening of same.
I admit to being a neophyte in marketing, but it would be nice if some one could explain how the product from the local plant is marketed. I have never come across any of the product in local stores, nor in any of the other coastal communities I have visited. I do not shop in Goose Bay that much, but from what I gather it is not sold in local stores either.
I am aware that the product is available at the office of the TFPCO in GB, but that does not help us, not many others.

So why is it that one can’t buy local scallop, fresh frozen and smoke char from Nain, crab from Makkovik and rock cod from Postville in the shops????

Not that this type of food is not available, why just this week some frozen product came into store A. Small packages of the following were in the freezer: Cooked shelled shrimp @ $37.39 a Kg.
Scallops @ $40.49 a Kg.
Cod @ $29.59 a Kg.
Salt cod @ $19.24 a Kg.

Now in the past decade or two we have been able to buy fresh and frozen char from the fish plant. It cost us $4.00 a pound for the larger scallop frozen, and $3.50 for fresh.
And here they are bringing in scallop from who knows where and it cost us $18.40 a pound. That’s if you are stupid or rich enough to pay for them.

Maybe it’s just me but something just does not seem copacetic with that.
Alas even if the plant does open this year [there is rumblings it will] it would only be for a short time to take in and process char. No rumblings of it taking in scallop. So if char is processed why can’t that be sold regionally instead of it all being shipped out side? Outside being of Labrador.



Having said all that, I just had to take the picture at store A. There are just too many ironies with locaation of the card table and the little display just being one {by the way the ATM is not working, waiting on a part from Winnipeg}.
Least of the ironies is the fact that the stores walk around space is at a minimum, you are constantly bumping into staff and customers.







So having a hankering for something different to placate my taste buds I made up a banana/walnut cake, omitting the walnuts and bananas as there were none in the stores and substituting carrots/zucchini for the bananas and red berries for the walnuts just because I felt like it. I guess I could have just made a red berry carrot cake, or a red berry zucchini cake, but I could not find a recipe I liked on the day.

I am told that the zucchini will help maintain moister in the cake, it taste good but is lacking the walnut taste that for some reason I was hankering for.