Time is going by so fast it is hard to accept that I have finished university for the semester, with only one exam to go on Wednesday 15th. Now I am forced to have 4 months off to get over the stress.
Over the last week in the lead up to Easter we have travelled some more around this amazing area and have sampled some local wild food.
We should start with the food. Here, a popular wild vegetable is Fiddleheads. These are actually fern heads and you cook them by boiling or steaming and serving with salt and pepper and either butter or vinegar. Bev and I think they taste like a cross between asparagus and parsley and are really enjoyable. (photo courtesy of google).
The other local food we tried during the week, again courtesy of our great neighbors Debbie and George, was Dulse. This is a tad more adventurous and is a dried local red seaweed. It tastes very salty when you begin to eat it and has quite a fishy overtone. It is very high in vitamins and minerals but low in sodium and high in potassium and flouride. You can eat it dried (as in a bar snack with a beer), fry it until crisp or grind it up and use the powder in chowders and other dishes. I didn’t mind it, but it was a total failure with Bev (you know the look that comes across someone’s face when they realize that they have swallowed a blowfly).
Having told our friends and neighbours that we were very interested in the New Brunswick fascination with outdoor murals they pointed us in the direction of Sussex N.B. which claims to be the mural capital of Atlantic Canada as well as having a number of beautiful old covered bridges in the region. We headed down there (about 100km) on Easter Saturday and were blown away by the place. It is truly remarkable for the murals, the architecture and the history of the place. We were so impressed that I recommend that you have a look at http://sussexdowntown.com/.
In a recent post we explained that spring was here and although there is some flooding in the province because of melting river ice the temperatures continue to be above 0c and all the snow around the house had melted (so much so that Bev and I were able to walk down the back of the block the other day). So just when you think it is safe to break out the speedo’s or at least the shorts, winter returns with a vengeance. These shots were taken yesterday (Easter Sunday) when we had a snow warning that up to 25cm was on the way. It is still snowing but the warning has been cancelled and they tell us we will be back to sunshine again tomorrow. I remain skeptical.
Stay safe
Bev and Ross
Poor, poor Ross. Thank goodness you are now in your 4 month recovery phase. Such a hard life being a student, although my memories were a lot different and didn't include breakaway trips around a foreign country enjoying life to the hilt! Keep it up...
ReplyDelete