Sonya's Blog - Day 89 - The Food Fishery Opens Today

Sonya’s Blog - Day 89 - September 19th - The Food Fishery Opens Today

What is the Food Fishery you may be asking, if you are not from Newfoundland? It is when people can go out and fish for cod for their own food supplies. Each person is allowed 5 cod/per person/ per day for a 10 day period. There are limitations though. Each boat is only allowed 15 Cod per excursion and they are only allowed to go out once per day. So if there are 5 people on a boat, still only allowed 15 Cod. Not really sure how it is regulated, but if you get checked than you need to be following the rules. I could be wrong on some of the the rules, but that is how I understood it. Blake was all excited and thought that he could maybe go out on a boat or at least see the boats coming back with their fish. The plan was to head to Blackhead to see what we could see.

You can make all the plans you want, but if you are out late and then don’t get up super early than it is hard to be out the door before 10 AM. As a result, we didn’t leave the house till about 10 AM. Blackhead is over an hours drive from St. John’s and this area was chosen because Peter’s parents have a summer house out that way and it might be easier to see the local fishermen coming back with their catches. I rode with Maureen, Madeleine and Natasha again and Blake rode with Peter and Isaac. Maureen decided that it was pretty late and we should just head straight to a cove. We had no cell service so we couldn’t get a hold of the boys and we had lost them somewhere along the way, with us being ahead again. We went to Ochre Cove or Bay and I could finally get some cell service on the top of the hill. The boys had gone straight to Peter’s parents place and were going to head out to where we were in a bit. Natasha and I goofed around and got some cool pictures. The was a neat little enclosed beach area and we had lots of fun down there. We then went and explored the wharf area, but it seemed pretty obvious that all the fishing boats were in and they had probably been heading out while we were still sleeping and coming back with their catches when we were having breakfast. When the boys finally arrived, we looked around some more. A local was at the wharf by this time and Blake went and talked to him. Yep, they were out super early and back quite early because the fishing was good. You want to see anything you have to be on the docks around 7 AM.

We decided to head to Northern Sands Park to see one of the few sand beaches in Newfoundland. It was a private park and we had to pay for admission. When we drove up the guy running the place had a young goat that seemed like a pet. When I went to pay for our admission the goat came over to say hello, her name was Missy or Nelly or something. Named anyhow, so a pet. We drove down to the beach and it was very nice. It was a black sand beach. The kids and Blake dipped their toes in and the water was very refreshing (freezing cold). We walked up and down the beach and got some good pictures. The hornets were really bad on the beach, so there was a lot of running away and hiding from them. We couldn’t swim and didn’t have any gear to sit on the beach, plus the hornets were very bad so we headed out after about 45 minutes.

Our next stop was Peter’s parents summer house in Blackhead. Mrs. Bennett was all ready for us when we got there, she had soup made and a chocolate cake for desert. The boys headed out back where Mr. Bennett was mowing the lawn and helped him out with that. Mrs. Bennett served us all lunch and it was really good soup and cake. I had a good look around the cabin. It was very retro. The TV was over 40 years old, but still worked and had a pretty good picture and colour. All the appliances were just as old, but still worked like a charm. They even had a tiny little washer, smaller than the one in my RV, and Mrs. Bennett says it works wonders and is perfect for 2 people. Then she just hangs them on the line if “it’s a good day on clothes”. That is a Newfoundland saying, meaning the weather is good so get your washing done and hung out before it changes (or something like that). It’s my new favourite saying. All of the furniture and decorations are from the same era and it is like stepping into the past. Blake got all nostalgic because it was like a mixture of homes that he visited from his childhood. It was great and Mrs. Bennet was lovely to make lunch for all of us. Unfortunately we could not stay too long, only for about an hour, because we had to get back to St. John’s for 5 PM as Madeleine worked (at Dairy Queen - her first job) and we were getting Screeched in at 5. Reminisced about our time in Carlyle when we met Mr. and Mrs. Bennett for the first time. 120’s call for partner.

We drove back to St. John’s and Madeleine got off to work on time and we headed downtown to Christians on George Street to get Screeched in. We made it to the pub on time and ordered our drinks and waited for the ceremony. It was super busy in the bar because a whole wedding party had shown up a little before us and signed up to get Screeched in as well. The bartender was super busy trying to fill everyone’s drink orders and get ready for the ceremony. We just waited and it started in due course. First we watched as he cooked up some bologna, he had a little stove behind the bar. It was pretty fancy fried bologna (in Newfoundland it is pronounced how it is spelled, do not call it “baloney”), with spices and alcohol and all sorts of things thrown in the pan. It was also very thick (like steak thickness).

The bartender started his ceremony by donning his sou’wester and banging his paddle on the roof. He then went into a little spiel about Newfoundland and it’s proud history. One of those things is that way back when the kid that came to school with bologna sandwiches was considered the rich kid and those that showed up with lobster were poor. Newfoundlanders eat a lot of bologna, 9 lbs per person per year. He then cut up the bologna he had fried up and we each tried a piece. It was tasty. He then ran out and came back with a bag. He then went into how important fishing is to Newfoundland and that when they talk about having fish, it means cod. We then had to kiss the cod, and he brought his frozen cod out of the bag. I have a lovely picture of me kissing the cod. The next step was the screech, which is Newfoundland Rum. They used the old rum barrels and put water in it and swished it around (Screech is often called swish) which produced a nasty rum drink - but it was cheap.

The name screech, legend has it, came because some guy screeched in a bar when he tasted it or something. We were then served our screech. It was nasty and burned a lot. To close out the ceremony he listed off a lot of stuff that was unique to Newfoundland, The Regatta, last province to join Confederation, but the first to something, Other stories. We then got our certificates and we are honorary Newfoundlanders now. It was a lot of fun!

We headed back to the house to have supper. Maureen made sautéed scallops for an appetizer and then we had porkloin with salads. It was all very good. We hustled Isaac and Natasha off to bed because they were both tired as they stayed up so late last night. We then decided to play cards. In Newfoundland if you say you are playing cards the game is always 120’s, and we know how to play it because Maureen and Peter taught us when we lived in Carlyle. The game is called 45’s in Nova Scotia, which didn’t make any sense to us, but then Blake googled it and it is because it is an anglicized form or forte fives and the 5 is King in 120’s. It is called 120’s in Newfoundland because you play until one team gets to 120. This game is played in teams as well, unless you have 5 and then you call for your partner. We played boys against the girls and it did not go well for us girls. We sat in the same seats and it was no good, Maureen and I got the worst cards. We lost game after game after game, which is a lot of games. You usually only score 20 points per hand, so it takes a number of hands to win a game, but we kept playing until we won a game. Blake says they let us win that 6th round, but the cards finally worked for us and we took the game. It worked out well because it kept us up late playing cards and Madeleine was working until 1 AM and Maureen needed to stay awake for her. We would have preferred to have won the majority of the games, but what can you do?

Sonya