One bad apple shames us all

The weekend before last, I was travelling west from St. John’s along the Trans-Canada Highway, having picked up relatives from the airport.

En route, east of Whitbourne, we saw a man selling berries at the side of the road. My sister-in-law had been told to be sure to try bakeapples while in Newfoundland, so she picked up a bottle labelled “Bakeapples” and the man took $10 from her for it.

I chatted with the man while my sister-in-law took her purchase back to the car. He said he came from Victoria, near Carbonear, and I told him I was familiar with that part of the province, having visited there many times as a child.

When we got back to where we were staying on New World Island, I took a look at the bottle and said that I thought she probably shouldn’t eat that bakeapple jam. It looked kind of funny to me — very pale in colour, sloppy, with only a few oranges spots and a sprinkling of seeds (you can almost count them).

I took the bottle to our neighbours and asked their opinion. We opened it gingerly and smelled the contents. The general consensus is that the bottle is filled with “baked apples” with a few bakeapple berries thrown in. They reckoned they wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.

The accompanying picture shows what the contents look like compared to a jar of regular bakeapple jam.

Needless to say, we are furious that an innocent visitor to our province was the victim of such a blatant scam. Our neighbours were incensed and immediately made it up to my sister-in-law by offering her berries from their own freezers.

This man is the lowest kind of human being and I am ashamed that he is a Newfoundlander. I am comforted by the fact that at least my sister-in-law was not a victim for long. But how many tourists have left this province with this man’s fake bakeapple jam in their suitcases? How many found out that they were taken for fools?

I didn’t get his name or I would happily include it in this letter. I wish I had got his licence plate number. I hope that he reads this or that his friends recognize him from the description and put the word around about him. This despicable behaviour must not be tolerated by any Newfoundlander. It shames us all.

Norma Elliott writes from Ottawa.