Exploring the North End of PEI

Under gloomy skies we set off to drive to the area of PEI known as the North Cape. PEI is shaped like a smile ---we are parked in the middle and we drove out to the top left tip (Northwestern tip) of the smile.
Heading west ,we drove through town of Summerside--here the island is only 4 miles wide-- and out to an area of the Southern shore known as La Region'Evangaline. This is an area of PEI that was first settled by the French in the early 1700's. This group of close knit people (the Acadians)have preserved their language and unique culture. The Acadian flag is displayed prominently on properties, mailboxes and businesses. We made a short visit to Norte-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel church overlooking the water. It is a magnificent, turn of the century Neo-gothic structure.

We continued along through acres and acres of lush farms and spectacular sea scapes. Our next stop was the Jacque Cartier Provincial Park. Here we found a statue commemerating the spot where Cartier, the French explorer, first set foot on PEI in 1534. He declared this "the fairest land 'tis possible to see".

The friendly attendant at the park told us the "mossers" were working nearby and gave us directions on how to drive onto the beach to watch them. The "mossers" are workers that harvest Irish Moss seaweed from the ocean. This seaweed (after drying and processing) is widely used in the food industry as a thickener. Jams, jellies, ice creams and jello are just a few of the products that use the moss thickener known as carageenan
We hurried down to the beach to watch them. Here one of the horses is pulling a basket through the waves to strain the moss.







This is what the moss looks like before it loaded into the workers pick up trucks and taken to be dried.




In addition to the horses, some of the men hand rake the shallow areas for the moss. They sure were working hard!









Sometimes, the waves got a little close to the horses! What cold work for man and beast.







The result of all that work and raking are huge piles like these of the moss.

We are not sure we can ever eat jello (or any food that uses this kind of additive) again without remembering these hardworking fellows and their horses.
We did drive all the way to the North End of the island. There is a lighthouse there as well as a large sight with windmills. The University of New Brunswick is conducting experiments with wind energy (it is ALWAYS windy here) and the windmills currently supply 5% of PEI's energy needs




On the way south, we stopped in here. Yes, we did try the seaweed pie. It is quite tasty and nothing like what we expected. However it was light green!


After returning from our expedition, we joined the rest of our group and went to the Fisherman's Wharf Lobster supper. In addition to a yummy lobster, we had "all you can eat" locally harvested mussels and a great salad bar. What a great day .