Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (Jan 25/99) - Never fear -- there's hope for that bland-tasting dish you've been cooking for your family, and it comes in the form of Frank Pearce.

He's the guy that has almost single-handedly spiced up the food that some Iqaluit residents like to eat.

Through his decade-old company, called Nunavut Enterprises, Pearce brings extremely inexpensive, and fresh, herbs and spices to the capital from a business connection in Ottawa.

"There's a group of big sellers. Mexican chili, cinnamon, curry, Italian Blend, garlic is a huge seller anywhere," said Pearce of the

products that sell under the name of Island Spices.

"Parsley is a very good seller, pepper, oregano and somebody's desperately in need of poppy seed because I keep running out of it every week now."

But where can you find Pearce's bevy of wares? At the Northern Store, of course.

"I chose the Northern Store because, and at the time it was the Hudson Bay Company, I thought it would be a shoe-in to other stores within the region and the North."

Pearce said he quickly realized that his dreams of making it rich on cayenne pepper and sea salt were not to be.

"It really didn't pay off because people in the North, and especially the Inuit people, are not really into spices. A few are, but most are not. It's only in a place like Iqaluit where there is a large Qallunaat population," said Pearce.

He noted that he had also had minimal success with sales in Cape Dorset and Qikiqtarjuaq, but that it was here in Iqaluit where his business earned enough to pay off a few of his bills each month. And as the population has grown, Pearce said he has seen a similar increase in the amount of herbs and spices that are leaving the shelves.

"It seems to be doing quite all right. With more people coming to town from other places, I think they're beginning to see what I've got here. There's more being sold now than ever before and there's a trend."

But his success isn't just because customers can find items like whole nutmeg or because he's more than pleased to special-order some of the quirkier spices residents might have a taste for. Retailing at just $1.99 for a 65 to 80-gram bag of spices, Pearce is able to significantly undercut the bigger companies -- even if customers decide to purchase the generic glass bottles he sells to accompany the spices.

"There's more in quantity but less price than buying the regular, bottled brands."

Pearce said the part-time business required just two and a half hours of his time on a weekly basis and often gave him a break on his income taxes. And as well as giving him the opportunity to get out from behind his desk at the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, Pearce said he was considering expanding the business after he retired.

"Come retirement, I can expand and go at it on a full-time basis, not only at the Northern Store but all the other stores and maybe over to Rankin (Inlet) and Cambridge (Bay). There's potential for growth but it's more of a service to the community than anything else."

Anyone interested in ordering spices not currently available can either find Pearce at the Northern Store on Saturday afternoons or look him up in the phonebook.