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Terry Halifax
Northern News Services
Janice Miner gets that cozy feeling everyday she goes to work. She's been baking at the Northmart store in Inuvik since last fall and just loves her job.
She starts her day at 5 a.m. proofing the daily bread and stocking the bakery shelves with commercial baked goods.
As the day goes on she bakes, packages and prices the breads and pastries, with each day assigned to strudel, muffins, doughnuts or pies.
"Everyday I try to do something different."
The bread and most products come frozen and uniform, but Miner says that doesn't make baking bread any easier.
"It's all mixed and pre-formed, but it's just as much work as doing it from scratch because you have to raise it the same and proof it the same and it takes just as long to bake," she said.
On a given day, she bakes about 200 loaves of bread, 50 dozen rolls, but admits she can't always keep pace with the sweet cravings of the Delta shoppers.
"I can't keep the Bavarian cream doughnuts in," she said. "They're just like Tim Horton's around here."
But she sees the trend for sweets shifting to the healthier choice of muffins and whole grain breads.
"People are really becoming health conscious up here," she said.
"I try to keep a good variety of healthy foods on the shelf."
The mother of two came to Inuvik from Blackville, N.B., seeking a little adventure and experience in Canada's north.
"I'm up here on an ignorance tour," Miner laughed. "I'm tired of being ignorant and I wanted to learn about the treeline, dog mushing and the things we learned in school."
With allergies to some of the commercial fillings, Miner doesn't have a hard time with temptation of sampling the sweets or taking her work home with her.
"I have no trouble keeping my fingers out of the bowls, but it's interesting and I love it," she smiled. "I can gain 50 pounds just from the smell in here."
