Kellys Brook

As predicted, the weather was terrible today. Sideways, no actually, literally, sideways rain. It felt like sleet but it was simply the force with which the rain drops were being driven into my face! I laughed right out loud as I turned a corner at a building and was literally blown back two steps. I looked around and noted that people were walking at an angle as they leaned into the wind that made it look like a giant, real-life Michael Jackson video. A perfect day to delve into some history. Preferably indoors. (please note that there is a 6 photo limit on posts. I will likely divide this post into sections so I can share more in the way of pictures) As it happens, I bumbled onto The Rooms. Part Museum, Part Library. A spectacular building with a cool name and a cool logo. When I asked about the name's origin, the curator said that once I learned how the cod was historically processed, it would make more sense. I should have known it had something to do with fishing. And specifically cod. It is impossible to avoid the influence of the sea here. And why would one want to?
So cod fishing....
1.The fisherman used hand nets to haul in the fish.
2. They rowed the dories, laden with fish, to their families' fish houses. With long hooks they lifted the fish up onto the wooden dock. (Room #1)
3. Here, men and women would filet the fish in stages. The first person would loosen the gills. The second would notch the belly. The third would reach in and pull the guts up to the head and take the head off(save the liver for cod liver oil). The fourth would slice the belly to tail. The fifth would take the spine out. On to Room #2.
4. In an adjacent house, the fish would be placed in salt to cure for 7-10 days. The salt was part of a trade with parts of the Mediterranean and Brazil. It was in these places that salt water was dried to form salt crystals and traded to the Newfoundlanders for fish.
5. After salting, the third station was a rinsing of the salt and further drying in the wind and sun.
6. Finally, the fish were stacked and brought to market in their new, dry, hard, last-forever state.
To eat the fish, it had to be soaked for a long time to re-hydrate it. Often, a similar state of hard bread was also soaked and then the two were mashed together.
"The Rooms". Now it does make sense!Read more