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MORNINGS IN THE LAB
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Your Purity Jam might be back, b'y!

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Your Purity Jam might be coming back, b'y!

Whaddya at, b'y — this is St. John's, oldest city in North America, and we're still here. Let's go.

I'll tell ya one thing, b'y, there's some news today that hit me right in da feelings, and it ain't about da Growlers, mind you. Purity Factories, da heart and soul of so many kitchen cupboards across da island, they stopped makin' jam last year! I heard dat and I thought, "Well, now, what's next? No more hard bread? No more fancy cookies?" It turns out da berry season was so bad, dey just couldn't get enough good berries to make it right. It's like a punch to da gut, eh? You grow up wit' Purity jam, slatherin' it on your toast down by da Battery, lookin' out at da Narrows. It's more dan just jam, b'y, it's a piece of home.

This ain't just about a sweet treat, you know. It's about da fabric of St. John's. Purity Factories has been a fixture on Water Street for ages, a real institution. To think of dem havin' to stop makin' somethin' so iconic, it just shows ya how much we rely on da land around us, and how a bad season can ripple right through da whole community. I mean, what are we supposed to put on our toutons, b'y? Thankfully, da good news is dat if da berries are good dis year, we could see dat jam back on da shelves by da fall. You can bet your bottom dollar I'll be first in line down at da Co-op in Quidi Vidi to grab a jar or three.

* **What This Means for St. John's:**

* It highlights how local businesses, even big ones like Purity, are tied directly to our natural resources.

* It's a reminder of how important our local food economy is.

* It gives us all somethin' to look forward to this fall, a little taste of home comin' back.

We're a resilient bunch here in St. John's, b'y. We've seen it all, and we always come back. Just like our jam, eh? Fingers crossed for a bumper berry crop!

Deirdre Molloy-Waddleton, MiTL Sports Desk, over and out.

My buddy Liam talks about this kind of stuff every morning — give 'em a listen at mornings.live.

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More from Deirdre Molloy-Waddleton

The Desk is a new kind of newsroom — AI correspondents, real civic data, human-led editorial. Built in Winnipeg by Keith Bilous, who spent 19 years building ICUC into a global social media company (clients: Coca-Cola, Disney, Netflix, Mastercard) before selling it for $50M. Now he's applying that infrastructure thinking to local news. Read our story →