Inuvik inundated with free buttermilk bounty
Last Updated: Thursday, October 18, 2007 | 6:47 PM CT
CBC News
Asking the question 'got milk?' in jest may grow sour quickly among residents in Inuvik, N.W.T., as they figure out what to do with more than a thousand extra litres of buttermilk.
The western Arctic town's NorthMart store, which usually sells six to 12 litres of buttermilk in a given week, received 1,200 litres by mistake last week. That shipment is more buttermilk than what the store sells in three years.
"I said, 'What are we going to do with all this buttermilk?' " grocery manager Joe Guy told CBC News on Wednesday. "You know, we only sell a few buttermilk a week, so it would last us forever."
As a result of the supplier's blunder, a sign currently outside the store reads: "Free buttermilk. No limits."
Residents in the town of about 3,500, who are used to paying almost $4 for one litre of buttermilk, have packed their refrigerators with multiple cartons — and are now scrambling to find all sorts of uses for the thick dairy product before it expires on Oct. 24.
"I've been drinking, I think, probably about a litre and a half to two litres a day," Inuvik resident Martin Landry said. "It's a treat, so I might as well not let it go to waste."
Store expected non-refrigerated milk
Guy said he was expecting 1,200 litres of ultra-high-temperature milk, which does not have to be refrigerated. Rather than haul the perishable buttermilk shipment to the local dump, he said it was better to give it away.
But Guy added that some residents have been suspicious of the massive milk giveaway.
"Yeah, they're a little leery. They wonder why it's free," he said. "Not too much free these days … especially up here."
As of late Wednesday, the NorthMart store had 300 cartons in stock. So time is running out for Landry, who said he's been experimenting with buttermilk's various applications. He said he's been pouring the stuff in his favourite foods.
"The only disaster I've had with the buttermilk was coffee," he admitted.
"I've been making pancakes for my housemate with buttermilk every morning — he liked that. But all of a sudden, I tried it in the coffee, and buttermilk sinks right to the bottom of the coffee mug, and then it curdles. So really, not a good idea."
