Overwhelmed by labels

I spend a lot of time this afternoon at the Tourist Information Centre which, apart from providing tourist information, provides a café with excellent coffee, a small gallery with a range of local handcrafts and a shop with a wide range of regional produce, packaged in and many shapes and forms.

I spend a lot of time in this regional produce area, to the point that I suspect the staff and volunteers think I am a prospective shop lifter. The only things I am lifting are the various bottles and jars of produce; onion jam, chutneys, fruit jams, vinegars, olive oils. The result of all this lifting and label reading makes me tired; my arms ache, my shoulders droop and together with my shoulders, my spirits droop.

There are so many variations in label details; although the labels list ingredients, there are few that adopt the ‘grown in Australia’ label or ‘produce of Australia’. Mostly, it is simply ‘Made in Australia’ – nothing wrong with that I can assure you, but it doesn’t tell me what I want to know about Australian ingredients.

This label reading caper is getting the better of me today. I am quitting it right now. Totally dispirited, I take my aching arms and drooping shoulders over to the café, where I revive my drooping spirits with another cup of the best coffee in town.