If we have an order for, say, five or six thousand pounds for tomorrow morning, I'll order the raw material from the farm and it'll be in about an hour before we start processing. The girls will come in and get ready to process, which means getting the packaging ready and getting the plant ready. The mussels will arrive and then we'll start processing, so it's out of the water, packaged, and boxed within 24 hours, so the shelf life can be maintained. But if it's sitting on our floor for two or three hours, then you're losing a lot of water content.

One time the truck was coming at 4:00, and at 2:00 the equipment broke down. We've still got another two thousand pounds to go and I'm saying, okay, pull the side off the equipment. What's wrong? Chain's broke. Okay, come on, let's get it fixed. So I go downstairs and get the toolbox and fix it. My training as a mechanic is very useful. It helps me think about how the equipment works, what could go wrong, and then try and get it fixed.

Sometimes we have our product being bumped in Halifax when it should have already been in San Francisco. Passengers and their cargo go first. Moose season is famous for having our product bumped. Once a buyer in San Francisco phoned and said, "Product got bumped again, did it?"

And I said, "Yes. You know, if you keep your guys in moose season, we'll be all right, because it's you moose getting us bumped."

Or somebody phones and says, "Okay Denyse, I need a couple of thousand pounds, what's the price you c give me?" I mean you've only got seconds to say, this is the price, and hope that you're not over, because the competition is stiff, especially from Prince Edward Island.

I am dealing in a man's world, and it is very frustrated There was one guy who came in looking for work at the plant. He wanted to speak to the manager, and I sa "Yes, can I help you?"

I called my husband up, and he said, "You were already talking to the lady that does the hiring."