Tabasco Avery Island

Help Support CattleToday:

Where do the tons and tons of the little peppers come from. Raised on the Island or imported from where.
 
Tabasco peppers have to be picked by hand so its very labor intensive. To supply the processing plant they furnish the seed to farms in south and central america and contract grow the peppers there. A bit of trivia on this is Baton Rouge means red baton or red stick. This red stick was given to field hands so they could match the stick with the color of the pepper they wanted picked. No need for any training seminars with this bunch just hand someone a stick and tell them to get to picking.
 
Jogeephus":12wty1yv said:
Tabasco peppers have to be picked by hand so its very labor intensive. To supply the processing plant they furnish the seed to farms in south and central america and contract grow the peppers there. A bit of trivia on this is Baton Rouge means red baton or red stick. This red stick was given to field hands so they could match the stick with the color of the pepper they wanted picked. No need for any training seminars with this bunch just hand someone a stick and tell them to get to picking.
Click to expand...
Any idea as to the profit for the grower. Bet a lot of the little peppers touch the Mexican field workers hands.
 
hurleyjd":9v85uxrz said:
Jogeephus":9v85uxrz said:
Tabasco peppers have to be picked by hand so its very labor intensive. To supply the processing plant they furnish the seed to farms in south and central america and contract grow the peppers there. A bit of trivia on this is Baton Rouge means red baton or red stick. This red stick was given to field hands so they could match the stick with the color of the pepper they wanted picked. No need for any training seminars with this bunch just hand someone a stick and tell them to get to picking.
Click to expand...
Any idea as to the profit for the grower. Bet a lot of the little peppers touch the Mexican field workers hands.
Click to expand...
Thievery is probably a minor problems. They thieves are too busy picking coca leaves.
 
The most interesting thing about the article is not who makes the best hot sauce, but the things they are doing to save Avery island and the Louisiana marsh.
 
M-5":a0t6x1zc said:
ALACOWMAN":a0t6x1zc said:
I like Tabasco when I can't get Texas Pete.....
Click to expand...


Crystal or Louisiana but pete is pretty good
Click to expand...

I'll do Crystal when I get to shop. The wife insists that Frank's is the best, but after half a bottle it all tastes like "hot" to me.
 
hurleyjd":51s1nv3l said:
Where do the tons and tons of the little peppers come from. Raised on the Island or imported from where.
Click to expand...

I thought they controlled the seed supply but imported the production peppers from Africa. In any case - - it is a privately held business that protects the brand name from alot of new hot sauce producers.
 
hurleyjd":3av02mg1 said:
The most interesting thing about the article is not who makes the best hot sauce, but the things they are doing to save Avery island and the Louisiana marsh.
Click to expand...
Plan to swat more mosquitoes than you have ever seen in your life.

"Red Stick" has nothing to do with peppers and originated with American Indian culture.
 
hurleyjd":2dwniqgf said:
The most interesting thing about the article is not who makes the best hot sauce, but the things they are doing to save Avery island and the Louisiana marsh.
Click to expand...

Theres no saving Avery island the rich and famous have ruined it. Thirty years ago it was a beautiful little hole in the swamp.
 
Ebenezer":38flmwxc said:
hurleyjd":38flmwxc said:
The most interesting thing about the article is not who makes the best hot sauce, but the things they are doing to save Avery island and the Louisiana marsh.
Click to expand...
Plan to swat more mosquitoes than you have ever seen in your life.

"Red Stick" has nothing to do with peppers and originated with American Indian culture.
Click to expand...

My bad. That is what I was told but I checked and you are right. It was a red stick marking separating Indian hunting grounds there. The stick given the workers is called "le petit baton rouge" French for little red stick.

https://www.qualitydigest.com/IQedit/Im ... /sauce.jpg
 
Been there a couple of times when I lived in New Iberia..before Hurricane Rita. They still grew lots of their own peppers at that time and still raise them but they are for the seeds to send to other countries for the most part. The pepper fields on the island are only about 20 acres, which means a LOT of seed. It ensures the peppers they import are of the same variety/strain they have always used. Beautiful place tho. The Buddhist temple looks out of place but is impressive in the gardens and among all the oaks.
Pepper fields are on the right..the green areas.
12322.jpg

I've had lots of Tabasco Sauce..about the only thing that made C-Rats edible.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/taba ... tary-meals
"Island" in S. Louisiana and parts of East Texas coast just means a high ground.

trivia regarding one of the McIlhenny family and former CEO of that Tabasco company
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Stauffer_McIlhenny
 
I took a bike trip down there and could smell the pepper sauce a mile away. I am a big pepper sauce fan, and Tabasco is the standard by how I judge all others.

I make my own sauces, and rarely, really never, buy sauce any more, but folks like to give me bottles of their finds. Touring that plant was a memory I will take to my grave. There is so much to admire in their world.

I was told during the tour they had set up a mirror operation somewhere in South America after one of the hurricanes. Their insurance company insisted on it as a condition of coverage.


Louisiana is blessed with so many good things, and all the pepper sauces they make down there is one of their greatest blessings.
 
greybeard":17r2lm1x said:
Did you happen to also go to Holley Beach (near Cameron La) and smell the pogey plant too?
It will gag a maggot....
Click to expand...

It's been a few years since we unloaded in Hackberry, but the pogey plant was no more in Cameron. Had lots of fun at Holley Beach in the 80's.
 
Perhaps so. It was quite a few years ago since I worked offshore and left from the Cameron docks.
Yep, had good times at Holey Beach too...the Cajun Riviera. (lots of tarballs on the wet sand last time I was there tho) Pretty sure Hurricane Rita took out the little shacks that served as bars right on the beach tho.
I worked on one of the rigs that drilled the West Hackberry Strategic Petroleum Reserve back in the late 70s-early 80s..leaching out salt from the dome so they could store crude oil.
SKEETERS!! They could easily straddle a quarter dollar
 

Similar threads

T
Parris Island SC
Replies
10
Views
867
greybeard
greybeard

Latest posts

Top