Tabasco Sauce Factory!
09 November 2011 | Avery Island, LA
Gil
We spent our first night at Avery Island anchored about 2 miles from the Tabasco Sauce factory. The McIlhenny family owns the island and has produced Tabasco brand sauce in the factory there for over 130 years.
The next day we lowered the dinghy again and ran a couple of miles up to the Tabasco factory. The farm for the peppers and the factory that produces millions of those little bottles of Tabasco are right there. The peppers are grown and harvested there and in several other locations. The harvested peppers are salted, ground up and put away in old whiskey barrels to ferment for three years. Then vinegar is added and the mixture is stirred and filtered in large oak vats. Finally it is bottled in those familiar Tabasco brand bottles.
They offer free factory tours and a country store where you can purchase more Tabasco products and paraphernalia than you could imagine existed. You don’t believe? Try Tabasco ice cream or a coat for your dog with the Tabasco logo on it. We picked up a few things for Christmas gifts and they threw in a free jar of Tabasco pickled okra. Really! (The picture shows us standing in front of this amazing store).
Avery Island is the top of a large salt dome and there has been salt mining going on there for over a hundred years. The mine now produces over 2 million tons of salt a year. Most, if not all, that production is carried away on barges. Late Sunday afternoon we were kicked back on the boat and suddenly heard a loud horn. I went up on deck to see a tow boat and two empty barges approaching. I grabbed a radio and called. The tow captain advised me that he was bringing in empty barges to be loaded at the salt mine. He said we were in a very dangerous spot because more barges were coming. The boats make up their tows right where we were anchored. I needed no more encouragement. We started the engine, raised the anchor, untied from the tree and moved about 500 yards to a safer spot.
The next morning we were underway for Morgan City at 0635.