Tabasco

Our first stop today was the Konrico Rice Mill. It was founded by Mr. Conrad, a local rice grower, in the early 20th century to mill his own rice to avoid paying shipping costs to the far away mills “up north”. Other neighboring rice growers asked him to mill their rice, so by 1912 he had built this large rice mill and ceased being a farmer…

We saw a video, and had a mini tour of the facilities. It was pretty basic. They were not milling today, so it was quiet. Of course we visited the store where we could by trinkets and rice products… The amazing part is that the mill operates pretty much as it did in 1912, with the exception of modernization of some of the equipment – like replacing the steam engine with an electric motor on one piece of equipment, and having relatively modern bagging machines. They still use a stencil and an ink roller to put the company name on the bags of rice…

From the rice mill we drove to Avery Island. This is the third island we have visited here in SW Louisiana. The Weeks’ family plantation (Shadows on the Teche) was on Weeks Island, the Jefferson Victorian house was on Jefferson Island, and today we go to Avery Island. There are five “islands” here in this area. However, these are not islands at all. They are the five salt domes that have become the highest land area around. They are not even near any meaningful water. It’s just a bit on Louisiana nonsense that people here take for granted…

Anyway, we drove to Avery Island where the McIlhenny family has been growing peppers and making their famous Tabasco sauce for all these many years… Edmund McIlhenny started growing peppers and making his sauce in 1868 after his banking job ended during the Civil War. Five generations have run the company ever since.

We watched videos of the growing of the peppers and the making of the sauce. Basically the peppers are ground into a mash, salt is added, and the mash is cured for three years on white oak barrels. Then vinegar is added and the soup is stirred for three weeks. The solids are strained out and the sauce is bottled. That’s it!

We started, of course, with lunch…