A day at Marie Sharp's Hot Sauce and Factory via pictures

The other day me and the old hen decided we needed to take a short walkbaout.  So we loaded up the Kia pony and headed out of Riversdale.  Headed west out Placencia Road,and turned north on the Southern Highway to the Dangriga Junction.   Once there we turned onto the Hummingbird Highway and about a mile or so up there is Melinda road with this sign pointing off to the east.

So we took a right and headed up Melinda Road  through the Orange Grove to Marie Sharp's Factory.

And out there in the middle of The Sharp's huge farm, is the factory

The beautiful Ms Ixza' met us as we parked.  She gave us the history of the factory and then a tour of the premises.  I knew a bit about the history of how Marie started, but Ixza' gave us some info that is not on the web sites.  I won't tell you those so you will just have to go there your self.  

 But before heading into the factory working area, we got to enjoy samples of many of Marie's great products.  All kinds of hot sauces, jams, jellies, and more.  Good stuff for the belly.

Here's a look at part of the kitchen where they mix and cook fruits and vegetables for the products.  A lot of the material is grown right there on the farm

Yup, this is gonna be good!

Ingredients are stored in vats for mixing. 

Since many of the ingredients are seasonal they have a huge chill room for storage.

These huge tanks are where the different kinds of sauces are stored pending delivery into bottles to reach our hungry mouths.

Now comes the bottling, capping, and labeling.

These folks are putting the plastic wrap that seals the top.  Kind of like shrink wrap it's heated and shrinks to seal.

Shipment for order just about ready to be loaded for transport.



When full, this truck will go to the port in Belize City for product to shipped to the customer.

Japanese consumers are the lucky recipients of this load

Well, all good times come to an end, but we didn't leave before going to the gift shop and stocking up on all kinds of tasty treats.

Japanese Lucky Cats

headed back to Melinda Road.

Continued eastward about eight miles to DangrigaTown

It was a fun little excursion.  Nothing fancy like colonial buildings or Mayan ruins.  But I have to say "Big UP!" to Ms. Marie and her husband.  She started with a home garden and has grown a business which gives people jobs buys from local farmers which in turn creates jobs, same with bottling, wrapping, boxes and on and on.  Then gives a product sold here and all over the world.  This is what we desperately need in middle and southern Belize. 

Garden Variety

Pic of some of the crop I kept for us to eat.  The apple bananas are a beauty in the eye of the beholder.  They are sweet as candy.  My new crop is still sprouting nicely.  Lots of flowers on the cucumbers and few baby cucumbers can be seen.  Hot peppers grow every where.  Green peppers are planted and so are peas.  Waiting to see if they will germinate in this soil.

Dr. Buzzard Walkabout's lil farm

These are just a few pics.  I already barted most of the mellons but still have a few geting ripe and planted many more

A new batch of bananas coming in

Planted some more mellons

2nd bananas should be ready for my belly soon

New mellons trying to grow.  Mellns are valuable here

 

Bad dog.  But he's my buddy

I love my dog

The idiots that were abusing him when he was a tiny puppy ten months ago lost a damn good dog when I took him from them.

Good news

Good news on Tuesday Oct 25

Every single day I hear of a murder, shooting, robery and such. Everyday without exception.

But here is something from a country I have lived for many years that makes me smile...

MINISTRY OF HEALTH GETS GRANT FUNDING FROM JAPANESE SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT FUND


Oct 24, 2011

Belize has been awarded approximately six million Belize dollars in grant
funding from the Japanese Social Development Fund (JSDF) through the World
Bank. Minister of Health Pablo Marin, explained that this will fund a
project that will improve the health and nutrition of children in Mayan
communities of the Toledo district. This grant donation will officially be
handed over at a ceremony to be held tomorrow. According to the Ministry
of Health, the grant is intended to improve the health of children through
an approach that focuses on pre-natal care and nutrition, monitoring of
expecting mothers and also through school health interventions at the
primary school level. The project also intends to address malnutrition in
children under age five, develop healthy lifestyle programmes for Primary
school children, strengthen the access of community-based health services
and also promote behavior change in the attitude and perception towards
health in the selected communities. While the Ministry of Health is the
grant recipient, the Toledo District Health Council will be the
implementing agency responsible for the administration, monitoring and
evaluation of the project. A team from the World Bank lead by Carmen Carpio
will be visiting Belize during this week to plan site visits to schools in
the southern districts and also facilitate workshop sessions with Ministry
of Health representatives and community leaders of the south. The JSDF is
funded by the Government of Japan and administered by the World Bank. The
fund has been an important source of financing for lower income countries
around the world.

Sept 11 2001

This flag is flying today in memory of those innocent souls lost ten years ago.  I had just walked out of the pentagon when AA #77 crashed into the building on the other side from where I was leaving.  Working with the family members is something that a person can never forget.

But another sight I can never forget is when I finally got home in PA, my old hen had this same flag flying right on the front of the house.

This flag was flown over the US Capitol and given to me by a Senator a couple of years prior. 

And since I don't have a belize flag, I added this one...

Mystic River Resort

OK, I know I promised this several weeks ago.  But have been a bit busy, But here now are some pics of the Mystic River Resort in Cayo, with the small band that came from the Caye.  The whole event was well done, with good music, good drinks and food, and good times.

 On a steep bank of the Macal River, Mystic River Resort offers a eco-friendly retreat with the best of all worlds to those who travel to Belize. In this oasis of privacy, serenity and rejuvenation, there are no crowds, just the soothing sound of birds, rustling trees and soft breezes. Mystic River Resort, located in the jungle of Belize, 7 miles from the twin towns of San Ignacio and Santa Elena, makes it a good spot to be "off the beaten path," but still colse enough to the action and shopping in town.

Good music and good times

This lil feller felt left out of the party

Is it something in the water here?

OK, I know some of ya'll maybe tired of hearing about my chirren. But this was so funny I fell down. Last night I come home from working on my lil farm. Took the wireless laptop out to the beachside deck and was rocking to some Thin Lizzy, Metallica, Toby Keith, Looking Glass and more while watching the stars and contemplating the universe. Mr. Rum was zoned out on the table and Mr. Lido was crying at my feet. The old hen come out and stood there a minute pondering my sanity.

Then she ask why Lido look sad -- and this is no kidding -- I said I told Lido about the vet going to cut his balls off next weekend. The old hen started laughing and making giggling sounds at Lido. Whereupon Lido got up and went and put a lil bite right on the crotch of her pants and looked at her right in the eyes. He didn’t bite her, he just put a lil bite right on the crotch of her pants. I'm not making this up. I fell out of my chair and abused my alcohol drink by spilling it I was laughing so hard. The old hen with eyes wide as could be told me that me and Lido are both crazy. Then she went back inside and me and the chirren continued our lil get-together looking out over the Sea and stars.

What's wrong with that woman?

Me and the old hen was carrying my friend up to Dangriga hospital the other day.  He been feeling real bad.  He was afraid he may have some cancer and told me that if that was positive he was going to hang himself in the jungle rather than go thru that agony. 

I offered to loan him a good sturdy rope if he needed it.  I mean, he is a good bud and aren't we suppose to help each other out?

My old hen smacked me with the new mop I bought her for our wedding anniversary.

She don't make no sense.  But turns out me bally just had some hyper stomach acid that is easily treatable.  Good thing too as i need my rope for tying some debris to my trailer right now.

San Ignacio / Cayo

Well friends and neighbors and rummies, winos, and teetotalers.  Welcome to my little trip report.  My old hen and I had some bidnez to take care of the capital city Belmopan, we took and extra couple of days and went to the western town of San Ignacio for a few days.  It’s near the Guatemalan border and is known as a travel/shipping point between the two countries, a smuggler’s delight, a great adventure are full of mountains, rivers, caves, Mayan Ruins and such.

It’s been a while since we were last there.  And when you live on a lil peninsula in a small fishing community as we do, ya just have to get out of town once in a while.  Walkabout the area.

I’ll give ya a lil trip report & pics on the Mayan Ruins of Xunantunich Archeological Reserve, the concert and area of the Mystic River Resort, and finally the hotel we stayed at in San Ignacio.

Let's start with Mayan Ruins of Xunantunich Archeological Reserve.

The Mayan Ruins of Xunatunich (pronounced Shun-an-tun-ich) is about 10 kilometers west of San Ignacio.  I’m not a huge fan of ruins because other than Actun Tunichil Muknal, most of them look the same to me.  Just some are bigger or in better shape.

Xunantunich, which means “the Stone Maiden” was pretty cool though.  To get there you have to cross on a hand-cranked ferry.  It’s free except for Sundays, but the dude is cranking this ferry along a cable line across the Mopan River so I had to give him a lil tip.

Then you can drive off the ferry and up to the Visitor’s Center and you have to take a small hike from there.

We explored all around, but the really coolest part is El Castillo.  It’s  40m high and you can climb all the way to the top for some spectacular views.  Here are a few pics from around the area….