Wednesday 3-26-2014
New Orleans to New Iberia 122 miles
A few miles south of New Iberia
Louisiana is Avery Island,
home of Tabasco Pepper Sauce. All the Tabasco
sauce ever sprinkled onto every food imaginable came from the McIlhennys
factory on Avery Island. It’s a simple process; age
crushed red peppers in oak barrels for 3 years, then mix with vinegar and salt.
Don’t have time to ferment your peppers for 3 years, neither do I. It’s easier
to by Tabasco
at your local grocery store, I don’t think I’ve ever been in a store that
didn’t carry the brand.
The factory tour consists of a ten minute film about the
history of the McIlhennys and Tabasco
and a short walk past the bottle filling machinery. Afterwards you can visit
the gift shop which sells anything and everything Tabasco. I thought the pepper sauce flavors
not available anywhere else were the most interesting, Like Raspberry Chipotle and McIlhenny Family Reserve ($10 a bottle).
While on the island we also toured the 275 acre park built
by one of McIlhennys sons. It has a 3 mile road that goes past the major points
of interest and also several walking trails. The park is mostly natural with
native plants but has several highlights. There is a nine hundred year old Buddha
in an oriental garden setting and a 35 acre rookery in which thousands of Snowy Egrets return to mate and raise their young. The linage of the birds goes back
to a small group of birds that the McIlhennys moved to the island when they
were in danger of going extinct. Snowy Egrets were almost hunted into
extinction when plums of feathers were fashionable on women’s hats.
We stayed the night in a convenient RV park right off the highway;
it was your typical overnight quality stop , no amenities, just a safe spot to
park for the night and reasonably priced at $25. As a plus it did have cable
TV.
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