2 Tours 1 day

There is much to see in southwest Louisiana and although we've been here twice before, there is much we have not seen. Today we decided we would make another attempt to do more than we have before. First on our agenda was the Tabasco Pepper Sauce factory on Avery Island. We toured the factory which is free and learned the history of the sauce and how it is made. Edmund McIhenny cultivated the pepper crop (only the best of the capsicum peppers are used), invented the product and founded the company shortly after the civil war, and it remains in the family even today. After our tour we were rewarded with very small sample bottles of the pepper sauce and invited to partake of several more sample products in their country store. Hey, this is a good deal--pepper sauces, marinates, potato chips, chili and even ice cream. Oh yes, ice cream Jalapeno and the more to our liking Sweet and Spicy Ice Cream--we tried them all--not bad but then again not sure we'd buy any if presented with the opportunity.

Next we drove to the historic town of New Iberia. We toured America's Oldest Rice Mill, Konriko. There are many rice factories in this part of the country since rice is a major industry, along with sugar cane, but this particular factory was one in which we were directed to because of a specific item--Pecan Wild Rice. Edie & Lee Solomon prepared dinner for us in Key West and had served this particular rice which they had purchased at Konriko and we were very impressed with the taste. So we knew we must find it and "get" some of our own!! Today was that day. We also learned how rice is cultivated, harvested and sold throughout the world. One of the things we found interesting was that the rice is planted in the same fields as the crawfish are harvested, each in their own season. When rice is grown in a field it has often been previously used for crawfish, 2 for 1. Again more samples to try--all good, but we opted for a purchase of wild pecan rice.