Avery Island of Louisiana & Tabasco Sauce
Deep in South Louisiana where the marsh land meets the Gulf of Mexico is an “Island” named Avery Island. It it is not an actual island but rather a series of salt domes. This is where the world-renown Tabasco Sauce is made. This hot sauce has was invented in 1868 by Edmund McIlhenny and the production continues to be owned and operated by his descendants. The factory and adjoining horticultural gardens named “Jungle Gardens” make for an interesting day trip to the Cajun part of the state. We visited the factory and gardens on a hot, hot August day. Incidentally, Hurricane Ida came ashore in this part of the state a week later making this part of the state impassible. With massive damage to power lines, with trees down and flooding, we would not have been able to visit.
Tabasco Sauce is a piquant hot sauce made from tabasco peppers. In Louisiana, this hot sauce is customarily placed on tables in restaurants along with salt and pepper. Douse it on any menu item to make it “a little hotter.”
The road to Avery Island ends at the factory and grounds after you cross over a bayou, “The Bayou Petite Anse.” The facility is located on a large salt dome. The Tabasco Factory tour is a self-guided one. It is educational and informative.
Sales of Tabasco Sauce have grown over the years. The McIlhenny family now partners with farmers in Africa and South America to grow most of their pepper crops. The family, however, still carefully controls the seed crop. One stop of the tour was the greenhouse where several Tabasco plants were on display. The plants are larger than any pepper plants that I have ever seen.
However, the individual peppers were quite small.
After the peppers are picked, they are placed in oak barrels, along with salt, and aged for two to three years. Rather than other hot sauce manufacturers who cook the pepper mash to make their hot sauce, The McIlhenny’s let their peppers mature in a salt brine in these oak barrels.
The factory production complex consists of a row of red brick-fronted building. Other parts of the manufacturing process occur in these buildings. After the mash is brined for 2 to 3 years, vinegar is added. The peppers are placed in huge vats and stirred occasionally for 2 to 3 weeks. Then the skin and seeds are removed through mesh and the sauce is bottled. McIlhenny family members sample each batch to assure a quality product.
The Tabasco Company has branched out into other types of pepper sauces. Here’s a life-size representation of some of their other types.
After touring the Tabasco plant facilities, we traveled a short distance down the road to Jefferson Island and Jungle Gardens. The gardens were created on the estate by Edward Avery Mcllhenny, second son of Edmund Mcllhenny, the inventor of Tabasco sauce,. Edward McIlhenny developed an extensive 170 acre botanical gardens estate and bird sanctuary beginning in approximately 1910. It included many species of native plants such as camellias, azaleas, hydrangeas, Louisiana irises, palms, bamboo and wisteria. Edward Mcllhenny was especially interested in bird conservation, such as saving the snowy egret from extinction, and dedicated hundreds of march lands which he purchased and then deeded to the state of Louisiana in 1911. During past visits, we have also seen quite a bit of wildlife including alligators and water birds. At this visit, due to the heat and mid-day visit, most of these attractions were hibernating. There were, however, many majestic live oak trees..
One such tree is named the “Cleveland Oak” tree after President Grover Cleveland who visited the gardens. The massive live oak tree is over 300 years old and 25 feet in circumference.
Here a plaque tells about the tree.
We also saw an colorful and interesting spider, who didn’t move and allowed us to take close-up photos. This is a Golden Silk Orbweaver and is a type of Orb spider.
Bayou Petite Anse flowed along the Jungle Gardens. Here’s a plaque telling about the bayou’s history.
The bayou was a large one and motor boats could cruise on it.
A small shrimping boat trawled down the bayou. However, its green nets were up — it was not trawling or fishing today.
As we left the island, we noticed many railroad cars on a railroad along the highway. The hoppers on the bottom of the cars left us guessing that these were probably filled with salt from the area’s extensive salt domes.
The Avery Island and Tabasco Sauce factory is about three hours southwest of Baton Rouge. It made for a nice one-day, but very hot, outing Next time, I’d like to visit in the fall or spring months and early in the day time to see some of the birds and wildlife which are abundant in that area of coastal Louisiana.
