By Captain Mayne Reid Editor’s Note: The Maroons were escaped slaves in Jamaica who hid in the infamous cockpit country of jungles and sinkholes. The Maroons were famously known for inventing jerk pork, but they also liked their spicy pepper-pot soup. “This white gentleman has not eaten breakfast,” said Cubina, as they came up. “Well, Quaco! What have the …
A Market in Trinidad, 1887
By William Agnew Patton In the midst of this cooly district there is an open space, an acre or two in extent, densely shaded by a very ancient, and far-spreading banyan-tree, under the branches of which the cooly people hold their market. It would be impossible to imagine a scene more unlike any that I had ever beheld in all …
Earliest Mention of Bonney Pepper
By Dave DeWitt The Bonney pepper is to Barbados what the Scotch bonnet is to Jamaica and the Congo pepper is to Trinidad & Tobago. Its earliest mention in literature is from 1647, when Richard Ligon described it while writing his book, A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados, which was not published until 1657. No early …
Hot Peppers of Martinique, 1887
By Lafcadio Hearn Old Marketplace of the Fort, St. Pierre, Martinique Pimento is an essential accompaniment to all these dishes, whether it be cooked or raw: everything is served with plenty of pimento,—en pile, eti pile piment. Among the various kinds I can mention only the pimmt-cafe, or “coffee-pepper,” larger but about the same shape as a grain of Liberian …
Rebuilding Haiti One Pepper at a Time: Bel Soley Hot Sauce
Written by Kelli Bergthold Food shots by Wes NamanFarm and hot sauce images courtesy Bel Soley Starting a business in the best of circumstances can be difficult; starting one in the wake of a major natural disaster can be nearly impossible. When the now-infamous 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti’s capital of Port au Prince on January 12, 2010, the entire …