From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com
Tim and Linda Bunyan
Birthplace of the Original Louisiana Tabasco Hot Sauce - Avery Island, Iberia Parish, Louisiana (Vermilion Bay).
We visited the natural features of the area.
Not to be missed, Avery Island, famous for its Tabasco sauce factory, deposits of rock salt, and the Gardens Trail.
The Tabasco factory tour is self-paced with viewing rooms on how the sauce is made. Tabasco is a brand from Tabasco peppers, vinegar, and salt.
It is the McElhanney family-owned Company, founded 1868--149 years ago…. about the same as Canada becoming its own country!
Not to be missed, Avery Island, famous for its Tabasco sauce factory, deposits of rock salt, and the Gardens Trail.
The Tabasco factory tour is self-paced with viewing rooms on how the sauce is made. Tabasco is a brand from Tabasco peppers, vinegar, and salt.
It is the McElhanney family-owned Company, founded 1868--149 years ago…. about the same as Canada becoming its own country!
The peppers on the island are used to produce seed stock. There were red sticks around the trail indicating that peppers must match the color of the stick to ensure ripeness and timely pick. The grinding warehouse full of mash with salt added into white oak barrels. 
After aging for up to 3 years, strained and liquid is then mixed and bottled as the finished sauce. The salt comes from Avery Island salt mine, one of the largest in the U.S.Spent much of the day driving Avery Island's
star feature: The Gardens
McElhanney's son has expanded their property on Avery Island encompassing a complete drive-around,
170-acre botanical garden and bird sanctuary.
The beautiful oak trees bear over 200 years of Spanish moss that cling to their limbs. Spanish moss was used to stuff mattresses during the war and the seats of model Ts.
