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20 Questions with Marie Sharp
By DK | April 5, 2009 |
Marie Sharp at Melinda Estate plantation, in front of a Carambola fruit tree.
There was some discussion in the Justin’s Corner- Marie Sharp’s Belizean Heat post brought up by Sam about the distinction between Marie Sharp’s sauces and a brand by the name of Melinda’s.
Due to the interest displayed in that post, and a contibution of a link from thakswet, I thought the subject deserved it’s on discussion area. Here’s the story that thakswet contributed. It makes for some interesting reading. I think thakswet put it very well in his email to me when he said “I think that interview is Marie’s most open and honest about the issues surrounding Melinda and Marie.”
BELIZEmagazine.com: Please tell us where and what year were you born. What was it like as a child, growing up in your home town? How has the town/district changed since your youth?
Marie Sharp: I was born in 1940 in Belize City. Actually my parents are San Pedranos, my parents migrated to Belize City the same year I was born. They were originally from San Pedro, Ambergris CayeMy parents were separate when I was 8 years old, I came to live with my father , he migrated from Belize city to Dangriga and I came to live with him when I was about 9 years old for better education, because out in San Pedro most of the people only spoke Spanish and the schools were not very good, so for my educational purposes, my mother decided to send me to my dad so I can go to an English speaking school.
Growing up was okay, even though I was with my father and my stepmother. My father was a merchant, he had a general store, I had a good childhood.
Dangriga has changed a lot. When I came here almost 55 years ago it was only like a very small village, we had two paved streets, front street and middle street, all the back streets were just dirt roads. But it was very very very nice being in Dangriga at that time. People were so friendly, we knew all of our neighbours, it was just like one big happy family. I even learned to speak Garifuna. I was very good at learning languages, I spoke Garifuna very quickly.
BELIZEmagazine.com: How did you get started in the business that made you so successful?
Marie Sharp: I married my husband, he was the farmer. His parents owned this property that is a 400-acre farm – Melinda estates limited. We used to spend all our free time on the farm, planting things, all the fruits that could grow in Belize, we planted some of. One of my sisters said, why don’t you plant some peppers for Dr. Gordillo? He was a medical officer and at that time he was making a habanero pepper sauce that he was selling on the local market. He said he had a lot of difficulties finding peppers. I said, this is not a problem at all, so I came to the farm and planted peppers.
Unfortunately when I took my first load of peppers to Dr. Gordillo he said “Ai hija, my daughter, I will only use a little bit”, and I got stuck with all this habanero peppers, no market, nowhere to dispose of it and I had to bring it all back home. You have to take into consideration that I had a full time job as an executive secretary with the citrus company of Belize at the time – I worked with them for over ten years. I had a full time job and this was only done in our spare time, on holidays and weekends.
So I came back home with the peppers, took out my little home blenders and decided to mash peppers like crazy. I went trough a couple of dozens of those blenders and I started filling up my garage with drums of pepper mash. My husband said, “What are you going to do with all the peppers, the cars can’t even fit in the garage anymore. What are you going to do with all of that?” Then I started coming home and playing around with sauces at night. After I fed the family and got them out of the way, I stayed in the kitchen and I started making my own sauce.
I had about six different varieties of sauced that I made. I had even one made form cabbage, one from cho-cho, and I had this carrot base and I had one from papaya.
I gave them away to friends, and one of my friends said to me, this is the carrot base one he was talking about, he said “Marie why don’t you market this? This is better than anything we have on our local market. You have to market this product.” I said, “You think so?” He said, “Yes this is going to sell!” I started to think about it, but he planted the little seed there. Then I just went out and bought myself three tabletop stoves with four burners and a pot to fit each four burner, one pot per stove, and I started to cook carrot sauce and make pepper sauce. I would cook every night three big pots and in the day I’d have a girl coming and fill bottles with a little measure cup, fill the bottles and seal them. Then I stared filling up my veranda with boxes of sauce. I had the veranda up to the ceiling with boxes. And that’s where it all started. I started going out and I would make my own tortillas and refried beans and I would go to all the stores and have them taste. I made everybody taste it. “If it is good, put some on your shelf”. I had to go there and fight my way through all the stores. Believe it or not, Belize was one of my hardest markets.
Read the full source article by clicking here.
Source Article: BELIZEmagazine.com
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Topics: Food Facts, General, In The News, Uncategorized | 24 Comments »
Thats the truth gang, fermented mash sucks. Pedologs vs Jim C’s…….ask anybody who has tried both, I have and learned my lesson quick !!
With all the bottles I bought at the FFS, one of them was a Marie Sharps that I got from Hot Shots. It is a great table sauce and a spoonful of that makes the medicine go down. After reading that, I will never buy a Melinda hot sauce unless I am in Mexico.
I have some old Melinda’s bottles, I’m wondering if they are from before the change. Hmmm.
For that matter, I’ve got a
load of Marie Sharp’s bottles too. Just found a Belizean Heat with an expiration date of 12/31/2002, 
I’ll be damned, the first Melid’s I pulled is dated to expire Febrero del 2004. Made in Mexico! The label is all Spanish!
Ok, gonna go check the rest.
Expiration:freblane:
oh :bleep: it’s midnite!
Nite All!
Found another Melinda’s that’s made in Mexico.: woohoo:
The others say a couple of different things.
Made in Costa Rica for Melinda’s with a Louisiana address
&
Made in Costa Rica for Figueroa Brothers with a Louisiana address.
One of the Figueroa Brothers bottles is a XXXmas Sauce collector’s edition from 1995. And one of the “for Melinda’s” is a XXXtra Reserve from 1994.
Damn :nerd:, you kept me up late AGAIN!
But I learned something. Thanks bro.
Good sauce comes from good fresh peppers, good mash. I am sure Cajohn and Jim will back me up here. The fermented mash is at least 10% salt…..it sux to say the least……
Can you picture mentally 2 cups of salt per gallon?
Mmmmm, salt!
That mash you sent me is salty as all hell. But I’ve been able to use it in small quantities and the habs are pretty f :bleep:’n hot, so it works ok.
I can see why you wouldn’t use it AJ. It’s bad when you have to adjust the sauce to make the mash taste ok, vs. adjusting the mash to affect the sauce.
Speaking of old bottles, It’s time for my old
to go to bed.
Don’t Change Guys……..
can anybody want to buy Melinda’a after reading that?
Wow what a story!!!!!!! Could she be related to someone we possibly know?
I won’t buy anymore Melinda’s.
Thats would be the Chocolate Hab mash right? Yeah, I bailed on that whole project because the mash was so freakin nasty. I could not lose the salty taste without dilluting the sauce with vinegar so much, I just tossed it.
Up and coming sauce makers, heed the warning, avoid anything but the best. Buy from JimC only. It will pay off in a great product.
Barker90210, what ever happend to that 5 gal bucket of Jim mash I gave you? When your sauce going to hit the shelves?
Yes. Sorry still sell a ton of product. If you Only knew how many other items you all Buy have been thru the samething.
Well stated Bret. Melinda’s is a great product, well known, well made. Marie sharps is a great product as well. And Business is business. anyone hear about the new Melinda’s Naga sauce? I got the lowdown
well stated. Melinda’s is releasing a Naga Jolokia this month
Interesting…