est. 2007

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Removing the Ham from a Bajan Christmas

The news that Barbadians will have to pay more for a ham in 2017 has generated heated conversation in Barbadians- the land of ‘porkmouts’. The baking of a ham on Christmas eve night is part of a rich tradition practiced by all households. Now that the NSRL has taken full effect Barbadians will have to…

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The news that Barbadians will have to pay more for a ham in 2017 has generated heated conversation in Barbadians- the land of ‘porkmouts’. The baking of a ham on Christmas eve night is part of a rich tradition practiced by all households. Now that the NSRL has taken full effect Barbadians will have to be smart about the household budget. Is it worth it for those with limited discretionary income to buy ham reported to be selling at $12.00 per pound? Does it matter if there is ham on the table in the Yuletide season?

The bigger issue for BU is the lack of a vision by the leadership of the country to ensure we import less, integrate local agriculture production in the hospitality sector, encourage a consumption behaviour that aligns with the national interest, adherence to a  healthy regimen and so on.

146 responses to “Removing the Ham from a Bajan Christmas”

  1. Dr. Simple Riff-Raff Simon Phd. Avatar
    Dr. Simple Riff-Raff Simon Phd.

    @David December 17, 2017 at 4:37 PM @Simple Simon. Covenants are not unique to Barbados you know. With the explosion of housing development in Barbados it is something we borrowed from the US.”

    I know that only too well David.

    In the U.S there are covenants against clothes lines. Those were cooked up by the manufacturers of clothes dryers in cahoots with real estate developers.

    Who succeeded in making people feel low class for hanging their drawers and panties out in God’s fresh air and sunshine.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-11417677
    There is a new protest movement sweeping the US and at its heart are two sticks and a piece of string. Upon the humble clothes line, a battle line has been drawn that embodies a uniquely American clash of ideas about class, liberty and the environment. Rules imposed by community associations and landlords forbid tens of millions of home owners to dry their washing outside because, they say, it’s unsightly and even lowers property prices.

  2. Dr. Simple Riff-Raff Simon Phd. Avatar
    Dr. Simple Riff-Raff Simon Phd.

    @David December 17, 2017 at 4:46 PM ‘Take orders’ or do you mean engage the pork!

    Well at the time of the engagement it is still pig not pork. The first time I used “engage the pig” in the presence of a Jamaican friend you should have seen the look of horror on his face, as though i was saying that we Bajans routinely do unmentionable things with our livestock.

    But I explained…

    And saved the decent reputation of Bajans everywhere.

  3. John Avatar
    John

    Covenants have been around for a while, long before independence.

    When I was researching Arch Cot, (that’s another one I count as a win besides Greenland) I looked at deeds for the sale of Chelston in the late 1800’s and recall seeing a covenant.

    If any one is interested, I will look see exactly what it said but my memory seems to say it was a prohibition on building nearby could have been over the cave but not sure.

    I do know that in the 1960’s the Town Planner had forbidden the building over the cave …. so much for rule of law!!

    I remember the current Town Planner at the inquest could not locate the document I located in the Land Registry!!

    Loved that moment!!!

    The purchaser of Chelston in the late 1800’s was the AG of Barbados, Sir Henry Alleyne Bovell.

    His son was the captain of HMS Victorious the aircraft carrier whose swordfish biplanes crippled the Bismark.

    https://www.bajanthings.com/henry-bovell/

    Covenants are also subject to interpretation by the court …. I know of one which was “interpreted” out of existence in 2005.

    I know of another one where the owner of one property on the south coast tried to get his neighbor to release through threats and trickery.

    That one had been on the property for donkey years.

    Depends who wants the Covenant lifted as well as necessity!!

  4. John Avatar
    John

    Public Rights of Way are I guess (only half a lawyer) a form of Covenant which attaches to the Title of the Land.

    They have been around forever!!

    They allow “riff raff” to pass and repass as it pleases them.

    They date from a time when people lived in greater harmony than today, a time when Bajans did not treat other Bajans like riff raff!!

    That practice is pretty recent and some may claim it is borrowed but really it is just people today really don’t know any better.

    My Grandfather bought 1/2 acre in 1928 and it has a Public Right of Way marked on the plot.

    Plantations used to block cart roads at the end of the year just before the holiday and open them after the break in the New Year to avoid having them become Public Rights of Way.

    Any cartroads that were public rights of way remained open.

    There are two near me but they are more or less blocked year round.

    Now most plantations don’t need to block as the bush has them blocked year round like the two I mentioned!!

  5. David Avatar
    David

    John no need to be pedantic, we are discussing covenants in the context of encouraging animal husbandry in built up neighborhoods given the explosion in demand.

  6. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    I actually find much of what JOHN writes very edifying.
    I actually learn something FROM HIS POSTS…….MUCH MUCH MORE FROM THE PERPETUAL PERENNIAL DAILY DRIVEL DISPLAYED HERE

  7. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    The documents transferring title for the land in Regency Park were called conveyances in the legal lexicon at the time, covenants (maybe the two words are interchangeable for title deeds) may have been used for other transactions but I was specifically referring to the developments in Regency Park and Elizabeth Park.

    “John” is correct about the cart roads being blocked one day of the year to signify that they were not public thoroughfares, the road we used to travel to Church was blocked on old years night by wooden barriers which were easy to walk around.
    Three services: Matins Mass, Sunday school, Evensong on a regular Sunday- think I got them right- walk approx. 2 miles each way.

    Plus CLB – the Anglicans response to the Boys Brigade which was associated with the Methodist Church (at least in Barbados) & AYPA for a short spell -those were the days.

  8. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    They date from a time when people lived in greater harmony than today, a time when Bajans did not treat other Bajans like riff raff!!
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    What the Hell!!
    Is this man for real?

    Still singing praises to his ‘time of greater harmony’ ….when Black people could not pass through places where white people lived? …when Jobs on Broad Street were reserved based on colour?

    These shiite ‘public rights of way’ were mainly cases where the LAW made provision for Black people ( who were forced to live in the HICKIES by plantation rules,) to barely manage to get from their ‘homes’ to labour on the same shiite plantations…. or to spend the few cents they earned enriching the white people who monopolised business…. or to go to church and reinforce their reverence of white people….

    Does John have NO shame at all…??!!

  9. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    I know what you mean BT about jobs on broad st are based on color its pretty tough for a white brother to get a job driving a taxi.

  10. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ Lawson
    I know what you mean BT about jobs on broad st are based on color its pretty tough for a white brother to get a job driving a taxi.
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    Of COURSE it is.
    White brothers are much too busy attending meetings of the multiple Boards of directors to which they have been appointed – and about which they don’t know shit.

    …..so they eventually sell to Trinis, Canadians or South Americans….. at a massive loss – except to themselves of course – when the underhand deals are considered.

  11. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    ….then they buy expensive race cars to run around Bushie Park…
    Taxi shiite!!!
    That would be much too productive for their liking…..

  12. David Avatar
    David

    @Bush Tea

    Aka the Cattlewash crew!

  13. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    @BushTea, I was in disbelief when I read that revisionist history about forbiding riff–raff being a recent practice. That seems to be an overarching theme from this blogger so i presume that once you get pass that strange perspective that his other historial research is quite edifying.

    @David and too @Sergeant, what exactly is all this palaver about covenants!

    Those conveyed at Recency Park would surely be ‘similar’ to those done any where else in Bdos.

    That is to say that the word conveyance as I used it above, simply meant the sale contract for the land. That land my parents bought would have carried (I presumed) clauses restricting animal husbandry….at least I thought so also based on my old man’s being very concerned about the neighbours’ reaction and the fact that no others did as he did.

    @John, as the blogmaster alluded to, what exactly do conveyances done for land sales eons ago – ostensibly from your Chelston remark for large tracts of land – have to do with those being discussed for house spots in middle class developments of this modrrn era?

    Why would you expect a conveyance for multiple acres of land or even an acre or two to retain all the same provisions when that land is subdivided to a Regency Park or a Wansted Gardens.

    Incidentallly, I know of land bought which had a public rite of way noted on the plots. But so what. It had not been used for many years at the time of purchase as it had been blocked over time and obviously folks who knew about it had moved on. Thus it reverted to private use.

    As far as I know that is the law of the land and so of course that’s why folks will attempt to block such passages to attempt to get the reversion …doesn’t always work….

    And will never work when it’s a known access rite of way to the beach, for example…that’s based on what transpired with those legal battles re access with the different West Coast land owners years ago .

  14. John Avatar
    John

    I lived in Maxwell Coast Road till I was 9.

    We kept all manner of livestock.

    That was before it converted to Hotels.

    It was completely normal in the past for people to keep livestock around them regardless of where they lived!!

    … and they lived in harmony …… this was a standard value … all you have to do is count the number of places called Harmony Hall!!

  15. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    Correction: That should have said ‘the word covenants used above” NOT ‘the word conveyance used above’.

    Referring of course to a much earlier post that initially spoke of convenants.

  16. John Avatar
    John

    A conveyance conveys a title to a piece of property to a new owner.

    However, there may be covenants, public rights of way attaching to the title.

    It doesn’t matter who buys the title in the future, they get the covenants and public rights of way with the title.

    I more think that restrictive covenants to prevent animal husbandry arose because of the smallness of the lots but also because Bajans wanted to separate themselves from agriculture which they were led to believe, gullible fools that they are, was bad and low class!!

    As a boy growing up in Maxwell Coast Road all sorts of colours inhabited.

    Our next door neighbor was Widow Sampson.

    Her husband was the Roebuck Street Merchant who was responsible with others for the collapse of the Penny Bank and shafting of numerous tenants in Carrington Village.

    Definitely not white!!

    It is the brainwashing of the 60’s equating agriculture with slavery and bad things that is more responsible than the smallness of the lots.

    People lived close in the past and everyone kept livestock, it was a means of ensuring a square meal on the table now and again and brought in a few coppers.

    There were no supermarkets to run out to so you could also blame the supermarkets and the centralization of the delivery of food that stopped people keeping livestock.

    This will cause untold havoc if foreign exchange reserves dwindle away.

    Better to keep a pig …. or a sheep or a goat or some chickens if you want to eat in such conditions!!

    … and learn to live in Harmony again!!

  17. John Avatar
    John

    A breadfruit used to be a gift!!

  18. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    jOHN
    WE ALSO KEPT PIGS AND SHEEP AND CHICKENS—AS MANY OF OUR NEIGHBORS IN RENDEZVOUS GARDENS IN THE LATE 50’S AND EARLY 60’S ……..AND WE DID THE SAME IN PRIOR PARK IN THE 80’S AND EARLY 90’S………..WE HAD NO PROBLEMS

  19. David Avatar
    David

    @Dee Word

    You will not be able to convince John et al of one damn thing, save your blog energy. We live in a Barbados with a large middle class and concomitant rise in built up housing, who will want pigs and sheep next door on 4000-5000 square foot lots? Who will risk approving residents in these neighborhoods keeping stocks with some of them located in water courses etc etc. This is a non point.

  20. John Avatar
    John

    Maybe the question should be who would want 4000-5000 square foot lots in built up areas?

    Not a good omen for house prices!!

  21. David Avatar
    David

    @John

    These neighborhoods exist, for many years now. It is a reality you have to consider in your observations.

  22. John Avatar
    John

    That’s why Bajans consider the houses at Coverly to be matchboxes!!!!

    The really funny thing is they are bigger than most chattel houses I remember!!

    What they really are trying to say is they have no space to keep stocks!!!

    So if Bajans really wanted that who in the Sam Hill persuaded matchbox houses and lots are desirable?

    Are Bajans that stupid that they can’t say what it is they really want?

    Maybe with all the immigration all the common sense got up and left with the people who left!!

  23. John Avatar
    John

    I have, I reached the conclusion that most Bajan common sense has departed these shores!!!

  24. John Avatar
    John

    That’s why Bajans will pay $39.00 per kg for a ham that should cost a fraction of that!!

  25. John Avatar
    John

    The reality is Bajns should not complain about “No ham for Xmas”!!

    Just eat what you can afford …. hey, that is common sense but most won’t get it!!!

  26. John Avatar
    John

    Isn’t that a perfectly good indication of the devaluation of the Barbados dollar?

    Inflation

  27. David Avatar
    David

    Agree with your comment about living within your budget but it should not absolve our leadership from making decisions that facilitates the best outcome.

  28. John Avatar
    John

    How many decisions have our leadership made that have facilitated the best outcome?

    Name 10, 5 try 1!!

    If we can put up for years with the sewage on the South Coast, what is a little pig smell?

  29. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    re You will not be able to convince John et al of one damn thing,
    EXACTLY BECAUSE WE LIVED THE REALITY
    DEEWORD CONVINCES ME OF ONE THING– THAT IS THAT HE IS A WANNABE INTELLECTUAL

    RE We live in a Barbados with a large middle class and concomitant rise in built up housing, who will want pigs and sheep next door on 4000-5000 square foot lots?
    ACTUALLY THE LOT IN RENDEZVOUS GARDENS WAS 3300 SQUARE FEET AND THE residents in thIS neighborhoods kePT STOCKS

    I DONT HAVE TO LIE
    I AM RELATING THE REALITIES THAT I EXPERIENCED

    NOW WE HAVE PRODUCED LOTS OF MORONS WHO BECAUSE THEY OWN A COMPUTER VIA WHICH THEY CAN TALK SHITE ON A BLOG WHERE IT GIVES SOME PLEASURE TO “RUN” PEOPLE AWAY

  30. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @John December 17, 2017 at 2:34 AM
    “It will amaze you what people will agree to once necessity forces the issue!!

    I have actually heard a prediction that by June 2018 the Supermarket shelves will be bare!!!
    Comes from a business man.
    He holds no brief for either set of clowns!!
    Would love to dismiss it as doom and gloom but I have two eyes in my head and ears with which to hear!!”

    Dear Sir John, on behalf of Tron and SETH, we would like to thank you for finally taking a position on this soon coming event of stark reality to be faced by Bajans.

    The prescience of your eponymous businessman is just a repeat of what has been preached as doom and gloom on BU. And just don’t dismiss it like what was done to the current Privatization foretelling.

    The shit floating on the streets on the South Coast is a ‘telling’ omen of what is in store for the country’s last reliable forex cash cow as the international business teats start to dry up every money-laundering day by tax haven day, downgrade after downgrade.

    How can a country convince others of being a well-regulated offshore business jurisdiction when it actively promotes at home blatant money laundering and tax evasion by allowing its major financial regulator to be complicit in facilitating Greenverbs and his dirty ill-gotten millions of policyholders’ savings?

    Do you people really think the authorities of the OECD are a bunch of idiots and corrupt jokers like those sitting in the regulatory seats in Barbados?

    BTW, Sir John, we didn’t know that Quakers are eaters of swine? Isn’t that a dietary practice strictly forbidden by fundamentalist Christian edicts written in old-fashioned Biblical stone which both you and Dr GP claim to live by?

    Could it be that the smoking of the swine converts it to an edible creature miraculously baptized in the name of Jesus to be christened ‘HAM’?

    “And you may not eat the pig. It has split hooves but does not chew the cud, so it is ceremonially unclean for you. You may not eat the meat of these animals or even touch their carcasses.”¬ Deuteronomy 14:8.

  31. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    Not sure what the argument is about as everyone kept livestock in bygone days, we kept pigs, sheep, rabbits, chickens and other relatives had a few cows, some people also kept pigeons (not for their racing ability).

    The reality is that today there are restrictions on keeping certain animals in the newer developments, Bajans can like um or lump um or pressure the Gov’t to invalidate these restrictions. I suspect that any Gov’t that tries to revisit these would be faced with massive resistance. Bajans like to buy their “proper pork” wrapped in plastic from the Supermarket shelves.

    BTW Miller don’t you know that eating pork is contrary to Jewish dietary laws? The Jews get around it by referring to it as “white meat”

  32. bajans Avatar
    bajans

    Ha, ha, ha. A former colleague, a Jewish man, who had the Israeli file told me he does not eat pork. However, whenever he traveled to Israel he happily ate ‘white steak’. I asked him what was white steak and he replied……pork. He also said the Israeli women were easy bordering on cheap.

  33. bajans Avatar
    bajans

    Well, well, well.

    @Sarge we can get unpasteurised milk from farms in the outlying areas of Ottawa.
    @ Simple Simon, thanks a million.
    @ David, we used to take ‘orders’, for pork the same way we went in the mornings and took orders for fish to be delivered in the evening.
    Finally, I think John knows my family too, but from the above, he will not squeal.

  34. David Avatar
    David

    Word on the ground is that some retail outlets have had to reduce the price of hams because of poor sales.

  35. Dr. Simple Riff-Raff Simon Phd. Avatar
    Dr. Simple Riff-Raff Simon Phd.

    @John December 18, 2017 at 12:49 PM “If we can put up for years with the sewage on the South Coast, what is a little pig smell?”

    i rarely agree with John.

    But this time he is right.

    I’d rather smell pig sh!t, than human sh!t.

  36. John Avatar
    John

    I had a chat with my old cane cutter friend who is a jack of all trades including a former backyard butcher!!

    So I asked him about the pig “industry” as it existed in his day.

    Without any prompting he told me “it is de Government inspectors dat move de pigs outa parish land.”

    “Dey claimed it was de flies but the flies still dere and de pigs gone”!!

    See, no covenants whatsoever involved.

    He also reminded me that people would keep a pig tied under a tree, no pen.

    That had been going on for centuries.

    This I say was the capitalist system in operation …. people found innovative ways to keep costs down, feed themselves and get a few coppers without consumers feeling they were being gouged.

    It was impossible for a monopoly to arise because the old lady who had been keeping her pigs under a tree for decades determined the price to the final consumer.

    She figured out or learnt from older heads how to feed the pigs cassava (yeah, there is another use for cassava) cane tops (in abundance and free) and whatever else was necessary to produce a product people would buy.

    She also consumed the product so it had better be good.

    Self regulation!!!

    Into a self regulating capitalist economy steps the GOB!!!

    The little old lady with her pig or pigs tied out under the tree is the first casualty!!

    Now, once pigs are slaughtered, the final product is I will bet, handled by a monopoly!!

    This is not capitalism.

    This is businessmen operating in a pseudo fascist/communist system determined by Government Regulations!!

    This I believe is what Trump seeks to avoid by removing government regulations and reducing its size.

    Barbados is not a capitalist system … Bizzy and COW and who ever are the whipping boys on BU are not capitalists.

    To understand their existence, you need to understand how business works or worked in a Communist or Fascist system.

    The Christmas Ham is the perfect vehicle to get some new concepts across!!

    The Christmas Ham has been priced out of existence to support regulations, corruption whatever you can think of that you would not find with the little old lady and her pigs tied out under a tree!!

  37. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    Steupsss…
    Hog shit!!

  38. John Avatar
    John

    John December 17, 2017 at 10:31 AM #
    Bush Tea December 17, 2017 at 10:16 AM #
    There is EVERYTHING right about ‘accumulating wealth’.
    In fact, it is the NATURAL CONSEQUENCE of being innovative, productive, community-centric, caring and creative.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    It is called capitalism.
    9) “The world’s biggest problem is the unequal distribution of capitalism. If there were capitalism everywhere, you wouldn’t have food shortages.”
    8) “Compassion is defined not by how many people are on the government dole but by how many people no longer need government assistance.”
    https://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2013/06/01/the-20-greatest-quotations-from-rush-limbaugh-n1610797

  39. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    Stupid quotations from an idiot just like you.
    It is hard to understand exactly WHAT kind of ‘scholar’ you are…

    That you are enamoured with Trump alone speaks volumes….

    Look…
    Capitalism is a system in which business is controlled for the PURPOSE of profit. Success does not require any consideration of the vanquished or the losers.
    Capitalism is EXACTLY like happens in the jungle where there is ‘survival of the fittest’.
    There are the lions …. and everything else is fodder.

    Saying that ‘if there was capitalism everywhere, you wouldn’t have food shortages’ is asinine.
    Capitalism is characterised by the 1% owning 90%. In capitalism the ALBINO-CENTRIC by nature will thrive….. while those who play by the rules (like Caswell) will scrunt.

    …But NOT stinking Bushie – who plays by DIFFERENT rules…

    What Bushie was trying to explain – presuming that you were smart enough to grasp it…. is that in the COMMUNITY CENTRIC system, where business is controlled for the OVERALL COMMUNITY GOOD, it is natural that there is a general accumulation of wealth. Our CREDIT UNIONS demonstrate this FACT.
    CUs are NOT into capitalism – it is cooperativism – COMMUNITY FOCUSED BUSINESS.

    Capitalism is what Bizzy, COW, baloney and jerkham do….. for example, selfishly grabbing $1b in business from a bribe-hungry government, while thousands of small businesses die for lack of work.

    There MUST be some shiite that you really understand John….

  40. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    re John December 19, 2017 at 5:57 PM
    Keep your articles coming John!
    They are informative

  41. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    A better life for the people is more community minded development and growth leading to a reasonable living for the many and not the few like cow and dem so.I want to see prosperity by the majority people in Barbados not the bullshoite that has been the bane of black people these past 400 years.Bad food,bad housing,torn old clothes.After 400 years is that too much to ask?I want the 95% people living in comfort and respecting each other and not having to debase themselves before the cows and the jerkers and the baloneys bout hey so!.

  42. John Avatar
    John

    Capitalism is what Bizzy, COW, baloney and jerkham do….. for example, selfishly grabbing $1b in business from a bribe-hungry government, while thousands of small businesses die for lack of work.
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    You need to look at how big business survives in a fascist state to understand post independence Barbados!!

    I am not saying Barbados is a fascist state rather that there are similarities between it and a fascist state where this aspect of its economy is concerned.

    It is old lady with the couple of pigs in the community who is the capitalist,

    She buys a piglet or two for a few coppers, invests her time, labour and intellect into turning it into a product which is worth far more than the few coppers she spent.

    She gets meat, the backyard butcher gets a piece, and the balance is sold or given to friends to repay debts and any monies ploughed back into the next cycle of profit making.

    Innovation is evident in the number of different products that come from that pig.

    Ham – a high value product of a process of curing.

    Pork – Bread and butter

    Pig Tails/ears/snout – making use of every piece of the pig, nothing goes to waste.

    Pudding and Souse – ditto

    This is the capitalist system to perfection.

    She is into meeting a particular demand in the market but she needs to get her input from the people who supply the piglets.

    These people know how to keep and tend breeding sows.

    They may also meet the same market demand the old lady satisfies.

    In that case they supply their own inputs, their piglets, from their breeding sows.

    And then there is the boar!!

    The old lady is not interested in keeping either breeding sows or the boar because she needs neither to meet the demand she supplies.

    The Sow breeders may or may not keep the boar and may or may not keep the piglets.

    The guy who keeps the boar delivers another service to market to meet a different demand.

    He rents out his boar to service the various breeding sows.

    Boars are a problem and neither to old lady nor the sow breeder may have these skills.

    I remember in Two Mile Hill by Ilaro Court there was a sign “BOAR ON SERVICE”, that is not to imply that the PMs were bores!!

    Today artificial insemination is also available, but the Boar is still a necessary part of the whole pork production activity.

    The whole system worked for centuries.

    There is no high technology involved.

  43. John Avatar
    John

    Today we have another actor inserted into the play.

    This actor ends up with the slaughtered pig.

    In a way it is kind of like the sugar refinery ending up with the raw sugar and turning it into high value products.

    The price of raw sugar is kept low but the economic system with sugar works the same way …. high cost producers fall out of the system in favour of low cost producers.

    The market price for processed sugar is largely determined by the refineries which all understand that they are working in a capitalist system and know an error in pricing will spell disaster, too high and the market will reject the product of any given refinery.

    The difference is the processing of raw sugar is a high capital investment and high technology affair and the refineries operate in a capitalist framework.

    With final products like pork, ham, pudding and souse etc., there is no real high technology so that is not a barrier to entry.

    People have been doing it for centuries.

    … but, we now have a high capital investment that needs to be protected.

    Regulations, covenants etc. do that.

    That is not capitalism.

    I think what happened this Christmas is that the pricing of the final processed product was done with a view to see what the market could bear.

    But it is at a time when the buyers in the market are under serious financial pressure.

    They won’t tolerate it!!

    There is no rocket science in getting hams for Xmas.

  44. John Avatar
    John

    … or next Christmas!!

  45. John Avatar
    John

    Even Scrunter knows you can get ham from pork!!

  46. Hirah blogs Avatar
    Hirah blogs

    Wowww

  47. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    John December 19, 2017 at 9:55 PM #

    When did turkeys first arrive in Barbados, and who brought them?

  48. John Avatar
    John

    You ask me a good one Hal!!

    I can tell you about breadfruit, but not turkeys!!

    I would guess they were brought here from England in the beginning.

  49. John Avatar
    John

    https://quatr.us/central-america/turkeys-history-central-america.htm

    Seems they originate in the Americas!!!

    Maybe they flew in from New England to escape Thanksgiving!!

    If that was the case, we have even stronger links to America than we can imagine!!

  50. John Avatar
    John

    Wild Hogs are routinely hunted, killed, butchered, cooked and eaten outdoors.

    This would have been how our ancestors who first set foot on Barbados survived and the reason we today have such a taste for pork.

    … ok, so they may not have had the cooler and ice or coleslaw … or BBQ sauce!!

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