Gareth Manning, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

Cane that was eaten and destroyed by rodents.

Wet sugar, unrefined, dark and rich with molasses, is as old as slavery itself. In sugar-growing parishes of the island, this "sweet treat" was a staple, and still whets the appetite today.

In Westmoreland, the production of wet sugar, a tradition passed on through generations, mostly from father to son, seems to be waning. However, wet sugar producers in Lundie - one of the few communities still indulging in the tradition - face two major problems. The community is losing a lot of its cane (from which wet sugar is produced) to pests and their copper pots (in which the cane juice is boiled to produce sugar) to thieves.

Distraught residents of Lundie who depend on the production of this commodity for a living suspect that their pots have gone into the scrap metal trade. One resident surmises that the problem started about two years ago, when "strange men" visited the community, posing as tourist industry workers.

"It was three gentlemen. One o' them was tall and strapping and the other two were 'bout you 75-year-old Hilda Blackwood remembers, looking at a five-foot-four-inch frame. They came and looked at her mill, telling her they would bring tourists along next time to view it. By morning, her copper pots went missing. One was brand new and the other two were second-hand. It was her only source of income, passed on to her by her late husband, Gilbert.

Farther down the road live Mr and Mrs Kenrick Gardiner whose pots were also stolen in broad daylight. "They came by bus loaded it with the pots and left, without a soul noticing. Him realise them missing when him ready to feed him hog them, because a out it him feed them," said Logan, who works with Gardiner.

As Logan related, they robbed him of two pots that had been part of his family for years - handed down from his father to him. Luckily, he has been able to borrow one to carry on some of the trade, but it certainly has not been the same.

declined

Wet sugar production has declined in the area. Thieves did not only rob residents of their means of production, but dampened their spirits, residents say. Many just don't feel like doing it anymore.

Demand has also fallen in recent years due to the clampdown in the ganja trade that Westmoreland plays such an important role in.

"When man did have them ganja farm dem, dem come buy the ganja and dem would buy the wet sugar too. Some of them all want carry way the hot pan them," explains Jones. He says people once bought buckets of wet sugar when there was more money. However, people only buy now when they have it.

gareth.manning@gleanerjm.com