Beam­ing with pride at his prized trees, Je­re­mi­ah boast­ed that­tourists stopped and took pho­tos."You know how many peo­ple does stop and take pic­tures of these trees. They are like a land­mark in Lan­gus­tan. "Je­re­mi­ah made good on na­ture's gift and ex­tract­ed roucou for com­mer­cial pur­pos­es. In an era gone by, Amerindi­ans and Caribs used roucou to dec­o­rate and beau­ti­fy their bod­ies. "Peo­ple come from all over to buy the roucou. I call the red­ness "blood." It is good for cook­ing and cur­ing sick­ness," he said. Je­re­mi­ah re­mem­bered the days when, as a small boy, roucou was king. "It was the ketchup for the ole-time peo­ple in the ole-time days. Peo­ple could not cook with­out roucou. My grand­moth­er had a lit­tle white cloth and she would squeeze a lit­tle through."Je­re­mi­ah's kitchen morphs in­to his work sta­tion.

He ex­plained while the process was sim­ple it was quite labour-in­ten­sive. A bot­tle of roucou fetch­es $40."We pick it. We dig out the pods. It's a lot of work. You pour warm wa­ter to bring out the red­ness or the 'blood.' Every­thing must come out. "You put salt in it to pre­serve it. It takes about a day or two, de­pend­ing up­on the amount you are mak­ing."Again, Je­re­mi­ah at­test­ed to its culi­nary and med­i­c­i­nal ben­e­fits."Roucou is much bet­ter than gold­en ray but­ter. It's good for heart, kid­neys and blad­der. Roucou is good for soups, stews, broths and pelau. It gives it a great taste," he said. Even mar­ket ven­dors swear roucou is a cook's de­light.San Juan mar­ket ven­dor, Glo­ria said with Christ­mas around the bend, cus­tomers had been pur­chas­ing it "to put a lit­tle" in their pastelles and pork dish­es."It will give it a rich colour. All you need is a spoon­ful."

SHARK OIL IN THE COIL

Apart from roucou, re­source­ful Je­re­mi­ah makes an­oth­er much-sought-af­ter folk prod­uct-shark oil. A bot­tle fetch­es $200. "I go fish­ing for the shark. Then I cut out the liv­er and put it to boil on slow fire. When the oil be­gins to drain out, I col­lect it in a huge buck­et."Bril­liant sun­shine is a pre­req­ui­site on the day he's mak­ing shark oil. "Rain can't be falling on that day. As they say "oil and wa­ter doesn't mix. I must have hot sun to cure it. The oil comes out in clots... like co­conut oil. It's clear like co­conut oil but not strong like the shark."Apart from the plea­sure of meet­ing for­eign­ers, he's de­light­ed when "peo­ple pop by to tell him the shark oil cured their moth­er or helped them get bet­ter. "I am the med­i­cine man of Lan­gus­tan."He opines shark oil does keep you "hap­py and live­ly."If Je­re­mi­ah had to ed­it ca­lyp­son­ian Scrunter's gem to San­do's women, he might have said: "Is de shark oil in the coil." Peo­ple come from all over to buy the roucou. I call the red­ness 'blood.' It is good for cook­ing and cur­ing sick­ness.It was the ketchup for the ole time peo­ple in the ole time days.Peo­ple could not cook with­out roucou."As a small boy, Bernard Je­re­mi­ah re­mem­bered the­days when roucou was king.