As the Christ­mas sea­son ap­proach­es, sor­rel sales in Trinidad have got­ten off to a slow start. While a few farm­ers have ex­pe­ri­enced a boun­ti­ful har­vest of the black sor­rel, oth­ers say the red sor­rel is tak­ing longer to bloom be­cause of er­rat­ic weath­er con­di­tions.

Tra­di­tion­al­ly cher­ished as a Christ­mas sta­ple across T&T and much of the Caribbean, the sor­rel flower usu­al­ly blooms in full glo­ry dur­ing this fes­tive pe­ri­od and is of­ten brewed in­to the beloved hol­i­day drink.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the San Fer­nan­do Cen­tral Mar­ket, on­ly one ven­dor, Bev­er­ly Ram­per­sad, had a stall par­tial­ly stocked with sor­rel. Ram­per­sad said black sor­rel was abun­dant in Moru­ga and Ma­yaro ar­eas but be­cause of pests, she opt­ed not to plant sor­rel this year.

“I couldn’t take the risk to plant be­cause of the lo­custs and mil­libugs. In Ma­yaro and Mal­oney there is sor­rel sell­ing whole­sale at $4 and $5 a pound,” she said. Ram­per­sad said sales were slow­er than usu­al.

“Maybe sor­rel sales will pick up clos­er to Christ­mas,” she said.

But an­oth­er ven­dor, Visham Ma­habir, who has been sell­ing for over 25 years in the mar­ket said sor­rel did not bloom as it should.

“I don’t know if it is be­cause of the weath­er or what but these days we are not get­ting a lot of sor­rel sales in the mar­ket at all,” he said. 

Ma­habir added, “We have tried fever­ish­ly to get sor­rel but peo­ple just don’t have any.”

Sor­rel sold for $10 per pound last week, but Ma­habir said he did not re­ceive suf­fi­cient to sell.

He rec­om­mend­ed that the Gov­ern­ment in­vest in prop­er sor­rel seeds and dis­trib­ute them to farm­ers to get enough pro­duce next year.

Mean­while, an­oth­er farmer, Shard­ha Ramdeo, com­plained she has not been able to get her hands on sor­rel.

“We went Ma­coya, Bar­rack­pore, Debe, and we not get­ting any,” she said. She al­so agreed that the weath­er had a part to play in the late bloom of the sor­rel flower.

“Peo­ple look for­ward to hav­ing sor­rel for Christ­mas but for the past two years, this is al­ways the case. No sor­rel,” she said.

But for oth­ers, the Christ­mas sta­ple was in abun­dance.

For­est Re­serve farmer Chris­t­ian Paul cel­e­brat­ed an un­ex­pect­ed in­crease in his sor­rel crop yield this year, at­tribut­ing it to what he deemed “the hands of God”. Hav­ing plant­ed ex­ten­sive sor­rel crops across three lots of land, Paul has been see­ing strong de­mand, sell­ing at $10 per pound with free de­liv­ery.

At the Mara­bel­la Mar­ket, ven­dor Ria Karim was the on­ly one sell­ing sor­rel.

She said, “Some days we sell three pounds for $25 and oth­er days four pounds for $25.” De­spite the re­duc­tion in prices, Karim said sales were slow. 

“Many peo­ple are buy­ing the Or­chard sor­rel rather than to make the re­al Tri­ni sor­rel. Peo­ple are los­ing the tra­di­tion of mak­ing sor­rel,” she said. She ad­mit­ted to hard­ly see­ing the red and white sor­rel.

Mean­while, an of­fi­cial at the Namde­v­co mar­ket, who did not wish to be named, said that sor­rel was in short sup­ply. 

“The ac­qui­si­tion of sor­rel seeds was an is­sue this year, and the ex­treme fluc­tu­a­tions in weath­er were def­i­nite­ly fac­tors that af­fect­ed pro­duc­tion,” the of­fi­cial said.

Farm­ers in San­gre Grande said they, too, have been sell­ing black sor­rel for $5 per pound whole­sale and $10 per pound re­tail.