New Treats Introduced at Crooked Tree Cashew Fest  

The traditional Crooked Tree Cashew Festival took place over the weekend in that historic village off the Philip Goldson Highway. The annual event draws thousands of Belizeans from all over who have a liking for either the cashew fruit or its many bi-products. And this year, there was no shortage of all that was made from cashew, including Kriol bread and bun, ice cream and even butter. News Five’s Marion Ali was there for the opening on Saturday and filed this report.

 

Marion Ali, Reporting

The football field in Crooked Tree Village was booming over the weekend with tasty treats made of the cashew fruit and nut. The event has become a tradition that spans thirty-seven years. Crooked Tree Village Chairman, George Tillett says it all stemmed from a joke.

 

George Tillett, Chairman, Crooked Tree Village

“It came in a time when Crooked Tree was transforming, turning into a wildlife sanctuary, And at that time, the livelihood of the people, Of the inhabitants of the village, We’re into traditional fishing, traditional hunting, and stuff like that. And everybody wanted this to stop. A guy by the name of Tom Grassi, along with the late John Jackson, Rudy Crawford, decided that let us start a festival, a cashew festival because cashew grows wild in this village. If you notice, these aren’t bushes, these are all cashew trees. And it was like a joke at first. What is a cashew festival? A cashew festival. But it started, and gradually, along with the casual aspect, the agricultural aspect also came in, plus the village life.”

 

 

Charlene Flowers and Verna Gillett-Samuels had on sale some new treats they came up with.

 

Verna Gillett-Samuels, Resident, Crooked Tree Village

“From the fruit. I make the wine, the jam, the syrup, the let’s see, what else, oh when we make things like the cake and fruits that we put in the cake and then from this, from the nut, we make the cashew butter. We make, the cashew sham, like what we had today. And then we also make cashew fudge, cashew bun.”

 

 

Charlene Flowers, Resident, Crooked Tree Village

“We got cashew hot sauce. You’ll have the cashew cake, cashew cream pie, and cashew, stew cashew.”

 

Marion Ali

“You make cashew jam as well?”

 

Charlene Flowers

“Yes, ma’am, and jelly, but tomorrow, and the ice cream we’ll have here today.”

 

Marion Ali

“Ice cream?”

 

 

 

Charlene Flowers

“Yeah, cashew ice cream. It’s not hard for me. I just  sit down and think about different ingredients to put together and made it.”

 

Barbara Flowers travelled from Double Head Cabbage, several miles away, to attend the event for the very first time.

 

 

Barbara Flowers, Attendee, Crooked Tree Cashew Fest

“This is the first time.

 

 

 

Marion Ali

“And then you bought two products?”

 

Barbara Flowers

“Two products. The because I believe I will enjoy it. That’s the cashew bread and the cashew fudge.”

 

Marion Ali

“Okay. So you’ve tried the cashew butter and the cashew bun?”

 

Barbara Flowers

“Yes. Not as yet, but I will look forward before the day out to try them. Not really into drinking to that, so yeah. So I did not believe I will try the wine.”

 

 

 

One thing that was not traditional to Crooked Tree but is rooted in Cayo were the herbal remedies by Harry Guy Sr. of Jungle Remedies. His son, Harry Junior, was on hand to offer natural medicines that could come in handy if you overdid the sweet treats from the weekend event.

 

Harry Guy Jr, Owner, Jungle Remedies

“We bring out a variety of almost all the products that we make. We have a high blood pressure, cholesterol, we have cancer, we have any kind of stomach problem, diabetes (medicine), we have a little bit of everything out here today. We’re in business now for more than 35 years. Well I recently started the business with him. Now, we have a lot of testimonials from people who  I meet, people who are like amazed. They’re like, hey, your dad did this for me. I’m alive because of your dad and you don’t get a lot of good respondent thing from people. So it’s proven that yes, that’s why we’re still in business. My dad help this one.” 

The Crooked Tree Cashew Fest is now a far cry from the joke it started out to be thirty-seven years ago. In fact, the chairman says it generates the kind of funds that helps the village to grow more.

 

 

 

George Tillett

“The proceeds that we are getting from these festivals is second to none. For example, last year was alarming. Last year we came up with a profit of over$ 21,000 from the festival. Which was used for what? This process is used for the development of the village, for the cleaning of public spaces. We used to have little bush booth out of cojone leaves and sticks and we have developed the, to a permanent, permanent booth, commercial booth, kitchen, and stuff like that. So our infrastructure have improved. Taking out garbage and stuff like that and sometimes we assist people in need.”

 

The villagers now look forward to a day when their products can be exported on a wide scale to promote further growth. Marion Ali for News Five.