By Michel Outridge

CANE Grove Village, Mahaica, East Coast Demerara is home to people who various lives and have many skills.

Jane Clarke was once an athlete, a sprinter, in the 1950s. She competed in and won many tournaments and was on top of her game.

Both her children became athletes as well. Her son, Ageday Chavez, is a cricketer and track and field star.

Today, Clarke is 77 years old and revealed that fresh fruit juices and home-grown fruits and vegetables are part of her everyday diet. The elderly woman told the Pepperpot Magazine that her secret to longevity is eating what they grow.

“I hardly ever buy anything outside of my home to eat, so that’s why I am strong and still going because you have to eat wholesome foods such as greens, provisions, fruits and exercise,” she said.

In addition to being an athlete, Clarke also became involved in craft production and is currently the craft teacher attached to the Cane Grove Craft Centre, a place for school drop-outs.

The senior citizen, who was a craft teacher at the Virginia Primary School, spent 24 years in that field where she amassed a wealth of knowledge and experience.

About the Centre

The Cane Grove Craft Centre is located at Manager’s Line, but the building needs repairs and has room to be extended to accommodate more sewing machines.

On November 28, 2018, 21 youths graduated from the Board of Industrial (BIT) training programme in the form of garment construction and sewing.

Clarke reported that the Craft Centre has 16 sewing machines and they would get funds through the BIT, but presently due to COVID-19 all classes have been put on hold.

“The Craft Centre is a place for those who want to benefit from a lifeskill which will make them marketable for the world of work and they can earn and become independent,” she said.

The Black Pudding Lady
Meanwhile, the Pepperpot Magazine also met Barbara Hussein, better known as the ‘Black Pudding Lady,’ who sells mostly based on orders during weekends in the village.

Before she started selling on the roadside, she used to ‘walk and sell’ black pudding in the village.

Hussein is a resident of Virginia Village, Cane Grove and learnt the trade by observing and helping her mother-in-law who was the first ‘black pudding lady’ in the village but she passed away and Hussein took over the small business.

“I used to help her in the kitchen, so that’s how I know how to make black pudding and it has a few basic ingredients as well, and some others to make it tasty,” she said.

According to Hussein, it’s all about the ingredients and the seasonings that make good black pudding and it goes with mango sour and pepper.

She would journey to the city abattoir to buy the cow’s runners (intestines) and blood and would prepare it for an all-time, old-fashioned black pudding which is a dish of boiled rice and seasoning stuffed into the intestines.

Hussein related that it depends on the orders she has, but she would usually make four pints of rice or more and it would all be sold out.

The mother of three stated that apart from her small black pudding business, which is on hold presently, she has a small grocery shop in her yard but that too, is closed as a result of the coronavirus.

“Nothing much is happening in terms of business right now because of the pandemic, and most shops are closed and people are not spending like before; so I have to wait until things get better to re-start business,” she said.