Cynthia masters the art of making tasty treats

ORACABESSA, St Mary:

IT HAS been been four years since her husband succumbed to the combination of high blood pressure and diabetes, and 71-old-year-old Cynthia Brown McDonald of Oracabessa, who suffers from both lifestyle diseases, is very aware of the need for moderate physical activity.

 So she keeps active by making almond drops, which she supplies to a business place in Ocho Rios. Making the drops comes easy to her. It is gathering the almonds, cutting, and husking them that is really hard.

At $50 each for the popular tasty pastry, the retailer wants at least 20 drops each day, but Brown McDonald can't manage that. "It's not easy to make 20 drops every day, you know," she shares with The Gleaner. "It takes time to chop, and you have to dry them."

After gathering the almonds, she places them in the open to be dried before cutting. She has sought the help of young people, including a godson, but dismisses him as lazy, and so she must do the hard work. The senior citizen shares her methodology.

"Me have one small bucket. When me chop that bucket full, me get big gill. So if I chop four of that, I'll get a pint, and the pint can make about 10 drops."

How long does it take to cut a pint of almonds?

Laughing long and hard at herself, she finally answers: "From about 8 o'clock till one o'clock. I don't have any drops now, but I have a little almond up the house. It wants about a handful for a pint."

"Me have to go look," she says when asked how she gets the raw almonds. This task is made easier by a friend who has a very tall tree and who calls her when the crop is in season. On a good trip, she can gather as much as three feed bags full, which is a bounty. They must then be dried, and this is an important part of the preparation process.

When cooled and properly formed, the finished product is now ready for packaging, but a lot of Brown McDonald's expertise has gone into the drops. This includes flavouring with ginger "to taste" and cinnamon leaf, which is supplied by her daughter.

Living with her two sons just outside of Oracabessa, the Portland native said that times were slow and so she was just giving thanks and taking things one day at a time.

- C. S.