Spence's Old Time Jamaican Castor Oil on display. - Photo by Tamara Bailey
Conrod Spence shows off his castor beans. - - Photo by Tamara Bailey
Conrod Spence prepares the ingredients for his products. - - Photo by Tamara Bailey
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Tamara Bailey, Gleaner Writer
MANDEVILLE, Manchester:
HAVING LEFT the deep, rural confines of New Works in West-moreland to pursue a professional career, Conrod Spence, who, until recently, acknowledged the need to make some extra dollars, had mounting financial obligations to meet.
He searched for ideas until a relative alerted him to the resurgence of the family tradition of making castor oil. The necessary research was done, and it was discovered that there was a demand for black virgin Jamaican castor oil. Soon afterwards, Spence's old-time Jamaican castor and coconut oil was born.
The all-natural castor and coconut oil, made for topical application and hair treatment, according to Spence, has been tested and proven to produce better hair growth, sheen, and strengthen follicles as it increases blood circulation in the scalp.
Discard wig
"One satisfied customer, whose hair loss caused her to be a habitual wearer of wigs, having used our black castor oil has now after years, discarded her wig as growth and body have now returned, and her hair is now strengthened. When she saw us once, she said, 'A weh unu get dis yah sinting. It gud bad!'... a priceless response from a customer," Spence told The Gleaner.
The fairly new business that currently has five members on staff does every aspect of the production manually and finds this to be more of an advantage than a disadvantage.
"We produce castor oil in the conventional way it was done for hundreds of years. It may sound outdated, but at Spence's, we reap organic castor beans in the wild and put them in the sun to dry and pop open. We apply the old grain style of fanning them out to remove the dust and debris and then hand-roast the dried castor beans Dutch pot over an open flame, pound them in a wooden mortar with pestle, and once the beans are ground to a sticky glue-like batter, it is then placed in a huge pot of boiling water and allowed to boil till the water is dried out and the oil is extracted. We repeat this stage and then bottle them."
With no exclusive land to plant the beans, an unsourced machine to shell beans, and challenged to get loans at low interest rates, the company is still quite optimistic about making do with what is available and overcoming the challenges.
"We currently advertise and sell from our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/spencecastoroil, as well as in stores in Montego Bay and St Ann. We make our products very affordable, too, as a customer can get an ounce of castor oil for less than $250. Currently, we are not a large player in the market, but we believe we are the best in terms of the time, effort, and care we put in to ensure that our customers are satisfied, and so we have a relatively constant set of repeat customers, and from time to time, new persons are added as news of the suberb quality of our product spreads, and so we hope that in a few months, business will improve," Spence told Rural Xpress.
With his eye on markets such as North America and Europe, Spence hopes to maintain the rural, rustic tradition of producing the very best castor oil.
rural@gleanerjm.com
