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Operation Smile fundraiser with a gourmet kick

Bel Hume has found a new way to support her favourite charity, Operation Smile.
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Bel Hume with her jalapeño mint sauce and hot pepper jelly that she is selling to raise funds for Operation Smile.

Bel Hume has found a new way to support her favourite charity, Operation Smile.

This fall Hume has been making and selling jalapeño mint sauce and a hot pepper jelly. The little jars are just $5 each but pack a delicious punch.

Hume says the mint sauce is great with lamb, but equally delicious with pork chops or a garnish with cheese and crackers.

The mint in her sauce is from her garden.

“It has a sweet, minty, spicy flavour,” Hume says of her secret recipe. “We took it with us to dinner with one of our friends who was serving lamb and more than half the jar was gone at the meal.”

She said the peppers used in the sauce and jelly were donated to her at the Williams Lake Farmers Market by Jerry Horseman from Keremeos.

The jelly recipe comes from a friend.

“I had tasted the jelly before and liked it so I learned how to make it and thought it was a little different and would be a good seller,” Hume says. The jelly is delicious as a spread but also as an accent warmed up a bit and poured over a brick of cheese such as cream cheese, brie or camembert.

She will also have fancy covers on the jars so that people can give them as Christmas gifts.

People who would like to order a jar or more of the jelly or sauce can give Hume a call at 250-398-8740.

Orders can be picked up at The Williams Lake Tribune/Weekend Advisor at 188 North First Ave. between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 9.

Hume will be there to deliver the orders and will also have some of her fruit-based mincemeat tarts for sale as well. Tarts will be available as a six pack for $6 or for $1.25 each.

“I have been making the same mincemeat since 1974,” says Hume, who retired as a nurse and unit clerk at Cariboo Memorial Hospital in June.

Hume says people can also pay more for her offerings as they like, since all the money raised goes to Operation Smile Canada.

“If people want to donate more it is up to their heart,” says Hume, who will also have information about Operation Smile available.

Hume was among a small group of nurses who in 2011 started a branch of Operation Smile in Williams Lake with Dr. Stefan De Swardt.

Operation Smile sends volunteer doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists and dentists to 60 countries around the world to perform surgeries for children born with cleft lips or cleft palates. Corporations also donate critical supplies and equipment necessary for safe surgery.

The surgery takes 45 minutes and can mean the difference between life or death for some children. Operation Smile estimates that every three minutes a child is born with a cleft lip and/or cleft palate and in South America one in five children born with a cleft condition will die.

Those who do survive may be unable to eat, speak, socialize or smile. In many cases, their parents can’t afford to give them the surgeries they need.

“Williams Lake Operation Smile has paid for more than 100 surgeries for children since we started in 2011,” Hume says. “We are also in need of more volunteers.”