The Spice(s) of Life

Zanzibar is famous for the growing and exporting of all kinds of spices.  While we were there over the Christmas holiday we went on a tour of one of the local spice farms—very interesting!

Our guide and his assistant (whose name is James Bond – really!) were a lot of fun and very knowledgeable, explaining how the various spices are grown and harvested.

   

James Bond was also very talented at making all sorts of things out of palm leaves…like frog necklaces, ties and hats!

Lemongrass

              Cinnamon bark

Black pepper

  Vanilla pods

 

Cocoa bean pods…and the beans that are purple!

Nutmeg

Mace (the red casing of the nutmeg seed)

Cloves

The clove buds are used for spices and the clove stems are used for making clove oil (for tooth ache remedies and bath oils).

Cardamom (the pods grow on strange extensions from the stems right above the ground)

Turmeric

We also saw a kapok tree, the fruit pods of which produce a thick, fluffy fibre that is used for filling pillows and mattresses.

Kapok

And then there were some of the fruit trees that we don’t see here in Uganda, such as…

Lychee

Durian

Breadfruit

One of the workers then scampered up one of the coconut trees …

  …and we enjoyed a refreshing drink of coconut milk to end the tour.

We came back with a few plant cuttings to try to grow here at the Timothy Centre, so we`ll see how they do.  If they take, we should soon have our own supply of lemongrass, turmeric, cardamom and black pepper!