Zanzibar - Spices

Zanzibar, I'm sure, will grow anything tropical. This is the wet season and the whole island is green and lush. It has inherited many tropical fruits and spices from other countries, and they thrive in the climate. Interestingly, the government will not allow any chemical pesticides or herbicides to be used, so everything is organically grown. This is in stark contrast to other countries that produce similar products.

A spice tour on the island takes you to a farm that produces a wide variety of common ingredients that many of us have never seen growing. The farm is more like a forest - companion planting and an undrgrowth with taller trees above. Chillies are grown, then the powder scattered around the commercial crops to deter the snails, bush babies and monkeys.

Spices were mostly introduced from India, South America and the Spice Islands (Indonesia). They became very important to the economy of Zanzibar after slavery was banned.

So here is our tutorial on the spices of Zanzibar:

 

This is TURMERIC. The plant is like a small palm. The root is cut open to reveal the brilliant orange colour.

VANILLA - It sounds so lovely, but the vine is a parasite. It grows on a host tree and takes the nutrients from the tree. It is grown on a tree with no commercial value. You can see where the vine is beginning to strangle the host. Vanilla beans are picked after they have turned black and dried out.

This is CARDAMOM. The bamboo-like plant puts out roots above the ground. Some contain flowers and some contain the seed.

Not really a spice, this is CACAO. It is new to Zanzibar but there is hope for a chocolate industry in the future.

Not a spice either, but these farms also produce a variety of fruits. This is STARFRUIT, growing on a tree about 4 m tall.

This is a LIPSTICK FRUIT. It has another name but I can't remember it.
It is used in red curries and tandoori.
The seed has red hairs (see below). When opened, there are dozens of small seeds as soft as wet chalk. One touch and they turn to powder.
Indians use them to put the red mark on their forehead.
Zanzibarian women use it as a lipstick.

 

This is the CINNAMON tree. The bark is shaved to provide the spice. It is extremely fragrant when freshly cut off the tree. The bark is the most expensive type of cinnamon. Cinnamon sticks are thin branches off the tree. The leaves can also be used to extract an inferior cinnamon essence.

These are young COFFEE beans.
Zanzibar is not known for its coffee because the best coffee grows at altitude, and Zanzibar is a sand island,

 JACFRUIT - Very small and well short of its time for harvest.

These are small pepper seeds, growing on a fairly large tree. They have not yet ripened and changed colour.
As the pepper ripens it changes colour.
Like capsicum, when you pick it determines the colour - black, red, green and white.