On a Zanzibar Spice Farm

How does black pepper grow? How are cloves harvested? How is vanilla pollinated? I realised exploring the spice farm in Zanzibar that I use these beautiful things all the time without ever really thinking about where they came from! I will appreciate my Spice Cake all the more now!

It was a fantastic experience to see where so many of our spices come from! Walking around the lush farm, enjoying the sweet and spicy aromas, we touched and tasted a new part of the amazing creation we get to call home!

With our woven palm gifts of crowns and baskets!

Cloves are the gold of Zanzibar. They are the reason for Zanzibar's name: Spice Island. So many clove plantations (a sad link of the Slave Trade and Spice Trade) produced so many cloves, that it is said sailors could catch their scent as they sailed to the island! 

Freshly picked cloves from the tree. Now to be dried for a few days!

While cloves are the gold of Zanzibar, black pepper is King of the Spices!

Spice King! The Pepper Tree

Freshly picked peppercorns. They grow green, are picked just before turning red, 

and are dried until black. White pepper is a more complicated process!

Cardamon Plant

Cardamon seeds in the roots

Ylang lang tree

Ylang lang leaves. A photo doesn't work. You have to smell the sweet perfume!

I enjoyed finding out about all the natural soaps made by the local women's groups! 

I was amazed to realize why vanilla is so expensive! Related to the orchid, the plant only flowers once a year and pollinating it is something even the brilliant bees can't help with. It must be done by hand, flower by flower and the farmer has only one chance at it, because if the fragile bloom is not touched by noon it dies hours after blossoming and there will be no pods. Critical! And when the pods are ready, the processing is just as intense! Don't take vanilla for granted!

Beautiful vanilla pods

Cinnamon Trees (see where the bark is scraped?)

The cinnamon leaves smelled amazing and we checked out the medicinal roots too!

Harvesting some iodine

The Kapok tree. These trees are really amazing. It is hollow; you can hear the echo when you knock on it. They are used to make the dhow boats. And the soft cotton-like fluff from the seed pod makes a great filler stuffing!

Louisa in a hollow kapok tree.

My favourite! Beautiful nutmeg! Hidden in a fruit, the gem is the pit!
(and the red aril is the mace!)

There was so much more … teak trees, coffee, hibiscus, lemongrass, eucalyptus, henna, grapefruit, coconut, pineapple, banana, turmeric, ginger … Truly an amazing and educational experience for all the senses!

Bixa Orelana. The Lipstick Plant!

Amisadai tested the lipstick - great colour!

At the end of the tour, we received our woven palm gifts of crowns, hats, bracelets, necklaces (Tim had a tie), and baskets. We felt like lemurs on the Lion King … or proper tourists! Then we were seated in the shade to sample some of the fruits! Yum!

Sampling the fruits

Under the jackfruit tree

Spice Queens! 

Although that title is officially given to cardamon!