Zanzibar ~ Spice Tour

Wednesday, January 29

We were pleasantly surprised this morning when we went upstairs for breakfast ~ a beautiful open patio ~ and the breakfast was good also ~







Prison Island ~ a prison was built there but no prisoners actually stayed there. It was uses for rebellious slaves before they were sold and later as a quarantine island for those with yellow fever and the prison was turned into a hospital. Today the island has become a government-owned tourist resort and houses a collection of endangered Aldabra giant tortoises.




This morning we were picked up at our hotel and along with four others went on a spice tour. The spice farm we toured is a demonstration farm showing all of the different spices that grow on Zanzibar. On an actual farm there is only one type of spice grown on each plantation. It was very interesting and we learned a lot.
Let's see if we can remember anything we saw:

Pepper: all colors of pepper come from the same seeds ~ the red pepper, white pepper, black pepper ~ just at different stages ~





Digging the root ~


Turmeric ~



Then we were given a leaf funnel to hold our samples ~ we were able to taste everything ~



Lemon grass ~ used for sore muscles and a mosquito repellent/after bite





Avocado ~





Ginger






Cinnamon Tree ~ the bark is stripped for the cinnamon ~ alternating one side and then another so it doesn't kill the tree ~ the bark grows back in about six weeks. The roots are used for mentholatum ~ Vicks vapo rub


We tasted the bark ~ very good






Jack fruit ~ these things are huge ~ like watermelons only they grow on
trees ~ don't know how the branch supports it ~






Cloves







Vanilla beans ~ growing on the vine ~ too expensive for sampling~



Nutmeg ~






This was amazing ~ the seed inside looked artificial ~ it was so bright and colorful and the red looked and felt like wax ~ that is the part that is actually used for mace~



The seed under the red coating is ground for nutmeg~