Spice Tour

Here's some more from our time on Zanzibar. We went on a spice tour where we enjoyed hiking around the interior of the island. We got to see how some of our favorite(and some lesser-known) spices & fruits are grown. Many of the plants on the island are not native, but were imported and grown on large plantations. Pemba, the lesser-known island and other half of the Zanzibar Archipelago, is home to many clove plantations, many of which were started in the mid-1800's by Sultan Seyed Said.
This was our guide-- showing us nutmeg & mace. Nutmeg is a small, round, brown kernel which is wrapped in a plasticky-looking web (which is mace) and then a yellow outer fruit-like covering.

Ryan sniffing nutmeg wrapped in mace.

Peppercorns--we learned that peppercorns--whether black, green or pink, are all the same plant, just at different stages of development. The berries are green at first, then ripen to red/pink, then dry to look black.

Green peppercorns--still very peppery and spicy.

Annatto, used for coloring and flavoring foods.

Annatto can also be used for makeup & lipstick!

Did you know pineapples grow from the ground?

Vanilla beans--these take a LOT of care and work to grow.
And their vines have to have other trees to grow on.

Very tiny, and very hot peppers.

Cloves!

A feast of fruit!

Top from left: Jackfruit, lychee, pineapple. Middle from left: tropical apples, starfruit, more tropical apples. Bottom from left: oranges (the green ones--I like to call these "greens"), bitter oranges (the orange-y-brown ones).

Lychee have the coolest shell ever.

Lychee on the tree, before their cool spikey shells turn red.

Our guides decorated the tourists in various crafts made of weaving palm fronds--neckties & watches for Carl and Ryan, a ring, bracelet and frog necklace for me!