Spice Farm Tour

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Spice Farm
The Zanzibar Government owns about 60 percent of the land, so this was a government farm, although it appeared that many small, village-like communities existed. Spices are fascinating, and our guide could tell us where each originated, and showed us each spice and explained its season, harvest and any required processing.

Here is a photo of us at lunch. Fish in coconut sauce, green vegetable, chappati, banana, etc.

Nutmeg, Mace
You peel off the outer part of the nutmeg, leaving a beautiful, bright red lacy substance around the nutmeg nut itself. The red lacy substance is mace with a similar, but unique fragrance and taste from nutmeg, around which is grows.

Cinnamon
Only the bark of the tree is used, and you chunk off a piece, and the bark regenerates in about six weeks. One can chip off pieces, but never in a complete circle since that would interrupt the flow of water to the leaves.

Vanilla
The vanilla bean pods grow on vines and must be picked at exactly the right time and dried.

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Photos

Lunch at Spice Farm Tour
The food was excellent and so were our campanions.

Peppercorns from the tree
The red ones are overripe, the greens are ready to be dried which will turn black and sold as black pepper. We don't know about the black ones on this stem!

Mace and Nutmeg
Who would know that mace is the red lacy outer part, and the nutmeg is the hard nut in the middle.

Bill at the Zanzibar Beach
Bill actually went swimming in the Indian Ocean, part of our Spice Farm Tour. I picked up mermaid tears!

At the Zanzibar Beach
Another view of our visit to the beach