(sheri)
A few weeks ago (which now feels like months ago) I visited a biodynamic spice plantation in Costa Rica with my sister, niece and daughter in law. The experience was so inspiring and educational. I thought I would share some images and a little about what we learned.
Cacao
The plantation grew cacao trees, beautiful chocolate supplying cacao trees.
This is how a cacao pod starts to grow.
Eventually it grows into this pod.
Each pod grows little beans inside. These beans are covered with a white flesh. We sucked on the bean with the white flesh and incredibly it tasted very similar to chocolate.
Inside of each bean is the cacao "meat". This is where the cacao comes from which eventually becomes chocolate.
These are raw cacao nibs. They are the meat of the bean. Raw cacao is extremely high in anti-oxidants, it is great for energy as well as a myriad of other benefits. I use it to make smoothies, cookies, and ice cream. If you don't buy good ones they can taste very bitter, a good raw cacoa nib should never be bitter. I am adapting a few cookie recipes I will share later this month using raw cacao and coconut sugar.
The next thing we discovered was the cinnamon tree! No one in the group had any idea cinnamon grew in trees. Did you?
There are three layers to a cinnamon tree; the outside bark, the cinnamon and then the cinnamon wood. She has shaved the bark off so what you see is the cinnamon. When you taste it like that it is soft and pliable, and delicious!
These trees were Ceylon Cinnamon. There is a dinstinct difference between that and regular cinnamon. It has hints of mint and ginger along with the cinnamon flavor. The taste was amazing! Ceylon cinnamon has incredible health benefits as well:it is an anti-bacterial which will slow the growth of bacteria, it is antiviral so it can help treat viral infections, antifungal so you can use it to help with fungal infections, it contains antioxidants which are amazing for fighting diseases, it is fantastic for high blood pressure and can help with inflammations such as arthritis. There are so many more uses and benefits I was amazed! She suggested putting some in your coffee in the morning. Her father in law mixes a teaspoon of ceylon cinnamon with a tablespoon of honey every morning to help his arthritis.
The other things that amazed me were seeing how a peppercorn grows. I had no idea they were this cool! The peppercorn we use is inside of the green shell.
This is what turmeric root looks like when it is ready to harvest.
This incredibly elegant vine is a vanilla bean vine that got away from the farmers. Normally the vines, which grow up to 30' long, are strung horizontally through trees so they are easy to harvest. I was in awe of how perfectly the vine grows when left on its own.
I never grow tired of seeing my favorite plant, the orchid, growing in nature. It is such a beautiful and rare thing for me to see.
This is the plantation we visited. They do allow volunteers to come and work at the biodynamic farm. I was very tempted but then remembered I have Franklin Goose to run.... Oh well, a girl can dream.
