Zanzibar Spice Plantation
The one thing I knew I wanted to see in Zanzibar was a spice plantation. I think of spices as things that come from jars that come from stores. Have you seen the clips of Jamie Oliver showing city kids fresh fruits and vegetables, while they make sadly wrong guesses? They guess that tomatoes are potatoes, an eggplant is a pear, a beet is an onion. You could think, “wow, they have no idea what real food looks like.”
Going on the spice tour though, I got to experience being that kid. Our spice tour guide, David, walked through a lush green forest, plucking this and that, handing it to us to smell and take a guess, and store in the leaf cone they made for us to collect our treasures. Being a gardener, I thought I’d do okay, but I think I flunked the test. I got off to a good start when our first off I got a whiff of lemongrass, which I’ve seen in nurseries. But too many times I had to default to “that smells like Christmas.” Would you recognize these plants?
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