Crops and Spices of Kerala
Kerala is bordered by Arabian Sea and there is an extensive network of backwaters, rivers and streams. There are about 34 lakes, small streams, countless backwaters and water bodies and 49 rain-fed rivers flowing throughout the state. Kerala receives an annual rainfall of 118 inches. All these factors make Kerala abundant in water supply. These helps to facilitate agriculture and so the economy of the state is largely dominated by agriculture.
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Tapioca |
The staple crop grown in Kerala is the rice or paddy. There are about 600 varieties of rice grown in the paddy fields of Kerala. The Kuttanad region of the Alappuzha district of Kerala is known as the ‘rice bowl of the state’. It has a significant status in the rice production. The crop that is grown in plenty next to rice is tapioca. It is cultivated in the drier regions and is a major food of the Keralites.
Besides rice and tapioca, Kerala also produces spices which form the cash crop of the state. Kerala has a spice trade history of about 3000 years. During the medieval period, the fresh aroma of the spices in Kerala has brought many foreigners into our country. 96% of India’s national output of pepper is produced from Kerala. The main spices grown here are cardamom, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and turmeric. Cardamom is exported in large quantities and it brings great profit to the country.
| coconut products – carpet ( coir) |
coconut products – fiber coir |
Kerala produces various other cash crops such as coconut, ginger, tea, coffee, arecanut, cashew etc. The main source of income in Kerala comes from coir industry, coconut shell artifacts etc. Coconuts bring most of the economic gains to Kerala. Approximately 70% of Indian output of coconut is produced in Kerala. Another cash crop grown in Kerala is the cashew. Raw cashew seasoned with salt and spices are a favorite item for all and almost every tourist love to have them.
Kerala also produces 91% of natural rubber of our country. Rubber is grown mainly in the Kottayam district. The other plantation crops grown besides rubber are plantains or bananas. These bananas are of different qualities and they range from red, green and yellow colors. Lastly, the home gardens in Kerala also grow a large number of vegetables, spices, coconuts and fruits locally.
Coconut:
In Kerala, coconuts are used largely in the delicious cuisine. Coconut is consumed in many ways. The tender coconut juice is drunk as fresh. The flesh of tender coconut is soft and that it can be eaten raw. Whereas the mature flesh is mainly used while preparing curries. They are grated and grinded and are then added to curries. People in Kerala prefer to cook food in coconut oil. This oil is extracted from the dry flesh of coconut. The usage of coconut oil for cooking gives a special and distinctive taste to the cuisines in Kerala. The coconut is dried in the sun and the flesh is removed from its shell. This is called as copra which is stored either to extract oil, to use in cookery or as an offering in temples.
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A favorite drink of the Keralites is toddy or fermented palm wine, which is extracted from the coconut palm. Some of the dishes that are prepared by using coconuts are chutney, avial (mixed vegetable curry) and fish moilee. It is difficult for a true malayalee to imagine a life without coconut. To know the taste of delicious Kerala cuisines one can enjoy it on their tour to Kerala.
Rubber:
Rubber plant is not a native plant of India. The rubber plant was introduced in India by the Dutch colonialists. They cultivated rubber in Indonesia and as the climate in Kerala is similar to that in Indonesia they introduced the crop here as well. The Rubber plant (its botanical name is Havea brasiliensis) produces sticky, white latex that is collected and processed to produce natural rubber. A rubber plant can be first tapped after it has grown at least 7 years. It is possible to tap a rubber tree for over 20 years. The main characteristics of the rubber trees are their straight trunks and smooth green leaves.
The rubber tappers harvest the rubber by making a long curving cut on the outer bark of the trunk of the rubber tree. When the cut is made the latex from the tree seeps through the cut surface and flows down the cut into a container probably a coconut shell or a cup, tied to the tree by the rubber tapper. Daily morning the rubber tapper checks the cup tied to each tree and collects the latex. In order to extract more latex from the tress the tapper will make another cut next to the previous cut. A tree after about 20 years stops producing further latex. Then a new tree is planted in its place.Other plants such as spices, areca nut and cashew are also grown apart from rubber trees. The local farmers and plantation workers harvest the crops on these rubber plantations in Kerala.
Tea
The highest tea estates in India are seen in and around Munnar which is in the hill ranges of the Western Ghats in Kerala. It was the British settlers during the colonial times who had introduced the tea plantations and cultivation in Kerala. It is because in such hill regions the climate and soil conditions are suitable for cultivating tea. India is today the world’s largest tea producer and exporter. The tea plant (Camellia sinensis) is usually grown in bushes. It has shiny green pointed leaves with a pleasant aroma. You can feel the pleasant smell of the tea leaves as you walk through these tea plantations. Tea bushes will grow to tree height in the wild. But in plantations the tea bushes are grown up to waist height so that the leaves can be plucked easily.
Tea leaves are plucked out by hand by groups of women. These women carry a basket behind their backs and they pluck the first two leaves along with the bud from each shoot. These are then placed inside the basket. The collected tea leaves are then processed and sorted into different categories based on various processing treatments. The three broad classifications of tea are – Green Tea, Oolong Tea and Black Tea.
Spices of Kerala
The spices of Kerala date back to thousands of years in the history of the state. In the ancient times, Kerala rose to fame all around the world solely on the basis of the riches brought into the state, because of its monopoly over spices.
Musiri, the ancient port of Kerala became the base of world spice trade, almost ages ago. It is sometimes said the Western colonization in India, was the attempt of the West to control the spice trade from the state. The arrival of Vasco Da Gama in India and its spice trade was the result of the same. In the last 10 years, international spice trade has grown to around 500,000 tonnes of spices and also of herbs of over 1500 million US dollars. It is no exaggeration that a major chunk of this trade is still from Kerala. Some of the most popular spices of Kerala are:
Pepper
Pepper is native to Kerala, a tropical region on the Western Coast of Southern India. Kerala is famed for the production and export of this one of the most sought-after spices, Pepper, which is also known as the ‘King of Spices’. and Black pepper, nicknamed as ‘black gold. Today used all around the world, probably it is one of the earliest known spices. Pepper has grown in India for thousands of years and was first introduced to the West after the global conquests of Alexander the Great (4th century BC). Pepper was so precious in ancient times that it was used as money to pay taxes, tributes, dowries, and rent. It was weighed like gold and used as a common medium of exchange. In AD 410, when Rome was captured, 3,000 pounds of pepper were demanded as ransom.
Pepper of Kerala reached Europe through the Arab traders. Europe saw great potential in pepper, and it brought trader, wars and the colonial rule to India. This spice is grown in both lowlands and high ranges of the state. It is also used for its amazing medicinal properties.The name pepper is derived from the Sanskrit name of long pepper, pippali. That word gave rise to the Greek peperi and Latin piper. Pepper goes by many names in different languages such as hu jiao (Chinese), kali mirch (Hindi), pimienta (Spanish), fulful / filfil (Arabic), poivre (French), pepe (Italian), and pfeffer in (German)
Cardamom
One of the most highly prized spices, Cardamom is as old as the human civilization. This, ‘Queen of Spices’, is grown on slopes of the Western Ghats in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The cultivation of cardamom started in the southern region of India in the ancient times. The best variety of cardamom is found in India with amazing cultivation, processing techniques and aroma.During the 19th century, plantations of cardamom were set up by British colonists and this is where much of the green and black cardamom that we use still comes from today.
In Indian and Middle Eastern cuisine, cardamom is very popular in curries and is generally one of the spices used in their typical spice blends. In Asia, this spice is often used to make cardamom tea, a traditional drink. It is also a very popular spice in many Scandinavian recipes such as mulled wine and glogg. It is used in all types of sweet pastry and bread dishes. Cardamom has been used medicinally for thousands of years. It has been most commonly used to treat indigestion, asthma and bad breath.
Clove
An important part of the early spice trade, clove is believed to be indigenous to the Spice Islands of Indonesia. In Kerala, cloves are grown in the Kottayam, Trivandrum, Kozhikode and Kollam districts. It was the East India Company who introduced the cultivation of cloves in 1800 AD in Tamil Nadu. Clove is a flavouring agent and is also popular as a local anaesthetic for toothaches. Cloves are the dried, unopened, nail-shaped flower buds of the evergreen tree Syzygium aromaticum. The name “clove” derives from the Latin word for nail, clavus (because of its shape). Clove goes by many names in different languages such as ding xiang (Mandarin Chinese), laung (Hindi), clavo (Spanish), clou de girofle (French), chiodo di garofano (Italian), qurnafl (Arabic), and nelke (German). The first references to cloves are found in Asian literature from the Chinese Han period under the name “chicken-tongue spice”.
From the 8th century on, cloves became one of the major spices in European commerce. In the Moluccas Islands (now part of Indonesia), where cloves were first discovered, parents planted a clove tree when a child was born. When the clove forests were first discovered, all were enchanted with the fragrance and beauty of this tropical evergreen tree which “must always see the sea” in order to thrive. Cloves were extremely costly and played an important part in world history. Wars were fought to secure exclusive rights to the profitable clove business. For many years, the Moluccas Islands were part of the Dutch East Indies and the Dutch government sought to control their monopoly by destroying every clove tree that grew anywhere else. However, by the early 1800’s, the French established a smuggling operation to transport clove tree seedlings to the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba.
Cinnamon
An important ingredient of the spicy Kerala cuisine, Cinnamon is extensively grown in one or two locations in the state but mainly originated in Sri Lanka. This spice is light brown in colour and is also milder in flavour in comparison to other spices. Cinnamon has high in antioxidant activity and along with being used in food, it also has medicinal properties.Cinnamon is the dried inner bark of various evergreen trees belonging to the genus Cinnamomum. The botanical name, Cinnamomum, derives from the Hebraic and Arabic term “amomon”, meaning “fragrant spice plant”. Some types of cinnamon are also referred to as “cassia”. Cinnamon goes by many names in different languages such as ròuguì (Chinese), dalchini (Hindi), canela (Spanish), cannelle (French), qarfa (Arabic), and zimt (German). Cinnamon was one of the first known spices.
In ancient Egyptian times, much of the world’s cinnamon came from China. The Romans believed cinnamon’s fragrance sacred and burned it at funerals, but it was not popular as a cooking spice. In medieval Europe, cinnamon became a favorite flavor in many banquet foods. It was also regarded as an appetite stimulant, a digestive, an aphrodisiac, and a treatment for coughs and sore throats. Because cinnamon was one of the first spices sought in 15th century European explorations, some say it indirectly led to the discovery of America. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the Dutch and Portuguese brutally fought to control the cinnamon plantations of Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka).
Ginger
Ginger can rightly be called the most important spices, which is also valued the most. This spice is used in a number of cuisines in the world. It is widely grown in Kerala. Ginger is used extensively in many dishes, pickles and fresh juices. It is also used in cakes, biscuits and cookies for flavouring purposes. Ginger also has medicinal uses.During the 15th century, gingerbread became a gift of love and respect. In the 1800’s, Ginger was commonly sprinkled on top of beer or ale, then stirred into the drink with a hot poker – thus the invention of gingerale.
Turmeric
Turmeric is not only a spice that is used in cooking but it is also a cleanser for the human body. Turmeric plant is mainly used in the dried or powdered form. This spice is vastly used in Middle-Eastern and Asian delicacies and other spicy curries. Turmeric is also used to add colour in fruit drinks, cheese and butter. It is also used in Ayurvedic and Chinese medicines.In many languages, the name “turmeric” literally means “yellow root”. In different languages turmeric is called: kurkum (Arabic & Hebrew), huang jiang (Mandarin Chinese), curcuma (French, German, Italian, Spanish), and haldi (Hindi).
The use of turmeric dates back 4000 years to the Vedic culture in India, where it was used as a culinary spice and had also had religious and medicinal significance. Marco Polo, in AD 1280, mentioned turmeric in notes of his travels in China: “There is also a vegetable that has all the properties of true saffron, as well as the smell and the color, and yet it is not really saffron.” In medieval Europe, turmeric was known as “Indian saffron”. Since then, turmeric has been used as an inexpensive substitute for saffron.
Turmeric is sacred in the Hindu religion and a turmeric dyed string known as the mangala sutra is worn by brides to signify readiness to marry and manage a household. Turmeric is also used to dye clothing and has been used for centuries to create the bright yellow hue of Buddhist robes.
Tamarind
The sweet and sour fruit of tamarind is also known as Indian Date. Though it originated in Asian and North African regions but it is largely grown in India as well. The trees of this spice grow excellently in tropical areas and Kerala is known for having a tropical climate. It is an important ingredient in a number of Asian and Latin American dishes. Tamarind is used in seafood, other non-vegetarian, cool drinks, snacks, desserts and vegetarian dishes. it has medicinal and other uses also.
The ripe fruit of tamarind tree is used as a condiment. It is a moderate size to large, evergreen tree, up to 24 mtr in high and 7 mtr in girth. Bark is brown or dark gray, longitudinally and horizontally fissured. Leaves are paripinnate up to 15 cm long, leaflets are 10-20 pairs, oblong, 8-30 mm. Flowers are small, yellowish with pink stripes, pods are 7.5-20 cm long, 2.5 cm broad, 1 cm thick, more or less constricted between seeds, slightly curved, brownish coloured. Seeds are 3-12 oblong compressed, 1.5 cm, dark brown shining. Endocarp is light brownish, sweetish or acidic, edible pulp, traversed by branched ligneous strands. The outer cover of the pod is fragile and easily separable.
Tamarind is originated in Madagascar and is now extensively cultivated in India, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, several African, Central American and South American countries. In India, it is chiefly grown in Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The tree is not exacting as regards to soil but thrives best in deep alluvium. The tree prefers warm climate but sensitive to frost. Tamarind is suited to semi-tropical region with low rainfall. It can come up even in saline, alkaline and gravelly soils, and soils prone to erosion
Nutmeg
The spice of nutmeg is actually the seed of Myristica fragrans, which is popular for being an evergreen tree that produces both mace and nutmeg. This spice also finds a mention in the Vedic literature of India. Nutmeg is also grown in the south Indian state of Kerala. This mild baking spice adds both flavour and aroma to cakes, muffins, sweet breads, fruit pies, cookies, meats, soups, puddings and sausages.
Nutmeg is native to a small cluster of islands in Indonesia, the Banda Islands. It is the seed of a peachlike fruit that grows from the tree Myristica fragrans. Europeans discovered nutmeg in the middle ages and it became quite valuable for its culinary and folk remedy uses. This led to conflict for conquest of the Banda Islands. By the late nineteenth century, nutmeg was becoming widespread and its purported uses continued to evolve. Reports in the medical literature began to appear of women ingesting large amounts of nutmeg to induce abortion. These ingestions are some of the first medical descriptions of the nutmeg toxicity. Ultimately, nutmeg was not effective as an abortifacient and the practice declined. After a lull in the medical literature, nutmeg reemerged as a drug of abuse in the 1960s. It continues to be rediscovered by individuals seeking a cheap and accessible high.
Vanilla
Vanilla, a member of the orchid family, is a contribution of the West to Kerala. It is a climbing monocot with stout and succulent stem and long leaves. The fruit of vanilla known as beans or pods are capsules almost cylindrical in shape and about 20 cm long. Vanilla is considered as the second most expensive spice next to saffron. The high earnings made vanilla a popular crop among spice growers in the state. The other Indian states that grow vanilla are Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Sweetness and natural fragrance make vanilla essential for many culinary preparations such as desserts and cakes. It is used as a flavoring agent in the preparation of ice creams, candies, confectioneries and beverages.
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Vanilla is derived from the dried, cured beans or fruit pods of the large, green-stemmed climbing perennial, Vanilla planifolia, which is a member of the orchid family. Although Vanilla beans are sometimes used in their whole form, they are most commonly used for producing extracts and flavors.Vanilla is used principally for ice cream, soft drinks, eggnogs, chocolate confectionery, candy, tobacco, baked goods, puddings, cakes, cookies, liqueurs, and as a fragrantly tenacious ingredient in perfumery. Vanilla originated in Mexico, but today the United States buys Vanilla beans from Madagascar, Indonesia, Uganda and Tonga. Most of the world’s high-quality beans come from Madagascar, an island off the coast of Africa.