[Sca-cooks] Grains of Paradise

[Ysabeau]

As far as I know, there is no boycott of Sumatran products. What could
possibly be happening is a bit of confusion. I don't know where
(climate/location) GoP are grown, but it is possible that some of the crops
were wiped out by the tsunami and it is a matter of time to allow the crops
to be re-grown.

I've followed the politics of Aceh for years because I used to live there.
The issues weren't from muslim fundamentalists, although that is the term
now being used. The rebellion was started as a response to the Indonesian
government giving drilling and mineral rights to American corporations,
keeping the profits in Jakarta and providing very little that would improve
the lifestyle and well-being of the local people. That area is primarily
muslim, but they have a long history of resisting when Western countries
come in and try to exploit their resources. They were one of the few areas
the Dutch were not able to "conquer" during their hey day.

Ysabeau
(whose computer is not wanting to cooperate)


On 12/20/06, Lilinah <lilinah at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> On another SCA cooking list, someone posted:
> >thanks to the (US) boycott on Sumatra, we can't get grains of
> >paradise through "normal" channels... which is a shame...
>
> Has anyone else heard of this?
>
> Is anyone else having trouble getting grains of paradise?
>
> It sounds strange to me because Sumatra isn't a country. Sumatra is
> the sixth largest island in the world, and just one island of many in
> the archipelago-country of Indonesia. Sumatra has ten
> provinces/administrative regions, including a number of small islands
> along its southwestern and northeastern coasts.
>
> True, the province of Aceh (more-or-less pronounced "ah-chay"), on
> the northernmost tip, has potentially dangerous Muslim
> fundamentalists, but i'm don't see that as a reason to boycott the
> whole huge island.
>
> Plus, i often buy Sumatran coffee and there has been no increase in
> its price, nor has it become unavailable.
>
> Also, this makes me curious as to where most of the commercial crop
> of grains of paradise is grown. Grains of paradise is native to
> Africa, but i know that many spices are now grown far from their
> points of origin.
>
> I haven't been able to find anything about it in a Google search, but
> maybe i was using the wrong search parameters.
>
> Help!
>
> --
> Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
> the persona formerly known as Anahita
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