[Sca-cooks] Grains of Paradise

[Lilinah]

Renata wrote:
>I always thought GofP came form Africa, not Sumatra. I have no 
>problem getting them - I just can't find what I did with the latest 
>arrivals...;(

Well, since spices even today are often luxury items, many are now 
grown far from there place of origin. Vanilla orchids, for example 
originated in Mexico, but the best vanilla now comes from various 
islands around the Pacific.

So while GoP are native to West Africa, i've no idea where else - if 
anywhere else - they are now grown. Since they aren't used a great 
deal in modern cuisines, except perhaps in West/Central Africa and 
Samuel Adams beer - it seems to me that there's no great call to grow 
them in other places. On the other hand, with what seems to me a 
growing interest in unusual spices (after all, there are now gifty 
packages of long peppers and grains of paradise sold at Whole Foods) 
and so much unrest, if not downright violence, in Africa, perhaps 
Samuel Adams will encourage the growing of GoP somewhere outside 
West/Central Africa.

Oh, well, such sorry tales surround the spice trade.

But on a lighter dark note, Happy Winter Solstice to those on the 
list in the Northern Hemisphere, and Happy Summer Solstice to those 
in the Southern Hemisphere.

-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita