I’ve written about Nutmeg before, about discovering it shelled, walled in Dubai.
And still there’s more. And Zanzibar served it up, on a Spice Farm tour. Here, I saw the entire nutmeg fruit – nut, shell, mace and all. Our tour guide, Ramadan shared the fruit and more with us.
That nutmeg comes ‘as a fruit’
Which is cut open to reveal a web of red mace, around a shelled nut.
In some communities, women use nutmeg to ‘relax’, because it has intoxicating effects. In Malaysia, the nutmeg fruit is used to make a drink. It is cooked down – much like passion fruit shells (which I use for a jam/marmalade condiment thing) and then mixed into a drink.
Isn’t it beautiful? The nutmeg and mace. There’s so much to see and learn in this world and seeing spices in the not-on-the-shelf form deepens my knowledge and understanding.
The end :).
Nutmeg is definitely a lot more useful than many people give it credit for. We also enjoyed our spice tour in Zanzibar and learned about nutmeg and other spices. Definitely worth doing when visiting the spice island!
I was so amazed – so much to learn and experience. I’d love to go back. Soon.