Pepper
- Details
- Monday, 16 January 2012 14:52
Pepper (Piper nigrum L.)
Characteristics:
“Pepper, the spice as such.”
The pepper plant is an evergreen creeper that climbs up to a height of 9 meters.
Leaves are dark green, heart-shaped and entire (7-15cm long) with small, inconspicuous white flowers.
After pollination the flowers grow up to 15cm long spikes which change their colour from green to strong orange-red in ripening season.
Each spike produces 20-30 pea-sized berry fruits. They are picked by hand.
Depending on harvest time and processing they are used for various spices:
Vanilla
- Details
- Wednesday, 12 October 2011 12:20
The vanilla is a spice that is made of the fermented capsules of various species of the genus vanilla.
The name comes from the French “Vanille” as well as from the Spanish “Vainilla” (“little hull or pod, in Latin “Vanilla planifolia”).
Vanilla in bar shape is also denoted as the “queen of spices”. After saffron it is the second most expensive spice.
There are circa 110 genus of vanilla but only 15 of these could afford pods. Only these 15 are processed further to the popular vanilla.
The most important basic commodity for producing vanilla beans is the vanilla or vanilla orchid (“Vanilla planifolia”).
Primary the vanilla originates in Mexico and Central America but is now mainly cultivated in Madagascar, Réunion (previously named Île Bourbon) and other islands of the Indian Ocean.
Bear’s Garlic
- Details
- Thursday, 17 February 2011 15:11
The Latin name of bear’s garlic is “Allium ursinum” which loosely translated means “garlic of the bears”. It is not a coincidence that the word bear by itself finds again in the German name. Because it is said that the bears has braced themselves by eating bear’s garlic after coming out of hibernation.
Bear’s garlic was and already is interesting for the people too, and not only for its flavour. But rather due to the positive attributes for the human organism, ascribed to him. In mediaeval times bear’s garlic often was used as a medical and food plant. And in the current popular medicine it is also frequently used in case of a gastrointestinal disorder.
