I watched the Spice Trail yesterday on BBC2. I must eat a little humble pie as Kate (Humble) has redeemed herself since my last post on the subject. Kate’s manic presentation style prevails but has pleasant interludes of inspiring story telling. This week’s subjects were saffron and vanilla. Saffron has been grown for centuries by the Berber tribes in North Africa. They grow it in the desert where the crocus thrives on dry cold winters and hot summer days. The key to its success is irrigation and the fertilisers the Berbers use – animal dung. During the crocus season the crocus flowers for one day and has to be picked. The next day a new crop appears. Saffron trades at about £4000 per kilo – 5g is a small handful.
The programme then went from Spain to Central America where Hernán Cortés, the Spanish explorer discovered Vanilla. The story of vanilla is equally as fascinating as saffron. Vanilla is a climbing orchid that stretches and twines upwards along the trunk of huge trees in the forests. Like saffron it flowers for one day. For the vanilla seed pod to form the flower must be fertilised by the Melipona bee which only lives in this part of the world. The specificity of the bee limited the range of vanilla production to Central America and made it an extremely valuable spice which the Spanish exploited.
The Spanish hold on vanilla remained until hand pollination was discovered. This meant the vanilla orchid could be exported and grown in other parts of the world. Madagascar is now the centre of vanilla production.