This selection of photos focus on the strange and wonderful plants that grow here!

These are sorrel, (and nothing like the spinach variation we know by this name), used to make a drink. Boil water, cover the flower heads with boiling water and leave to soak (in my case overnight), strain the deep pink/red juice and sweeten to taste. It tastes something akin to raspberry and cranberry juice, there’s a hint of acid and its very refreshing.

A spice pomander to keep your room smelling nice and the flies away. Consists of nutmeg, mace, cloves, bay leaves, ginger, tumeric, possibly cocoa beans and some white seeds.

Sweets from the market, fresh tamarind pods rolled in sugar. They still contain the seeds which are discarded.

Ripe cocoa pod, white flesh covers the cocoa beans, which you suck. The white bits are surprisingly sweet, a bit lychee like, but you dont chew the cocoa seeds. These are processed to make cocoa/chocolate, more of which later.

Pale orange coloured pods are nutmeg. The fleshy part around the nut is used to make nutmeg jelly and jam. The red parts are mace and are used dried whole or ground. The inner dark brown is the nut and when dried enough for the nutmeg kernel inside to rattle when shaken, is ready to be cracked. When fresh the nutmeg kernel is white. Also in the picture, cinnamon bark, (top left).

Left cinnamon branch, roots to right tumeric.

Clove tree flowers. These will form the seed heads which we use for the spice.

More fruits aux nature, our visit to a cocoa plantation and rum distillery to come!

All our best,

Lynne and Alan