Cloves (Syzygium aromaticym) from Indonesia. This high-quality herb can be used both for medicinal or magickal use. 1 pound. Uses include culinary spice (gingerbread, spice cookies, apple pie, mulled cider and wine, and even your favorite split pea soup recipe!); teas; potpourri; crafts; cloves calm the stomach; relieves gas; banishes hostile/negative forces; gains what is sought; clears head; friendship/love.
We guarantee that by the time any of our herbs and spices reach your door that they are no more than 3 months of age from time of harvest. This fact makes the herbs and spices available through Sacred Mists Shoppe the freshest you can buy!
By purchasing in bulk, not only are you saving money on the best whole cloves that you can find, but you will have plenty for both your kitchen spice rack as well as your herbal and magickal supply cabinets, too!
History
Probably the most fragrant fire in the history of the world was ignited in the forests of the Dutch East Indies (actually, the Moluccas Islands) in 1816. The fumes of the burning clove trees could be detected for hundreds of miles.
When man first discovered the magical flavor properties of cloves, no one knows for sure, but records show that cloves were already important to the Chinese thousands of years before Christ. In the Han period, 220-206 B. C., it was required that all court officials hold some whole cloves in their mouths when addressing the Emperor-just to make sure their breath smelled clean.
As time went on, cloves became one of the most prized of all spices to the western world. In England, for instance, before the discovery of the sea passage around the Cape of Good Hope, cloves cost the consumer 36O times more than their price in the oriental lands which grew them. Cloves were thus one of the treasures which Columbus and Magellan and other explorers sought in the Age of Discovery.
The great East Indies fire was another of man's attempts to profit from the lucrative clove trade. Burning off young trees was the Dutch way of regulating supply and keeping prices high. But the natives of that area believed that the lives of their children were linked to the lives of the new trees they planted at the time of a birth. The fire of l816 destroyed an unprecedented number of young "birth trees" and the outraged natives rebelled. They revolted in a bloody insurrection led by Pattimura, "the George Washington of the Moluccas" and even today is remembered as one of Indonesia's heroes.
Kidnapping of Cloves
Though the fire proved a disaster for the Dutch, there was an event some 40 years prior that triggered the loss of their clove monopoly. In the 1770's an ambitious governor of the French island of Mauritius - a M -Poivre - sent an expedition to the Moluccas which succeeded in smuggling away some clove seeds and seedlings. Up to that time, botanists had thought that cloves would grow only in the Moluccas. But they were wrong. The clove tree is happy on any mountainous tropical island, where, as the saying goes, "it can see the sea." Mauritius was such an island. From this original planting, seeds were sent to French islands in the Caribbean, as well as to Reunion, Madagascar and Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. Gradually, the islands off Africa, particularly Zanzibar and Madagascar became the world's main sources of clove.
What are Cloves?
Cloves are the dried, unopened flower buds of Syzygium Aromaticum (formerly Eugenia Caryophyllata Thunb). A myrtle tree, which grows to a height of 30 to 40 feet. It begins flowering in about seven years and continues to produce cloves for about 80 years.
The word "clove" comes from the French "clou", or "nail", which describes its shape. The bud is composed of two parts: the stem and a bulbous head. If kept intact this will be sold as "whole cloves".
To obtain the spice, the buds must be picked when the heads develop a light pink color, just before they open. If they are allowed to flower they have no value as a spice. In most areas there are two crops a year - one in late summer and early fall, the other late fall. In volume, a mature tree may produce from seven to 40 pounds in one harvest. As the cloves dry, the stems turn very dark brown and the heads become light tan in color. It takes between 4,000 and 7,000 buds to make a pound of dried cloves. During the drying they lose two-thirds of their harvested weight.
** This product is processed at an Organic Processing Facility certified by Quality Assurance International that supports and buys only from third-party Certified Organic, ethically wildcrafted, or soundly cultivated herbs and spices. No products are purchased that are known to contain genetically modified organisms. Organic certificates and Certificates of Anaysis are on file. **
