Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Sundried Cloves

July, 2009.

We stayed in a small clove plantation or, to be precise, a clove garden. It was clove harvesting time when we were there. Workers would climb the trees and pick the flower buds, which what the cloves are, and they have got to be picked before they bloom. After that, they would be stemmed and then sundried. Sundried cloves are ready to use for spices (as a whole or ground), or it could be processed further to make cigarettes or to extract its essential oil for example. The clove fragrance filled the air all the time we were there, especially day time when the cloves were under the sun.

Clove garden with mountain view.


A branch of a clove tree
full of clove flower buds.

Picked clove flower buds in a bamboo tray.

Green and pink clove flower buds
(pink being more matured)
stemmed.

A white and blue kite on sundrying cloves.


Three stages of sun-dried cloves.
The green ones are fresh ones,
the golden browns are medium,
the dark browns are done, ready to use.

No comments: