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Published Friday, March 12, 2021
By Victoria Torley
While we’re on the subject of trees, and I seem to be having a run on trees, what about the other things from trees.
You may remember that we have eleven acres up here in the Nuevo Arenal area, some of it along a river, so we have a lot of trees. Still, they continue to surprise me. Take the other day when Armando came back from the shade garden with some nuggets from a tree out there.
The ‘nuggets’ were nutmeg, some still in the husk and covered with a red material that I didn’t recognize but which turned out to be mace! Okay, I have used nutmeg but I have never used mace. My friend, on the other hand, had once asked me if I knew where she could buy mace and told me what it was so I looked it up. Yes, that red filmy material was mace and now she has fresh mace! The little problem? It takes one hundred nuts to get three ounces of mace. The big problem? Evidently the toucans, the squirrels, and who knows what other animals like the flavor of nutmeg. Not many of the nuts hit the ground and the ones that do probably get nibbled on by mice. Harvesting is going to be a problem.
Then there is the allspice tree. We didn’t know we had an allspice tree until a visitor pointed it out to us and began chewing on a leaf. He said it was something that Costa Ricans do to freshen their breath! [Yes, it works] The berries are picked when green and then laid in the sun to dry. If they ripen on the tree, they lose their aroma and flavor. Once dry, they are just ground up.
Our allspice tree is at the edge of the road – very convenient as standing on the roof of the car lets me reach the green berries. A ladder is an alternative, but who wants to lug a ladder two hundred meters?
We had great hopes for the cinnamon tree we planted, even though we knew it would be many years before we could harvest the bark. Cinnamon is one of my favorite spices and the thought of producing my own was something to dream about. Of course, you need a mature tree, but we have time. Sadly, and despite good conditions for growth, our tree didn’t make it. We will just have to try again, perhaps with more nitrogen this time.
Plant for the Week
Once, I thought of bamboo as a tree. Wrong! It is the biggest and fastest growing grass in the world. There is one variety that can grow up to four feet a day. This is the “Buddha Belly Bamboo” or Bambusa vulgaris Wamin. Due to its shape, it is often used for crafts. Plant in full sun to get the best ‘belly;’ if the plant needs to reach for the sun, the ‘belly’ will be smaller. This is a clumping bamboo, so don’t worry about it overtaking your landscape.
Editor's note: For more information on this article Ms. Victoria Torley, gardener columnist, can be reached at victoriatorley1@gmail.com
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