A spice garden I visited
View(s):I went with my family to Matale this holiday. There we visited a spice garden called Luckgrow 27. We saw many spices. There were many other spice gardens in that area. One of the spices was vanilla pods. The vanilla creeper is an epiphyte. That is, it grows on the bark of another tree. It has two kinds of roots – clasping roots which help to attach onto trees and aerial roots which absorb air and moisture from the atmosphere. It is mostly used to flavour tea, cakes etc.
Next we saw the cocoa bean which is used to make chocolate. The cover around the seed can be eaten. It is attached to the bark of the tree. We also saw the pepper creepers. Next we saw the nutmeg seed. The outer cover of the nutmeg seed is eaten to prevent vomiting. There were many spices in the garden.
We went to a workshop in the spice garden. They had all kinds of spices there. My favourite spice was the meat masala which is used to flavour meat curry. We saw a balm made out of spices too. I learnt a lot by visiting this spice garden.
Dayan N. Samarasinghe
(11 years)
S. Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia