A tour of Sun Valley, a family-run fruit and spice plantation in Jamaica
An Exert From Will Travel For Food.
A few weeks ago, I was watching a rerun of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservation Goa episode. In it, he visits a spice plantation. It looked so interesting that I immediately added “visit a spice plantation” to my bucket list. Little did I know that I would be checking that one off so soon!
When we arrived at Sun Valley Plantation near Ochio Rios in Jamaica, they had been without any power for days because of hurricane Sandy so all production was halted. Sun Valley is a working family plantation that has been producing a variety of spices and tropical fruit for the past 250 years and their gardens are just magical. We took a tour around the plantation with owner Lorna Binns, who pointed out all the different fruit and spices growing around the property and told us about their culinary and traditional medicinal properties. I felt like Alice in Wonderland discovering all the different plants! I remarked that Lorna must never go to a pharmacy because it felt like every ailment known to man could be cured with a plant found in her backyard!
Sun Valley used to be in the banana production. They planted coconut trees in between the banana plants to break the wind. However, in 1996 they switched to bottling coconut water. Young, 8-months old “jelly” coconuts are harvested for their water content. The water is sterile while inside the husk. I was surprised at how much water a fresh coconut contains. The liquid is clear, slightly sweet and so refreshing. The jelly part of the flesh is scraped and eaten as is or dropped inside the glass to be slurped down with the water. Coconut water is the richest known natural source of potassium and the closest thing to the body’s electrolytes. It has been hailed as a miracle product used in the treatment of so many ailments, from dehydration to heart disease. When the coconuts are 12-months old, they are then sold for their flesh, which is fully formed by then.
We are so used to seeing some of the spices we use in our kitchens every day in berry, leaf or bark form that we often don’t even think about their previous plant state. It is fascinating to discover how some of these familiar spices grow! Nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, mace, Jamaican pimento (all-spice) all take on different aspects when growing. For example, did you know that vanilla is hand-pollinated everywhere except in Mexico, where they have the right kind of bees to pollinate it? And did you know that it takes months of labour-intensive precise work to produce the dried, fermented vanilla beans that we get? It makes sense that vanilla beans would be so expensive. That, and so many more fascinating facts, is why I highly recommend you add “visit a spice plantation” to your bucket list.
To read more, visit willtravelforfood.com
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