Leaf-oil yields can be considerably increased by using improved distillation techniques. An experimental field still, which operates on a limited supply of condenser water, to serve the cinnamon and citronella areas of the extreme south has been developed by the Ceylon Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research.

In the Negombo area, north of Colombo where the finest cinnamon quills are produced, the leaf oil was lighter in colour and had a low eugenol content (60 to 65 per cent), while the oil produced in the Ambalangoda and Matara districts of the extreme south was darker and contained 75 to 80 per cent of eugenol. This difference may have been due to environmental influences on the plant material, but it is more likely to result from the fact that in general the distillation time in Ambalangoda and Matara was much longer than that practised in Negombo.

Composting forces someone to consider two issues — one’s horrible and the other is great. First the bad thing: composting can be smelly and tiresome. The good part, however, is that you have found a proactive way to go green. Why not take control of the situation and use an odor-free compost pail that hides away — where no one can see it — in your kitchen?

What Are The Benefits of Composting?

I feel passionate about the practice of composting. After hearing a couple of people talk about composting, I read several articles and become educated”or at least semi-educated, because there is a lot to learn! My passion grew from learning how essential it is for me to play a part in conservation. And you do not have to be an expert gardener to compost your food scraps. Even if you compost only on a small scale, your contribution still matters. It’s still important. Over 65% of household waste can be composted, but Americans compost only about 8% percent of their garbage! Which is unfortunate.

Go Green, Not Mean!

Going back a little to the requirements of a greenhouse, it will be obvious that it is an advantage to have a separate potting shed if possible. Even if this is not possible, some provision should be made for keeping the potting materials, soil, sand, peat and the made up soil compost under cover, as these will deteriorate if left out exposed to the elements. Apart from deterioration these potting materials should be sterile and it simply is not possible to keep them this way if carelessly stacked out in the open. Clay pots should be scrupulously clean. They are best put into warm water in an old bath and carefully scrubbed before use, with some mild disinfectant added to the water in which they are soaked.

They should be stacked under cover until required for use. New pots must be soaked for a few hours before being used, as otherwise they will tend to dry out excessively quickly. All water used in greenhouse and frame should be free from infection. It is not really good to use rain water, particularly in industrial areas, as so often this has been allowed to stand in a filthy butt or tank for several days or even weeks before use, apart from containing possible harmful chemicals washed from roof and gutter.

Indonesian cassia (Cinnamomum burmannii (C.G. & Th. Nees) Bl. C. burmannii is the main source of Indonesian cassia, in which there is a considerable export trade. The tree is found in Sumatra, through Java, and eastwards to Timor, from sea level to 2 000 m.

Root rots are caused by Rosellinia spp., a brown rot by Phellinus latnaensis(Murr.) Heim, and a white rot by Leptoporus lignosus (Klot.) Heim. Pink disease, Corticium salmonicolor B. & Br., has been found on cinnamon. It causes pink encrusted areas on the stem with death of the smaller shoots. A rust, Aecidium cinnamomi Rac., and leaf diseases caused by Leptosphaeria spp. and Exobasidium spp.

The stems are cut during the rains to facilitate peeling, at the time when the red flush of the young leaves is beginning to turn green and the sap is flowing freely. The cutter will test the sterns to see if the bark lifts easily. In Sri Lanka harvesting is done mainly in May-June and October – November, although harvesting on a limited scale continues throughout the year. The first harvest yields a thick bark of inferior quality, but this improves with successive cropping. The leaves and twigs are cut off and are used for mulching or the leaves may be retained for distillation. The cut shoots are bundled and taken to the plantation headquarters for peeling and preparation of the spice.

Gardening is a funny hobby, in that people either can’t get enough of it, or they don’t know a hoe from a rake! For those of you who already have your gardening catalogs dog-eared, from frequent perusals, you probably can’t wait to get outside and get things going for spring. Garden preparation can be some of the heaviest work of the season, but pays off when the seeds start sprouting and the rose bushes begin to leaf out. However, it’s also important to busy yourself with the right spring garden preparation tasks first. Even some experienced gardeners lose patience, waiting for spring to come and begin digging and adding amendments too early, which can lead to an inferior soil structure and fewer blooms! Let’s take a look at how to approach your spring garden preparations to optimize your results during the warm season.

Spices add flavor and make food more palatable. Even just adding plain salt and pepper makes our food better than it would be without them. Garlic adds another strong dimension to our food. Without spice, our food is unappetizing and without flavor. With spice, it can be a sensual delight.

With more opportunities to try the foods of other cultures, we are getting more familiar with new spices or spice combinations. Today, it is almost common to eat Chinese on one night and Italian the next. You may try Indian food for lunch and then have Japanese for dinner. Regional spices can be found on the supermarket shelves more than they were ten years ago. As we become more familiar with them, we begin to use them in our own cooking.

Storing Spices

Can you remember the last time you bought spices? They do not have an indefinite shelf life. As time goes by, they lose color and flavor. To keep your spices as fresh as possible, store them someplace away from oxygen, heat, moisture, and bright light. As convenient as it may be to keep them near your stove, try to keep them away from your kitchen appliances. Heat and steam can cause dampness, which will shorten their shelf life. Airtight containers made of glass or tin will help preserve the volatile oils in the spice, keeping their flavor intact.

Tuscan-style decor has taken the interior design world by storm and has inspired decorators with ideas that go equally well in other decorative schemes that cultivate old world charm. Stenciled wall decorations, using reusable stencils, are an important finishing touch for the Tuscan look, with grape and grapevine motifs amongst the most popular. What better design could there be for the kitchen, or the patio or dining room where you relax with a glass of wine?

There to Stencil

Grapevine designs are perfect for borders, which can add the final detail to your Tuscan-style room. A repeated motif that runs around the room can be a subtle and stylish touch. You can stencil borders at floor level, at ceiling or picture rail height or midway up a wall, where a dado rail might be.

Vine and grape imagery can look marvelous around dull features of a room, including alcoves or plain doors and windows. Grapes and vines are particularly well-suited to a wine theme, and are perfect for a wine rack surround.

Until recently, this oil originated in one distillery only, namely that at Malindi in Zanzibar. However, Madagascar has now also commenced production of this oil, although in relatively small quantities, while Zanzibar’s production has been cut back sharply.

Between 1936 and 1966 Zanzibar’s exports of the oil varied between 100 and 200 tonnes and averaged 130 tonnes. Exports then dipped to 87 tonnes in 1967 and after a sharp rise to 204 tonnes in 1968, fell sharply and in the years 1969-72 were 61, 42, 23, and 28 tonnes respectively, reflecting a sharp drop in local production.

Oleoresin is normally marketed in direct competition with the dry spice. This is possible because the oleoresin is not sold as such, but is dispersed on a neutral base such as salt, dextrose, flour or rusk and then sold, weight for weight, equivalent in strength to the dry spice.

The situation worsened, supplies from Zanzibar becoming more and more intermittent, and prices continued to increase to around 6.15 per kilogramme. Prices in 1974 were a little below this peak and were in the region of 5.90 to 6 per kilogramme.

Distillation of this oil takes place principally in the clove-growing areas of north-eastern Madagascar, but the Seychelles have also exported this oil and production now also takes place in commenced production around 1911, supplies averaging 68 tonnes per annum between 1926 and 1930, 257 tonnes per annum between 1936 and 1940, and by the 1950s in the region of 650 tonnes per annum.

Clove leaf oil has some use in pharmacy, but its importance in this application is declining and has in any case never been great.

The clove leaf oil market is an open one conducted under conditions of private enterprise, and the price has naturally varied a great deal. Madagascan material remained relatively stable in price between 1961 and 1966, ranging from 0.64 to 0.83 per kilogramme. Then during 1967, as clove supplies became more uncertain, the price gradually began to climb, reaching 1.13 per kilogramme in that year. This upward trend continued into 1969 and a peak of 1.55 per kilogramme was reached, but prices then eased and in 1971 stood at 1.31 per kilogramme. In 1972 Madagascan clove leaf oil was offered at 1.25 per kilogramme and by February 1973 its price had fallen to 0.95.

At least until the early 1960s, trade in cloves was carried out in the traditional, familiar manner, by large numbers of shipping agents, merchants, dealers and brokers. Since the political changes in Zanzibar in 1964, however, the situation has changed somewhat. The role of merchants and dealers has diminished primarily because the supply prices were more rigidly fixed after the Zanzibar upheaval than had previously been the case, and the general feeling in the trade was that little or no further profit could be made.

Not much is known about the structure of Madagascar’s export trade, but it seems to have been more centralized than was the case in pre-revolution Zanzibar, and in any case the price of cloves from Madagascar had always tended to follow that of Zanzibar cloves, a situation which continued to apply after 1964.

These figures apply to present-day usage and in the past the proportion attributable to culinary usage was much higher; oleoresin extraction is a comparatively new departure and it is only during the past 25 years that the mass markets for cosmetics and for many various prepared foods have really come into their own.