(Continued from Part 1)
The Spice
Clove the spice comes not from the fruit, which is used locally if at all, but from unopened flower buds. The yellowish green flower buds appear at the end of the rainy season. Just before opening they turn pink, and this is the time to pick them. Dry them for a few days and they take on the familiar brown look of the cloves that you buy in stores. The first picture below shows the freshly picked flower buds drying on the ground, and the next two pictures show dried cloves ready to be shipped. The last picture use a human hand to show the scale for the flower cluster and the dried spice.
A dried clove lying on palm of your hand looks like a little nail; in fact, the English word "clove" comes from the Latin word "clavus" for nail. Cloves stuck into a ham look like the defeated slave army being crucified at the end of "Spartacus." Clove is an ingredient in many foods, including wassail and Worcestershire sauce, and cloves are included in the rice served at the Punjab, an Indian restaurant in Arlington Center. On my last visit to the Punjab I picked a clove out the rice, surreptitiously placed it in my mouth, and found its taste very refreshing.
In antiquity and the middle ages cloves were highly valued for their ability to mask odors [Shaffer, p. 54]. It is said that some 2000 years ago an emperor in the Han dynasty required petitioners to hold cloves in their mouth while speaking to him in order to sweeten their breath.
The ancient Chinese art of healing uses cloves to treat hiccups. Also, in an emergency a dentist can use the essential oil of cloves as a painkiller. ConsultWebMD for other medical uses of cloves. Check Drugs.com to see what drugs interact with cloves. Check out the Aromatherapy Bible for uses of cloves. For example, when under physical or mental stress or if you are just tired, suck a clove. Not only does it relax you, but it tastes good.
Cloves in World Literature
In The 1001 Arabian Nights, Sinbad the Sailor traded cloves. (See the third paragraph from the end of the story of his third voyage.)
In The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer uses the exoticism of spices (they did not grow in England, where this tale is set) to underscore the enchanted nature of the forest where Sir Thopas (or Topaz) rides in search of an elf queen (lines 49-54, the ninth stanza of "The Tale of Sir Thopas"). Here is both the original and a modern translation, which are taken from this handy site, which puts them side by side.
Original:
Ther springen herbes grete and smale,
The lycorys and cetewale,
And many a clowe-gilofre;
And notemuge to putte in ale,
Whether it be moyste or stale,
Or for to leye in cofre.
Modern translation:
The spring flowers great and small,The licorice and ginger, and allOf the large fields of cloves,And nutmeg to put in alcohol—Whether in beer or wine for the fall—Were all blooming in droves.
For comparison, here is another modern translation from Morrison [pp. 178-79].
There herbs and herblets deck the dale,
Ginger and licorice, without fail,
And gillyflowers by scores,
And nutmeg good to season ale,
Whether the same be fresh or stale,
Or put in chests indoors.
(Note: "Gillyflowers" is a synonym for "cloves" [Keay, p. 111].) I have two comments on these translations. First, both mistranslate "cetewale" as ginger. In fact, cetewale is a synonym for zedoary, which is in the ginger family but is in the genus Curcuma, which is not the ginger genus. In short, while cetewale is related to ginger, it is definitely not ginger. I guess this mistranslation is close enough for poets. Second, I am struck by how different the two renderings are; take a look at them. If you ever decide to read Chaucer, be careful in your selection of a translation. Note: Chaucer is touted as the "father of modern English." Why this is so is not apparent to the untrained eye. Perhaps one of the Chaucerians among my readers will want to raise my consciousness on this.
The islands of Ternate and Tidore appear in Milton's Paradise Lost (Book II, lines 638-40):
... the isles
Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring
Milton appears to be using these islands as part of an elaborate metaphor for the flight of Satan to the gates of hell, but, as is so often the case with Milton, it's hard to be sure exactly what he's getting at. Perhaps one of the Miltonists among my readers will want to explicate this passage.Their spicy drugs....
Clove Art
Here are three examples of clove art.
- A model ship made from dried cloves.
- A monument in Ternate City that celebrates both cloves and nutmeg. (The things that look like microphones are the cloves. The big thing split apart is the fruit of the nutmeg tree.)
- The flag of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, which shows two clove flower buds. This flag was adopted on 10 Dec 1964 when Zanzibar gained its independence from Great Britain. This short-lived flag was only used until 17 Jan 1964, when the sultanate was overthrown by a Marxist/Africanist coup. This appears to be the only national flag that has ever featured cloves.
Party Tip
Your party tip is to enrich your guests' lives by allowing each one to make a pomander ball.
So what is a pomander ball? It is simply a piece of fruit, traditionally an orange, that has been pierced by cloves and dried so that it lets off a wonderful aroma. Pomander balls can be used in drawers and closets like a sachet, or used as decorations at Christmastime by hanging them from a mantel or tree, or even just set in an attractive bowl on a table. They will continue to give off their scent for years to come!
The instructions amount to punching holes in an orange, inserting cloves into the holes, and optionally tying a ribbon around the orange so you can hang it. Alternatively, you can consult my go-to source for all things homey, Martha Stewart. As the pictures below show, you can let your creativity rage unrestrained as you place the cloves in intricate and appealing patterns. At your party, you supply the oranges and the cloves. Unless you own an unusual number of ice picks, you will need to instruct your guests to bring their own ice picks to make the holes; this will start them off with a good feeling since it will give them a chance to use their ice picks, which have been long unused and gathering dust in the knife drawer. It is, of course, dangerous to have that many ice picks in an enclosed space; artists are a contentious lot, so I suggest that you hire a sergeant-at-arms to handle any ice pick fights that break out when the spirit of competition burns too brightly.
Your guests will leave bearing proudly aloft the pomander balls that they have crafted. As the years pass, your guests will inhale the bracing scent of their pomander balls and remember the burst of creativity that was spurred by your party.
We might pause to reflect on the decline of the pomander, which Google defines as: "a ball or perforated container of sweet-smelling substances such as herbs and spices, placed in a closet, drawer, or room to perfume the air or (formerly) carried as a supposed protection against infection." In Medieval times it was thought that the bubonic plague and other diseases were carried through the air and that the best way to combat them was through good smells. Therefore, the well-to-do all wore a pomander. which usually consisted of spices embedded in a ball of wax that was carried in an enclosure that fastened with a clasp and hung around the neck or attached to one's wrist or belt [Turner, p. 179]. Queen Elizabeth I wore a pomander whenever she was in public [Turner, p. 179]. The pomander, then, which for centuries was a key weapon in the medical arsenal, has now been reduced to an arts and crafts project. The following pictures show various pomanders from their golden age. The first is a German pomander from the early seventeenth century.
Travel Tip
Your travel tip is to book a trip to the island of Ternate, the original island of cloves and the home of what is thought to be the world's oldest clove tree, which is between 350 and 400 years old. Don't expect too much, however, since nothing is left of the dead tree but a stump and bare branches (see below). Locals in the past have used it for firewood. Have your picture taken while standing next to this tree and notice how young you look by comparison. It's a bad sign if this tree is more photogenic than you. The hot humid atmosphere of Ternate diffuses the fragrance of cloves all over the island, so it is like you are visiting a spice rack.
While Ternate only has a diameter of 9 kilometers, it has the remains of ten forts built in the 16th and 17th centuries by the Portuguese, Dutch, and British, which you can tour. These forts are the proof of the unlikely statement that this flyspeck island once played a key role in the world economy. Here are two pictures of the city of Ternate; the first is taken from Tidore and the second from the island of Ternate. The last picture is a typical Ternate scene. Idyllic, no?
Indonesian consume nearly half of the world's clove production, but, strange to say, cloves do not figure greatly in Indonesian cooking. The cloves are consumed in clove cigarettes (kretek), which are enjoyed by virtually every male. As you wander the streets of Ternate and smell what you think is incense, it is really the smoke of these ubiquitous cigarettes. The Spice Islands still smell of cloves, but now much of it is imported from Zanzibar, which is now the world's leading producer of cloves [Keay, p. 255].
The entire island of Ternate was built by the volcano Gamalama, which you will want to climb; the first picture of the city of Ternate above shows Gamalama in the background, and the second is taken from the slopes of Gamalama. Keep in mind that Ternate is on the Pacific Ring of Fire. In the eruption of 1775 about 1300 died. In the eruption of December 2011, four died and the airport was closed.
THIS JUST IN! Gamalama erupted in July 2015, continues to erupt, and many have been forced to flee. Perhaps you should wait a while before booking your trip. Below is a picture of the current eruption. Maybe these islands aren't so idyllic.
Keep in mind that volcanic zones are also earthquake zones. Alfred Russel Wallace, co-discoverer of the theory of natural selection, kept a house on what he called "the earthquake-tortured island of Ternate" from 1858-1861 to use as a base as he traveled around the area [Wallace, pp. 234-35]. During his stay he felt one earthquake, which he describes as follows: "I had just awoke at gun-fire (5 a.m.) when suddenly the thatch began to rustle and shake as if an army of cats were galloping over it..." [p. 238]. That was all he felt since this was a minor temblor, unlike the one of 1840, "..when almost every house in the place was destroyed" [p. 238]. The possibility of earthquake enlarges the portfolio of potential new experiences that you might have on Ternate.
Rick
References
Keay, John, The Spice Route A History, University of California Press, 2006. For a description of this book, see the e-mail of 9 Oct 2015.
Krondl, Michael, The Taste of Conquest: The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice, Ballantine Books, 2007. For a description of this book, see the e-mail of 9 Oct 2015.
Milton, Giles, Nathaniel's Nutmeg: Or, The True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of History, Penguin Books, paperback, 2000 (first published in hardback in 1999). For a description of this book, see the upcoming e-mail on nutmeg.
Morrison, Theodore, ed., The Portable Chaucer, Penguin Books, revised edition,1977 (revised edition first published in 1975). I had access to this book in hard copy.
Pool, P. A., and N. Bermawie, "Procedure for Artificial Cross Pollination in Clove (Syzigium Aromaticum). Euphytica, vol 36, 1987, pp. 479-82. This can be found here.
Shaffer, Marjorie, Pepper: A History of the World's Most Influential Spice, Thomas Dunne Books, 2013. This book was described in the e-mail of 16 Oct 2015.
Turner, Jack, Spice: The History of a Temptation, Vintage Books, paperback, 2005 (first published in hardback in 2004). For a description of this book, see the e-mail of 9 Oct 2015.
Wallace, Alfred Wallace, The Malay Archipelago: The Land of the Orang-utan and the Bird of Paradise, A Narrative of Travel with Studies of Man and Nature, Dover Publications, 1962. This is a reproduction of the tenth edition, which was first published in 1869. This book was previously quoted in the discussion of the durian (9 May 2015). I had access to this book in hard copy.
