Grenada's gold
Land of fragrant spices
virginvoices.com staff
Agricultural has always been golden in Grenada.
Its rich fertile soil has produced sugar cane for rum for hundreds of years.
Sugar cane is still the base material of Grenada’s rum industry. Drive through the parishes and you still see stalks of the sweet crop blowing in the breeze.
After the spice plantations in the Orient dried up local plantation owners seized the opportunity. They gradually developed Grenada’s now lucrative spice industry.
Today nutmeg, allspice, clove, cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, turmeric and thyme are all grown in Grenada.The island is now one of the world’s major suppliers of nutmeg and mace.
Plantations and estates in Grenada have continued as a way of life even through the many changes of ownership. The names of the remaining estates and even the towns and villages still reflect this multi-cultural past.
Visits to working spice estates are offered throughout the island. Douglaston Spice Estate is an historic monument, which still grows and processes spices. It is one of at least three spice estates on the island.
Photo: The many spices of Grenada.
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