Farmers Weekly Review

‘Tis the season for all things fall, including apples and pumpkins. But more than those, the world is abuzz with the release of everything pumpkin spice.

From your favorite eight-dollar, 1,200-calorie pumpkin spice latte, to pumpkin spice cereal and candy corn, it is everywhere. But pumpkin spice really doesn’t have anything to do with pumpkins themselves, there is no pumpkin in pumpkin spice.

I was inspired to write this column by a radio spot last week where they were interviewing the media specialist for Morton, Illinois, the epicenter of America’s pumpkin growing. Last weekend was their Pumpkin Fest. And curiously, the discussion was about the not-so-sweet-smell of the actual pumpkin harvest. Who knew?

But for pumpkin spice, now we are talking. That sweet, spicy aromatic smell and taste — it tastes kind of like home, cool mornings, warm days and wrapped in a warm flannel or sweater. The spice combination responsible for all this fall festive fuss includes cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Occasionally cardamom and allspice are included, too.

All plants, to be sure, but just what do we know about where they come from? If any of you have ever had the opportunity to be at the Will County Farm Bureau’s one-of-a-kind, best Ag in the Classroom program ever, you will know the answer to one of these.

My volunteers and I do the vegetable/herb section of what farmers grow that goes into making of a pizza. When I am questioning the students (and the teachers) about what the difference between an herb and a spice is, rarely does anyone know But I tell them I guarantee they have all eaten the bark of a tree. And so have you.

Cinnamon, one of our most widely used and oldest baking spices, is actually the ground-up bark of various species of the tree Cinnamomum spp. The inner bark of the tree is harvested and then dried until it curls up. These curly sticks are called quills, and that is what cinnamon sticks are. But the most common way we use cinnamon is in the ground form.

Cinnamon is native to the countries of Sri Lanka, Myanmar and India. It is also cultivated in South America, China, West Indes, Mexico and East Africa.

There are different types of cinnamon with different flavor profiles. When you buy a jar off the grocery store shelf, you are buying Cassia cinnamon. It is known for its dark brown color and strong flavor. Cassia cinnamon includes three types: Saigon, Chinese and Indonesia. Each one has slightly different intensities of flavor and variations in color.

The other main category of cinnamon is Ceylon cinnamon, also called “true” cinnamon or “soft” cinnamon. Ceylon cinnamon is much more expensive and although it has the same cinnamon flavor it is a more genteel and refined taste. There are also floral notes to this cinnamon.

As occasionally reported, but completely untrue, Cassia cinnamon is not “fake” cinnamon and Ceylon is “real.” They are both cinnamon but just different.

Ginger, another part of the pumpkin spice “bouquet,” is a plant whose rhizome (think knobby root) we eat. Actually, we have some ginger growing right outside the Will County Farm Bureau front door. But that is not the culinary variety. Edible or culinary ginger is native to tropical, partially shady climates and is a member of the Zingiber officionale.

Ginger is a spicy, hot spice and can be used fresh, dried, ground or preserved (in a pickling brine or sugar) as in candied ginger. Again, the ginger that goes into our pumpkin spice combo is usually the ground supermarket variety.

Nutmeg is, in my opinion, an unsung, underutilized hero of the spice cabinet. Nutmeg is a warm, subtle spice. It also has fans and detractors. I personally am nutmeg’s biggest fan, not only for that one-of-a-kind flavor profile, but it is also a two-fer (two spices in one, horticulturally).

Even though the name contains the word “nut,” nutmeg isn’t a true nut (and poses no risk to those allergic to tree nuts). Nutmeg is a fruit (just like a tomato and pepper are), but it is covered in a webby, waxy sheath that become the spice, mace.

Mace is much stronger and sometimes described as having a peppery taste. Nutmeg is mellower and has a more subtle, smoother flavor. These two-for-one spices come from the genus of the trees Myristica and are native to the Moluccas Islands of Indonesia. And just like cinnamon has naturalized to Sri Lanka, West Indies, Tropical America, Philippines and Pacific Islands.

And then there is the spice whose flower we eat — cloves. Cloves are a piquant, strongly flavored dried flower of the evergreen clove tree, Syzygium aromaticum. This curious nail-shaped, spice hardware is potent, so a little goes a long way. You may be most familiar with cloves used with pineapple to decorate and infuse flavor to ham.

And if you are old enough, you might remember your parents or grandparents using cloves for another purpose — anesthetic. Oil of cloves was a temporary remedy for toothaches.

Actually, all of these pumpkin spice spices have been cultivated and used for centuries, particularly when your local pharmacy, grocery store, cleaning products, and even gardening and agricultural controls were all grown in your back yard.

And what is old is new again. Recent studies have indicated the health benefits of consuming these spices, or a product created from them. But don’t run out there, start up your own cauldron of self-spice cabinet medications. Cinnamon, for example, has been known to have amazing benefits on the regulation of blood sugar, as well as neurological, cardiac, anti-inflammatory and immune benefits.

But just as with all things, too much (extremely too much — like more than a teaspoon of cinnamon per day) can cause some negative liver health benefits.

So maybe cut down to five pumpkin spiced lattes every day.