Cloves

        There is an old saying that cloves will grow only where they can see the sea. This aromatic spice is obtained from a small evergreen tree of the myrtle family. The clove itself is the unopened flower-bud, which is nail-like in shape. The name clove comes from the Spanish word clavo, which means nail. Leaves, buds, and flowers all give off a sweet, overpowering aroma that can be smelled for a great distance. 

 

Left, Clove tree flowerbuds. Center, Cloves drying in the sun. Right, Cloves used in an orange as a pomander.

        Cloves, over which many battles have been fought, were easily obtained and easily prepared for market. It was the warring natives, the spice pirates, the enemy countries, the hurricanes, and the terrible heat that made cloves so expensive in Europe in early times.
        Cloves are one of the most important and useful of the spices. The earliest records of this spice are found in Chinese books dating from 266 B.C. to 220 B.C., wherein it is told that officers of the court were required to hold cloves in their mouths when they addressed their emperor. Cloves were well known in Rome. From the eighth century on, they were regularly imported into Europe.
        The origin of cloves was unknown to Europeans until the Portuguese discovered the Moluccas or Spice Islands in the sixteenth century. Today cloves are grown in many tropical countries in both the New and the Old Worlds.
        In the wild state the clove tree produces crimson blossoms, but when cultivated it is never allowed to reach the flowering stage because the unopened flower-bud is the spice. The flower-bud is greenish or reddish when fresh and becomes brown and brittle when dried. The clove crop is an uncertain one and is hard to grow. The tree does not produce much until it is at least twenty years old. A single tree may produce up to seventy-five pounds of dry cloves. The flower-buds, as they redden, are picked by hand. Then they are dried in the sunlight.
        Cloves are very fragrant and fine flavored and have a warming effect. They have almost endless uses, besides decorating hams. They are used for flavoring pickles, curries, ketchup, and sauces. They are also used in medicines and for perfuming stale air in rooms and the breath. Cloves have stimulating properties and are an ingredient of betel-nut chew. Clove cigarettes are smoked in Java. Oftentimes cloves are used as a local anesthetic for toothache because they give temporary relief from pain. They are found in many toothpastes and mouthwashes.
        Cloves are another spice whose production the Dutch confined to a single island in the Moluccas where they could guard the trees closely. Cloves now are grown chiefly in Zanzibar and Madagascar although some are produced in the Malay area and Africa. The yield from Zanzibar and Madagascar amounts to as much as ten thousand tons a year or more.
        At one time or another the clove tree has been introduced into nearly all parts of the tropics, but few attempts have been made to grow cloves on a big scale. The demand for cloves is limited, and so not too large an area of cultivation is required to stock the world's markets.