Cinnamon tree (Photo credit: santheo)Yesterday we had a steergoround.One would appear in the garden and be hooshed off to the corral.
Then another...same process.
Then another....
You would think that they were hobbits and we were Beorn.
Once gathered into the corral they would mooch off again and the steergoround would start all over again.
It was too late to find the break in the fence...so this morning we awoke to all five of them happily munching the grass alongside the fish ponds.
But not only the grass. Their midnight feast had involved plantains....plants knocked down to get to same....the leaves of several orange trees....and my one and only cinnamon tree.
Nowhere near the size of the tree in the picture above, only one year old, the poor thing had been torn to bits, stems lying all around as one steer after another had had a go at it.
I can only assume that cinnamon was not flavour of the month in steerland.
Still, it urged me on to have a go at harvesting what we had.
I took a kitchen knife and stripped the stems.....fine curls of skin with the most wonderful sweet scent.
My hands still smell of cinnamon hours after putting the curls of skin to dry.
Another first for me in this new life.
Hello. I You got me with Momolulu, and of course I'm hooked after El Jefe. Thanks for the great stories.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely adore cinnamon! It's one of my 'secret' ingredients... Sorry to hear you have lost the tree but at least some cinnamon has been rescued. I'm also glad to have found your blog again. Somehow I was not getting your updates on my blog roll.
ReplyDeleteJoanne, welcome aboard!
ReplyDeleteThe Broad, I seem to be having the same problem with a few blogs....to my chagrin!
I think the tree will recover...I've watered the remains, mulched them and mended the fence!
Little constant discoveries make life worth living...
ReplyDeletelove. love cinammon and use it quite a bit. It is so nice when you have the smell of spices/herbs lingering on the skin. Running hands along a lavender or rosemary bush is always great too.
ReplyDeleteAnd halleluja Blogger is letting me comment on your blog!![it has decided to bar me from doing so on a number of others *sigh*]
Steve, preferably nice discoveries....
ReplyDeleteNiall and Antoinette, don't let Blogger hear you....!
I agree about the scent of herbs and spices on the skin...the other one I love is when picking citrus fruit from the trees above the house...
Cinnamon, bliss! Sorry to hear about your tree, Fly, and glad you think it will recover. Livestock are all very well in their place, but that place isn't your garden!
ReplyDeletePerpetua, Thought we had it under control...but tonight there's another one rooting round my special sugar cane....his owner is on the way, luckily, as Mr. Fly has planted a load of 'miracle food' saplings from India (Marinda, I think)and will not be too pleased if the steer decides to try its qualities
ReplyDeleteSorry about your tree, Fly. I do hope it grows back. Life is full of beautiful compensations, including cinnamon.
ReplyDeletee, the tree should survive.
ReplyDeleteWhen can I buy the book about your life there, please? Please.
ReplyDeleteI hope your cinnamon tree will be as resilient as my wisteria - a planted twig munched to nothingness by sheep and subsequently chewed down to ground level twice by dogs - and now smothering the house.
What are miracle food saplings? I am certain I need some.
It's amazing the different types of problems you encounter over there, and the consequences.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful to have a cinnamon tree. I saw a documentary not that long ago on how it is grown and harvested, dried and prepared. It was absolutely fascinating.
nodamnblog...do you want it with or without courts, developers, bankers and crooks in high places?
ReplyDeleteI'll have to ask Mr. Fly about the tree...he saw a documentary about how this tree is being used in Africa to feed communities in dry area and sent to the charity backing the initiative for seeds.
He got a mad questionnaire back so looked on eBay and bought seeds from an Indian supplier...which arrived packed neatly in matchboxes and all germionated! Better rate than thompson and Moran use to have
Sarah, we have a vanilla vine as well....it needs to be pollinated by hand and I need my glasses to do it as it's so intricate.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful to have your own cinnamon. To be honest until I read your post I didn't actually know where cinnamon came from.
ReplyDeleteYour blog is always such an education.
Ayak, discovery is such fun, isn't it.
ReplyDeleteWe want to grow cardamoms....so off to the Tropical Research Centre to buy some saplings.
I have a tamarind, but no cinnamon.Also, no room!Too many damn' palms!
ReplyDeletedinahmow, thanks to Mr. Fly the palms are arriving en masse....every time he sees seeds on one new to him home they come in a handkerchief and into a pot.....
ReplyDeleteThere's an award for you over at mine...with no strings attached!
ReplyDeletenice save of your cinnamon...Ayak sent me over...and oh dear I arrived in the steer go round! ;-) hope you've found the fence opening...our goats used to climb out of their fence...no need to wait for an accidental opening or someone to leave the gate open...just up the corner braces and over the fence!
ReplyDeleteand congratulations on your award!
Ayak, thank you! Something with no strings is becoming a rarity....
ReplyDeleteTheanne, welcome aboard and thank you!
I had goats too in the past...should have been called Houdinis though I suspect the Soay led them astray.
My best memory is of my father and myself sitting in the porch watching a nanny munching happily away at the seat of mother's gardening trousers while mother - oblivious - carried on weeding the border!
Warts, courts, crooks and all, please, Fly. :)
ReplyDeleteI guess it's the moringa tree?
nodamnblog...your wish is my command. I shall be breaking in the laptop next week....
ReplyDeleteThis is wonderful Fly. Your life is just a revelation - a wee oasis full of such riches...
ReplyDeleteThough the coos can be such pests! I remember being chased by them when I was wee - mad big beasts!
nodamnblog...yes I think it is...I shall check with Higher Authority on his return from San Jose.
ReplyDeletela mujer libre...yes, I remember cows in my youth as well. Very curious beasts....