Harvest and trade: spices that mark them
Harvest days at the pepper vine, the clove tree and the saffron field.
Harvest celebrations give thanks for crops, and spice crops have their own festivals, from pepper picking in Kerala to nutmeg in Grenada and the saffron harvest in Iran and Kashmir.
Spice harvests
Saffron is picked at dawn over a few weeks in autumn, clove is harvested on Zanzibar and Pemba in the dry season, and chillies are laid out to dry across Andhra and New Mexico in late summer. Local festivals mark these events.
Harvest feasts
Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Makar Sankranti across India, Thanksgiving in North America and Sukkot in Jewish tradition mark harvest with seasonal foods. Pongal's sweet rice is cooked with jaggery, cardamom and cashew.
Thanksgiving of the land
Many communities link harvest with ritual offerings, for example the first fruits placed at a temple or shrine.
Harvest and trade on EveryMasala
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