Haroupiá, known to you as the carob tree. It grows into a huge shade tree here and the carobs hang off it like great beans, starting off green and eventually turning a dark, hard, brown. At this stage they fall to the ground and are gathered by the locals as winter feed for goats and rabbits, and other livestock.
This is the carob tree exactly opposite us. 85 year old Vaso used to gather great sacks of carobs, from this tree and from the neighbours for her chooks, goats and rabbits. Hidden in that tree is a large tree house.
If you look closely you can see bunches of brown carobs.
Vaso's son says he is going to make carob flour this year. I tried one year, or rather I thought about making carob flour. In reality it is quite a difficult process.
You can also make a syrup out of it and it can be ground up and used like coffee.
One of our extended cousins was driving up and down the road yesterday carrying big sacks of carobs on the back of his motorbike. He has goats and sheep I think. Next doors carobs on one side are gathered by another friend and relative for his goats and the big carob tree on the english peole's land is usually gathered by Vaso. Last year some rogue Albanians took the crop. The carob bean is worth its weight in gold, almost. It gives vitamins and minerals to the animals and saves their owners a lot of money in winter feed.
Vaso has slaughtered her goats and I think her rabbits too. The carobs from her own tree will be enough for the chooks.
These are some carob beans I picked from Vaso's tree. They are sweet and chewey, the taste being vaguely like a date
Down in Crete they are trying to get the carob tree onto the UNESCO list of Cultural Heritage. They say the carob tree saved many lives in WW11 . They ate it, boiled it, burnt it as firewood, made bread with it. The Cretans are renown for their very healthy life style. They gather and eat greens from their fields, cultivate the olive and eat the oil mostly raw, gather herbs for cooking and for making tea, grow grapes and make wine, distill their own very potent raki and drink it in large quantities. They keep bees, herd goats and make cheese, yoghurt and the dried pasta which here is called hilopites or make the sour trahana which thickens stews and fills stomachs in a cold winter.
Mind you, most of rural greece lives this way.
But we were talking about carobs.
That's it folks.
We lived in Crete for three years. One day I'll post about it
I recall it being used as a chocolate substitute, but I gather from your description it isn't in the least chocolate flavoured. I wonder if we will see any in the laikis in the city.
ReplyDeleteIt's sweet and dark but definitely reminds me of the taste of a date. Possibly changes after all the processing.
DeleteI associate carob as a replacement for chocolate too, but it does not sound like it tastes the same. Shame some people have to do e and help them selves to others carob pods!
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised we didn't have a carob war! Vaso must be getting tired on her old age
DeleteThat is interesting about the carob. When Max and I moved to our 5 acres in the Far North a carob was one of the trees we planted but, at that stage we hadn't learnt how to grow things in that environment and it died.
ReplyDeleteCarobs grow very easily here and don't need watering. The far north probably has a similar climate. Pity it didn't grow
DeleteMy uncle had a tree in his yard. And he would give us the carob to chew we weren’t impressed we rather a bar of chocolate or some sweeties lol this post brought back happy memories. Thank you
ReplyDeleteThey aren't all that nice to chew. They are sweet but sort of gritty/bitty. You need to spit out bits. You'd need to be very hungry to appreciate it
DeleteHow interesting. I imagine one could also build a house from the wood, so it could ALMOST be the solution to all the world's problems.
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard of anyone making a carob house. You need a plantation of them and a factory to process all the pods
Deleteyum! so lucky having a carob tree there, I'd love to taste it.
ReplyDeleteSort of thing small boys would chew on. They are much nicer processed
DeleteI have seen them in Portugal. Vaso is an heroine and hunter, gatherer.
ReplyDeleteShe's a hunter gatherer all right. Nothing escapes her beady eyes and paws
DeleteIt is a lovely tree, I didn't know it was so versatile! Nor did I realize it was a great food for livestock. Thanks for the information!
ReplyDeleteThey grow like mad here and don't need water. Perfect for the local environment
Deleteha they feed their carob to animals and I buy it as fake nutella as I cant have dairy. carob and hazelnut spread is the closest I can get to nutella.
ReplyDeleteI wish we could get carob products here. Probably can in big Athens supermarkets. Would love some of that Nutella!!
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