Many of us haven’t ever heard or thought about carob bean since sometime in the 1990’s when it was marketed as a healthy substitute for chocolate in our diets. It just didn’t quite catch on except for a certain type of health enthusiast. But with an abundant supply on Mallorca and some pretty serious health benefits, it may be time to take a second look at these bizarre-looking little pods with a long and important history on Mallorca.
Carob beans are actually legumes. They grow from old stems on short flower stalks, are quite broad and leathery-looking and can be as long as 30 centimetres in length. The taste is less bitter than chocolate and the flavour nutty. It’s naturally sweet, so additional sugar is often not required when used in cooking. The carob bean has an exceptional nutritional content and, in some circles, has been elevated to a super food category. Carob contains vitamins A, B, B2, B3 and D and it contains three times more calcium than milk. Carob is an excellent alternative to cocoa, as it is free from caffeine and fat. A powerful mix of fibre and minerals, it has been said it can help to reduce cholesterol and may even reduce the risk of heart disease as its contains antioxidants that can reduce high cholesterol.
One of Mallorca’s traditionally most important crops, the algarroba fruit or carob fruit. They are endemic to the Mediterranean and the Middle East where they have been cultivated for more than four millennia. The Algarrobo tree (Ceratonia siliqua or carob tree) is very characteristic of the Mediterranean region,carob trees love dry climates, and grow on land that isn’t much good for anything else. In Spain, it's the shape of the fruit that gave them their name, as Algarroba is the Persian word for "donkey's jawbone. Also known as “St. John’s Tree”, carob is even referenced in the Bible because, it is said that John the Baptist fed himself on carob beans in his time in the wilderness, which is why they are often called locust beans. The Moors first started growing carob as a crop and when the Spanish took over, they brought the tree to Mexico and South America.
Its wood has traditionally been used as firewood, and its
fruit, the carob, was used as feed for draught animals. There was a significant
increase in the consumption of carobs between the last third of the nineteenth
century and the beginning of the twentieth, and this was linked to the consumption
by animals. Large quantities of carobs were exported both abroad and to Spain,
but the progressive decline in the use of draught animals reduced the demand in
carob beans. However, other uses were found for the carob, such as in the
industrial production of chocolate with carob substituting cocoa and in the
extraction of sugars, alcohol and laxatives.
During the period of
the Spanish Civil War and the post-war years, in which much of Spain suffered
famine. The pods were ground to make a flour which made a coarse peasant bread.
The carob also took on a special significance in the production of foodstuffs
that could not be easily imported, such as coffee. In rural Mallorca there was at
least one tree, planted close to the houses for shade and for the simple fact
that it supplied nourishing food in times of the greatest need. During the
Spanish Civil War children chewed on algarrobas as their favourite sweets.
The annual algarroba harvest is during September and October.
You will see Mallorcan farmers beating long dark carob beans off their trees
with long sticks. Unfortunately, in Mallorca over the last few years Algarrobo
trees are more and more neglected. The cost of manpower is too high nowadays to
harvest the carob pods and the cost per kilo too low. So, as with the majority
of traditional cultivations, the carob tree has been in recession.
But all is not lost. Carob is an organic product and
completely vegan and a developing market does exist, companies are looking at
new ways to use these abundant crops and there is also a recovery foundation to
help save the trees. In collaboration with APAEMA – Association for the Ecological Farming
Production of Mallorca, the Mallorca Preservation Foundation is funding the
regeneration of 2000 non-productive carob trees in Mallorca from 2020.
For three generations, the family business of Es Garrover de
Mallorca has been dedicated to the production and transformation of carob beans
for animal consumption. However, Juana Verger decided to grow, process and sell
organic Mallorcan carob intended for human consumption too.
Under the brand Johannis, Es Garrover de Mallorca produces a
wide range of wonderful carob products. The passion dedicated in returning that
superb qualities of carob to human consumption is a wonderful example of how
talent and determination can return to agriculture and return the lost
treasures of our ecosystem back into our diets and support our good health.
https://www.esgarroverdemallorca.com/
I hope if you able, you will try some of these products. The
Carob tree is very much part of the landscape of Mallorca and it would a terrible lose if they disappeared.
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