The Pimenta Spice Garden – An Authentic Experience Combining the Flavours, Crafts and Traditions of Kerala – Part I

It was the last day of my stay in Kerala when one’s mind is mostly on the journey home. Nevertheless, it was one of the most intense days I have spent in Kerala. Early in the morning, Jacob Mathew, the owner of the Pimenta Spice Garden, picked us up – me and my friend Carmen from Romania. Carmen had arranged a cooking lesson for the two of us there. However, staying at Pimenta is not just about cooking. To give you a better understanding of not only the ingredients you’ll be mixing into the dishes you prepare, Jacob will take you to local markets as well as places that will introduce you to crafts or the cultural heritage of Kerala. Best of all, these are places where ordinary tourists don’t go. This will guarantee you a truly authentic experience.
1. Old Hindu Temple

Our first stop was an old temple of the god Shiva, built 300-400 years ago out of teak wood. The old wooden carved ornaments have been marked by the ravages of time. At that time, temples taller than a coconut palm were not allowed to be built.

In front of the entrance, an old man was stringing green curry (koovalam) leaves on a thread. Koovalam trees are considered sacred, they are supposed to bring prosperity. The leaves resemble the three eyes of Shiva. They add a typical ‘Indian’ taste to food, but they also have healing effects. Perhaps the only feature of modern civilisation was the lamp hanging under the crumbling roof.

Tourists don’t come here, so people looked curiously at the two European women, especially three little boys. Still, the whole place had a calm and friendly atmosphere. We were even allowed to enter the temple and approach the shrine, where flames flickered in small bowls and worshippers brought various offerings.
Then, one woman began to chant. Other women joined in, their melody floating through the air.

Some would even speak to us, but they didn’t know English. So at least we got a symbolic gift – a piece of banana leaf with flowers, sandalwood and sacred ashes.

2. Banana Auction
From the temple, we rushed to the local market where mainly bananas were sold.
When you travel around Kerala, you see coconut palms and banana plantations everywhere. More than 100 (some say 200) different varieties of bananas grow here. They differ in size, colour and taste.

Banana tree stalks (for cleansing the body) and banana blossoms that look like big purple tears were also offered at the market. Their kernels can be fried or added to salads and soups. Among other products, I was attracted by the huge dark brown tubers (the largest was 10 kg) – Elephant Foot. In Kerala, they are called chena and have been part of Kerala cuisine for centuries.

We even saw strange “cucumbers” with warty skin – pavakka (also called bitter melon). I did not know yet that I would be frying this vegetable tonight. They were selling tapioca (cassava tubers) as well – whole tubers, but also peeled and cut into pieces. This way the tapioca can be stored longer.
There were pineapples for sale and all sorts of other vegetables that I can’t even name. And also fresh curry leaves.

A specialty of Kerala that you definitely have to try is banana chips. Here, too, a young man was dipping thin banana slices in hot coconut oil until they turned into golden “coins”. When he drained them, he threw them in the air a few times.

If you’re in Kerala, be sure to try the fried bananas – pazham pori.

You can read about other banana specialties in Kerala in my article: Banana Delicacies from Kerala
3. Exotic Spices
What is unique about Kerala, however, is that you don’t just see some of the ingredients in the market or the store, but right where they grow. We stopped a couple of times to see some spices this way.
I’ve seen black pepper growing several times. I always think of Pharaoh Ramses II, whose mummy had his nose stuffed with black peppercorns since this ‘black gold’ was very rare in ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire and Mesopotamia. Its most important source was India.

I saw vanilla leaves for the first time. It’s a climbing plant. What a pity it didn’t bloom or have fruit. The nutmeg tree was also a novelty for me. There were light brown balls (like smaller apples) hanging on the tree, some were already opening. Inside, the nut was still with a beautiful, distinctly red covering. Do you know that in Bulgarian this spice is called Indian nut?
4. Christian Church
Our next stop was in the village of Arakuzha, where we visited the Syro-Malabar Church of St. Mary´s Forane. The original church was built around the year 1000 and later rebuilt several times.

Christianity is the third-largest religion in Kerala. According to tradition, Christianity was brought here by St. Thomas, one of the disciples of Jesus, in 52 AD when he sailed to the Malabar region and landed on the Kerala coast. According to tradition, crosses were erected near the churches.

This church is all white, but the interior was colourful, decorated with colourful flowers as well. Churches in India are entered barefoot.
5. Pottery

Since we were going to have a cooking lesson in the evening, we also visited a workshop where traditional clay utensils are made. A large kiln dominates the workshop, crowded with a variety of clay products.

The potters weren’t working, so at least Carmen and I climbed up to see what the kiln looked like. Would you believe that you can fit up to eight layers of pots in there?

Finished products are also sold directly here. Pottery in Kerala has a long tradition. We’ve seen several similar shops in the area.

6. Household Goods
Of course, more modern utensils are also used in Indian households today.

One part of the shop sells various metal souvenirs and traditional stands on which fragrant essences are burnt and sacrificial flowers are placed.

In the shop, I was interested in various kitchen utensils. For example, the narrow cylinders into which steamed rice is stuffed and then rolled out – puttu – a typical breakfast dish.

In the next picture, you can see the buckets in which sauces and chutneys are served.

7. Lunch
Lunchtime was approaching, so Jacob invited us to a recently opened restaurant – small but well-frequented by locals. Here, we tasted the typical Kerala dish – sadhya, which is served on a banana leaf.

It was here that we saw how they used those buckets from the shop. Our hostess took out different side dishes from them and carefully placed them on the green leaf.

The order is said to vary from place to place, but mostly you get different chutneys, sauces and pickled vegetables on top of the leaf. On the bottom, they’ll put the traditional bread, banana and rice. We also sampled the meat side dish, it was pretty spicy. Carmen was bravely eating with her fingers like a native Indian, I still haven’t learned how to do that.

If you see this billboard on the way, be sure to stop by for lunch. You’ll be surprised not only by the delicious food but also – by European standards – by the incomparably low prices.
8. Pineapple Plantation
Have you ever seen a pineapple plantation? For me, it was the first time. It looks inconspicuous, like a field where ground plants with tall, long leaves grow.

However, when you get closer, you see how there’s a pineapple hiding in every one of those rosettes of leaves! In 2022, India ranked 6th in global pineapple production.

9. Pineapple Market
Our next stop was dedicated to pineapples as well. We drove to a small square, or better said, to a large courtyard. If you take a good look at the photo, then you will notice that all the signs have the word pineapple on them.

This is the pineapple market, where large piles of these exotic fruits are piled up. Some fruits have been feasted on by crows already. They know what’s good!

Every once in a while a truck would arrive here, fully loaded with pineapples. The men began to stack them, sort and carry them in big buckets on their heads.

A spry old man with his mobile phone in his shirt breast pocket and a cigarette in his mouth loaded a full bucket on his head like it was nothing. If one pineapple weighs 0.5 – 3.5 kg, how many kgs were now on his head? At least 50!

10. Truck Painting Workshop
India is full of colour. Anyone who has visited this country will tell you that. The trucks that ply Kerala’s roads are colourful, too.
Some years ago, these decorations were said to be less striking and contained mainly religious symbols. Today, these trucks are painted in bold colours.

Only men worked in the workshop. With the unhealthy smell of synthetic paint and little light filtering in through the gate and a few openings in the roof, they transferred elaborate floral designs, idyllic landscapes and geometric shapes onto the bodywork.

The painting is commissioned by the owner of the lorry. First, the carved wooden parts are attached to the car. The price for the finished work depends on their number and the complexity of the designs.

This fashion started in the 1960s. At first, chauffeurs mainly wanted to have their names painted. Later, more decoration was added and today entire lorry bodies are painted.

It’s as if these painted works tell stories. Because for a trucker, his car is more than a vehicle. They don’t just drive these trucks, they sleep, pray and dream about their family in them.

It was clear from the crescent moon and other symbols that the owner of this truck was a Muslim. It takes 4-5 days to paint one truck. The painting has to be renewed every two years.

When I was travelling to the airport early the next morning, we met many of these trucks on the way. Some call them “moving paint canvases”. They were all loaded with lumber. Some were carrying pinkish wood – mahogany, and others were carrying cut pieces that still had sticky drops on them. It was wood from rubber trees.
11. Rubber Factory
The rubber trees brought us to our next stop. You’ll recognize those trees easily. The plastic bags attached to their trunks, into which the latex milk from the bark oozes when cut. They’re not big trees. When the latex drips from them, their growth slows down. After 30 years, the tree produces little latex, the trees are cut down and their wood, which is transported by painted trucks, is used to make furniture.

Commercial cultivation was introduced here by British growers, the first plantations being established in Kerala in 1902.
Right next to the plantation, we visited a small rubber factory. Only women worked here. Their colourful world was similar to that of the men in the truck painting workshop. The harsh working conditions, the smell, the dirt. Still, all of the women gave us friendly smiles.

We saw the moulds and it was clear that latex gloves were being made here. Black or red – which would you choose?

We also discovered machines that cut rubber tubes into rubber bands. Tiny elastic rings – white, yellow, pink… there were thousands of them… India is the world’s 3rd largest producer of rubber and the 4th largest consumer.

12. Chocolate Factory
The last stop was a sweet spot after the intense day. We visited the Rakkaudella Chocolate Factory. This was also the first time, I saw a real cocoa tree with big, still green beans.

We were accompanied by the manager and co-founder of the company, Joseph. He explained the whole process, how the beans are hand-picked, sun-dried, sorted, roasted, crushed… 

They make their chocolate with fresh ingredients from local sources, but most importantly, they put their hearts into it. After all, even the name Rakkaudella means “with love”. They process 1 tonne of cocoa a month. In a big blender, there was a beautifully blended brown mass and it smelled even nicer.

Of course, we also tasted the freshly made chocolate. It was delicious! Too bad we couldn’t buy the chocolate, it would have melted right away in the warm weather.

If you’re in India and you see chocolate bars wrapped in these wrappers somewhere, you’ll already know they’re from this factory and made of cocoa grown on the slopes of Idukki in Kerala.

More information and online shop: Rakkaudella
So, we finished our exploration of the traditions and handicrafts in this part of Kerala. I enjoyed it a lot that we were able to visit places we would never have found without Jacob. We even had the possibility (at least at some places) to talk to the locals and thus learn more about their work and life. At the same time, we were looking forward to the evening when we would try some typical Kerala recipes and cook dinner together with Jacob as part of our cooking lesson – more about that in the next article.
In the meantime, you might also be interested in my other articles about: KERALA
Viac informácií o Pimenta Spice Garden: The Pimenta

Text: © Copyright Ingrid, Travelpotpourri
Fotos: © Copyright Ingrid, Travelpotpourri