Salt & Spice Blends.

The History of the Spice Trade.

I have never been to a house that doesn’t have a spice rack overflowing with a variety of herbs and spices, but once upon a time, spices were considered precious and generated great wealth for those who owned and controlled them.

Traded by merchants in the Middle East over 4,000 years ago, they were surrounded with great mystery as spice merchants created fantastic tales of their journey battling fierce winged creatures to reach spices growing high up on cliff walls.

The spice trade established and destroyed empires and led to the discovery of new continents, but today, spices are no longer worth more than gold like nutmeg once was, or used to pay bonuses to workers like cloves once were. As spices became more common, their value began to fall and they were no longer considered luxuries, but their rich history remains alongside their wonderful variety of flavours, colours and smells.

Modern Spices.

A good majority of the spices we see in the supermarket are imported from overseas and have been irradiated. Food irradiation not only kills fruit flies, bacteria, virus and parasites within and on the food, it also kills the beneficial microbes and nutrients as well.

When buying herbs and spices, it is best to look for organic or spray free ones, but when it comes to irradiation, there are no labelling laws requiring that irradiated foods be identified, so you may need to ask a few questions.

Benefits of Herbs and Spices.

Herbs and spices not only add amazing flavour to your dishes, they offer many nutritional and therapeutic benefits as well. Cinnamon (one of my faves!), for example, has anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral and anti-diabetic properties as well as being high in antioxidants. Wow!