cardamom

BOTANICAL NAME

Elettaria cardamomum

AKA

True cardamom
small cardamom
queen of spices

Elettaria cardamomum is the aromatic plant that yields the fruit called cardamom. The fruit capsules are dried for their numerous culinary uses and for their wellness properties, and so these pungent pods have been dubbed the "Queen of Spices." Green cardamom is considered to be the second-most expensive spice by weight, surpassed only by saffron.

Though this plant is native to India's western Malabar coast, the majority of the world's supply of green cardamom now comes from Guatemala where the plant has been given another nick-name: "Green Gold of Guatemala." Part of the crop's success in the country lies in its being suitable for growing by smallholder households (often women-led). However suitable the crop is for farming, both cultivation and harvesting are still labor-intensive. Plants aren't mature for three to four years and the area around the crop requires weeding and pest control during that time. Once mature, the plant flowers in the spring, the fruit swells in the summer, and then when it is bright green and ripe it is ready for harvesting—usually in the first half of October.

Harvesting is done by hand, with scrapes or shoots of fruit clusters being broken off close to the stem. These fruit pods, called 'capsules', are dried by either sun or machine (depending on weather) after which they are then cleaned, polished, sorted, graded, and packed.