Spices & herbs posts - page 5
15 September 2010
Vanilla - A Beautiful And Sensual Spice
Vanilla comes from the vanilla orchid, called Vanilla planifolia, which is native to Mexico, but is now indigenous in many tropical parts of the world, for example Madagascar and surrounding islands. There is a second vanilla orchid called Vanilla t...
Read more01 August 2010
Nutmeg And Mace Spice In Photos
Nutmeg and mace are two of those mysterious spices that are really, unusual in where they come from. They also have many strange stories attached to them - they used to be thought of as part of a cure for the plague and are reputed to be a key ingre...
Read more20 May 2010
New Indonesian Pepper Just Arrived at Steenbergs
I read a book last year called “The Scents of Eden” by Charles Corn – it’s a history of the spice trade. It was great as the perspective was different from the histories that I had read in the past which always wrote them from the angle of European...
Read more02 May 2010
New Organic Vanilla From Tahiti
We've had a delivery of some gorgeous fecund organic vanilla from Tahiti. It's brilliant kit and it's totally different from normal organic vanilla from Madagascar - firstly, it's a different species of vanilla orchid, called Vanilla tahitensis as a...
Read more31 March 2010
New Penja Pepper from the Cameroon in Western Africa
I’ve got some new peppers and as usual I am bit over-giddy about it. These ones are classic Piper nigrum – the traditional pepper plant for normal black, white and green pepper. Usually, we get our black pepper from India and Sri Lanka, but these...
Read more01 February 2010
Trying To Build A Better Spices Business
When Sophie and I set up Steenbergs, we were very clear in our own minds about what Steenbergs as a business wanted to offer as products - the widest and most exotic range of great spices, herbs, seasonings and teas from around the world that are gro...
Read more22 January 2010
Hot Chili From Steenbergs
The snow may have gone but it's cold, dreich and miserable. But after a manic Christmas, it's given me time to do some of the boring, but necessary, things of business life - stocktake inputting, stock valuation and pricing review, plus I've just do...
Read more30 July 2009
Herbs and Spices for Your Health
Herbal medicine has historically been the primary approach to acute and chronic health problems - this remains the case still in many countries. We often forget that herbal medicine is the most enduring form of treatment and is still used by 80% of...
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