Spices · Agriculture · 12 min read

The Spices of Idukki: Kerala's Spice Garden

Cardamom under the forest, pepper on the trees, nutmeg and clove at the edges, turmeric, vanilla, kudampuli and kanthari in the clearings: a guide to the spice landscape of Idukki, its markets and the lesser-known spices of the hills.

By GK Global, Adimali, Munnar · Trails & Tales by GK

Stand on any hillside farm in Idukki and you are standing in a spice garden. Cardamom grows in the shade of the forest trees, pepper vines climb their trunks, nutmeg and clove trees stand at the edges, ginger and turmeric fill the clearings, and on the borders grow vanilla, kudampuli and fiery little kanthari chillies. Idukki is Kerala's great spice district, and India's largest producer of small cardamom. This article is a guide to the spice landscape of Idukki and to the other spices that grow here, and the starting point for our series on the spices of the hills.

Why Idukki is spice country

Most of the world's great spices are plants of the humid tropical forest, and the hills of Idukki offer just what they need: altitudes from a few hundred to over 1,500 m, two monsoons and heavy, well-spread rainfall, high humidity, deep forest soils rich in organic matter, and the shade of tall trees. Since the Travancore kings opened the Cardamom Hills to cultivation in the 19th century, settlers from the plains have built a farming system in which several spices grow together on the same land, under and on the trees, a system that is productive, resilient and, when well managed, kind to the forest.

The spice economy shapes the towns of the district: Kumily, Vandanmedu, Puttady, Kattappana, Nedumkandam, Rajakkad, Adimali and Thodupuzha are full of spice dealers, curing houses and markets. The Spices Board's cardamom e-auction is held at Puttady, where its Spices Park also stands, and the Spices Board's Indian Cardamom Research Institute at Myladumpara and Kerala Agricultural University's Cardamom Research Station at Pampadumpara work with the district's farmers.

Turmeric

Turmeric (Curcuma longa), like ginger, is a rhizome of the ginger family, planted with the first rains and harvested after 7 to 9 months, when the leaves dry. The fresh rhizomes are boiled, sun-dried for 10 to 15 days, and then polished to remove the rough skin, giving the hard, golden "fingers" and round "bulbs" of commerce. Kerala's best-known turmeric is "Alleppey Finger", prized for its high curcumin content; improved varieties include IISR Prathibha and Prabha. Turmeric is grown in Idukki's farms and homesteads, often as an intercrop. India is by far the world's largest producer, consumer and exporter of turmeric, and the main markets are at Erode, Nizamabad and Sangli. In Ayurveda, turmeric is Haridra, used for skin, wounds, liver and blood, and its active compound curcumin is widely studied.

Vanilla

Vanilla (Vanilla planifolia) is a climbing orchid from Mexico whose pods give the world's favourite flavour. In Kerala, the flowers must be pollinated by hand, one by one, on the single morning each opens, and the green pods are then cured for months, by scalding, sweating and slow drying, until they turn dark brown and fragrant. In the early 2000s, after a cyclone devastated Madagascar's crop, vanilla prices soared, and Kerala's farmers, including many in Idukki and its neighbouring districts, planted it widely; green beans that fetched about ₹1,250 a kilo in 2002 reached around ₹3,500 in 2003, and farmers guarded their vines with dogs and fences. When Madagascar recovered and buyers turned to synthetic vanillin, prices collapsed to about ₹50 a kilo by 2007, and many growers gave up. Vanilla is still grown on a smaller scale in Idukki, and its fortunes still follow the harvests of Madagascar.

Kudampuli (Malabar tamarind)

Kudampuli (Garcinia gummi-gutta), also called Malabar tamarind or fish tamarind, is a tree of the Western Ghats whose ridged yellow fruits are split, sun-dried and smoked until black. The dried rind gives Kerala's fish curries, especially the red meen curry of central Kerala, their deep sourness. The trees grow in homesteads and along streams across Idukki and central Kerala. The rind contains hydroxycitric acid (HCA), which has been marketed internationally in weight-loss supplements, though evidence for that use is weak.

Kanthari chilli

The tiny, fiercely hot kanthari (bird's eye) chilli, Capsicum frutescens, grows as a bush in many Kerala homesteads, and the white and green kanthari of the hills is especially valued. It is used fresh in chutneys, pickles, buttermilk (kanthari moru) and fish dishes, and has become popular in the health market, with prices sometimes reaching several hundred rupees a kilo.

Garlic from Kanthalloor and Vattavada

In the cool rain-shadow valleys of Kanthalloor and Vattavada, in northeastern Idukki, farmers grow a hill garlic with small, strong cloves. In 2022, Kanthalloor-Vattavada Veluthulli received a Geographical Indication tag; it is reported to be richer in essential oil, sulphur compounds and allicin than garlic from the plains. (Read about the valley in our articles on Marayoor jaggery and Vattavada.)

Long pepper, lemongrass and other aromatics

• Long pepper (thippali, Piper longum): a creeping relative of black pepper whose catkin-like fruits are an essential Ayurvedic medicine and one of the three spices of Trikatu.
• Lemongrass (Cymbopogon flexuosus): grown for its oil in the dry eastern valleys, including by tribal farmers around Chinnar and Marayoor; Kerala's "Cochin lemongrass oil" was once a famous export.
• Bay leaf and curry leaf: grown in almost every homestead and essential to Kerala cooking.
• Coffee and cocoa: not spices, but grown alongside them on many Idukki farms.

How Idukki's spices reach the market

• Farm to dealer: most farmers sell cured spices to local dealers in the market towns, or to cooperatives and farmer producer companies.
• Auctions and terminal markets: cardamom is sold through the Spices Board's e-auctions at Puttady and Bodinayakanur; pepper prices are set in Kochi; turmeric and other spices are traded through regional markets.
• Exporters: traders in Kochi, the old spice capital of India, clean, grade, test and pack spices for export.
• Quality: exporters must meet strict limits for moisture, cleanliness, aflatoxins and pesticide residues, especially for the Gulf, Europe and Japan, and the Spices Board tests consignments.
• Direct sales: spice gardens and shops in Kumily, Munnar and the other tourist towns sell directly to visitors.

Buying and storing whole spices

• Buy whole spices and grind them just before use; ground spices lose their aroma within weeks.
• Choose plump, evenly coloured, strongly fragrant spices, free of dust, stalks, mould and insects.
• Store them in airtight glass jars, away from heat, light and damp.
• Beware of artificially coloured cardamom, "exhausted" spices from which the oil has been extracted, and adulteration with papaya seeds (in pepper) or cassia (sold as cinnamon).

These are traditional uses. Spices are safe in normal food amounts; anyone thinking of using them as medicine, especially in pregnancy, while taking other medicines or for a child, should ask a qualified doctor.

(Read more: The ecological hotspots of Idukki, Munnar tea and the vineyards of Cumbum.)