Tamarind

I grew up with tamarind juice for lunch; I never really liked it until now, when it is hard to get... strange? No! very common indeed to yearn for something when we don't have it anymore.

I thought tamarind was a Guatemalan tree and now I find out that it is actually African and that India and Mexico claim it as their own as well.

At any rate it is a tropical evergreen, which requires dry soil during fruit development.

Tamarind has diverse uses in the kitchen, like the juice I used to drink or as an ingredient to prepare preserves or chutney; to make meat sauces, marinades an to pickle fish.

Candy can be made by mixing the pulp with dry sugar and molding it into colorful balls leaving the pit inside so you can roll it in your mouth at the end. You may always eat the fresh fruit, it might be a little tart but it is agreeable to the taste.

I also found out that it is an important ingredient on Worcestershire sauce, I suppose the English learned that from the Indians.

And here are some of its uses:

• The wood is used to make furniture and wood flooring because it is dense and durable
• In some places in Asia, the pulp is used to polish brass
• The tea of the leaves is used to reduce Malaria fever
• In Guatemala the tamarindo juice is used to relieve constipation - the stronger the juice the faster its effect
• In the Caribbean, the tea is given to individuals suffering measles
• Also in the Caribbean the tea is used to bathe individuals suffering measles, small pox, chicken pox and body ache
• Again, the tea can be used as an eye wash to reduce the red and the swell
• The tea made out of its roots is used in the Caribbean to control hemorrhages
• and if all of the above were small, the tea of tamarind leaves can also be used when suffering chest colds, cough, sore throat and of all thing, Diabetes!

I believe a tamarind tree would probably make a beautiful Bonsai.