Carob Tree in the Garden

Today, I made a little discovery.....I realised that there was an actual Carob Tree on the property where I work. For years I passed this tree and never even realised that it was these funny looking 'bean like' formed pods that the carob powder I often use in raw recipes comes from!!

This is the tree itself with a few of the pods dangling off of it.

This evergreen tree grows in Africa, Southern America, Australia, France (now I know that fact), Italy and spain and it is known to go back as far as Biblical times.

To get to the carob seeds inside, the hard outer core of the pods are spilt open and ..................

Here they are..................... carob seeds. The technical term for this process is called 'Kibbling'. The pods are kibbled which entails the seed and the pod  being separated for different uses. The pod is ground and used as 'Carob Powder' we have become familiar to. The seeds are used to make Carob Bean Gum (CBG) and used as a stabalizer or thickener.

After World War II, due to chocolate being short in supply, to replace this form of sweets/treats, young children were given carob pods to chew on instead. Now I realise why one of my dogs always grabs one of these pods when we pass this tree and plays with it for a while then lays down and chews on it. As we know from the powder, the pod is naturally sweet and quite tasty in fact even in that form.

We also have lots and lots of aloe vera plants on the property too fortunately which I adore and utilize often.

I cut away the outer tough green skin and the aloe vera gel oozes inside. I add this to my green smoothies and also use it externally as a body moisturiser.

I have always been known to walk around with 'blinkers' on so to speak (must work on this) and now, to think I have access to a carob tree and it's wonderous pods astounds me!