Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Connecticut

I like nutmeg. You probably got that already.

I thought it would be nice let you know a little more about nutmeg. So I went to Wikipedia to learn about nutmeg. Really fascinating. Here's what I found out.

The nutmeg tree is any of serveral species in genus Myristica. It is an evergreen tree indigenous to the Spice Islands in Indonesia, although it grows in many places. In fact, Grenada's national flag features a stylized split-open nutmeg.

Ok.

Two spices are derived from the tree- Nutmeg and Mace. Nutmeg is the seed and Mace is a red, "lacy" seed covering called an aril. (As in the aril of a pomegranite. Did you know that? Pomegranite isn't a fruit, it's a false-fruit. An aril. Anyway.) Nutmeg is the only tropical fruit that is the source of two spices and its true fruit is also edible. The fruit looks like an apricot, and a popular way to eat it is candied. But it's easily bruised, which is why it's not exported.

Hmmm.

At one time Nutmeg was one of the most valuble spices. Evidently in England, if you could sell a few nutmegs, you would be financially independent the rest of your life. The British, Dutch, Arabs, French and Portugese all battled for a claim on the nutmeg monopoly. Today, Indonesia is the main producer and exporter with 70% of the market. I think I'd like to go to Indonesia, if ONLY to eat nutmeg fruit off the tree!

That'd be awesome.

However, I learned that you really don't want to eat very much of the ground nutmeg seed. Really. I mean, it would take a lot, but just don't. Don't smoke it either. Unless you want to experiance halucinations and all-over body pain. Get this; nutmeg is illegal in Saudi Arabia. Don't freak out though, even generous culinary servings are fine.

Yikes.

Also, (since I'm certain you were dying to know) Connecticut is only called the Nutmeg State because- as legend goes- certain people there carved fake nutmegs out of wood and sold them as real ones. Which seems like a lot of work for one nutmeg. But I guess (as previously stated) that they were worth a lot more then.

So, that concludes our lesson today. That was a mouthful. I hope you enjoyed learning about nutmeg. I leave with these thoughts:

#1. I wish that the nutmeg fruit was exportable.
#2. I wish I could say that I've tried mace, but I haven't. Not even in spray form. :)
#3. I wish that I didn't have to worry about nutmeg over-consumption.
But (#4) I will never willfully down three ground-up nutmegs in wine. Unlike certain, rather stupid Czech physiologists.

And #5. Nutmeg is pretty awsome.