CAROB

WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD

Look in any health shop and you will find carob coated bars and sweets. Carob is a chocolate substitute and is made from the carob beans. These are the long pods of the tree called Ceratonia siliqua. The pods are used as animal feed and they are also eaten raw as a sweet in other countries. The hard pods are black and the sweet flesh contains husks with round brown seeds. These are so evenly sized that they were used as a measure of weight for precious stones and gold. They were the original carats, each weighing 200 milligrams. Who would have thought going in to a shop to buy a sweetie bar would be so educational!

Horticultural.