Spicecrafts
   Tessa Eveleigh
  1997 Lorenz Books NY USA
   ISBN: 1859674941


With photographs by Michelle Garrett this is an introduction to the history of some of the most ordinary & exotic spices in the world. Inspiration for practical & lovely aromatic gifts, crafts & displays.

This luscious large volume, with exquisitely colored pages & instructional sequences is elegantly laid out, a feast for the eyes. I wish Tessa Eveleigh had somehow inveigled the publishers to have set a scratch and sniff patch for each of the aromatic spices.

...'The centuries-old quest for spices testifies to their tremendous worth in ancient times.' As I remember my geography & history, when the overland route for the Oriental spices were controlled by the Ottoman Empire in the 1400s, the major reason people jumped into ships & sailed over the horizon was to find a shorter, faster route to the ...'spice islands.' Spices were vital to our health & welfare: helping to cure & flavor our foods & add fresh, aromatic pleasure to our malodorous society.

The spice trade, the securing of a crop, the harvesting, bartering & shipping was a cutthroat business. Often using slash & burn tactics to ensure a monopoly of a particular spice crop. Some of the fastest, most beautiful sailing vessels were designed to transport harvests to their European markets thus insuring investors a huge profit. With enough contraband seeds & seedlings smuggled to new growing areas, monopolies of any one spice was broken & prices began to fall to where ordinary people could partake.

Tessa Eveleigh has written an alchemical section on the various methods of making spices into remedies, i.e., Infusions, Decoctions, Inhalations, etc. With lucid & simple directions, she reminds us that all spices, especially their oils, can be harsh & must be used with great care. There are warnings throughout this book & the reader had better take notice.

The Spice Directory lists some 30 well-known & lesser known traditional spices, all available, at any cosmopolitan store or market. Michelle Garrett's photos clearly represent each spice as we see them at the end of their harvest.

I remember Bay leaves from an old tree in our garden to which our mother sent me to pluck fresh leaves before she prepared her meal. The scent of Juniper berries from huge storage bins when I worked at a 200 year-old gin distillery. Cloves & cinnamon for the Winter Holy Days. When I chanced upon the Agra Restaurant at the end of Tottenham Court Road, there in the delicious chicken biryanis & yogurt/cucumber sauce I met fennel seeds, cumin, cardamom, saffron & turmeric among many. And because puddings were a great favorite in my English childhood, nutmeg & vanilla, anise & cassia bark.

In the “Decorating with Spices” section, Tessa Eveleigh & Michelle Garrett give us both exotic ornamentation & colorful crafts. Again, the only thing lacking is, in fact, the sense of the scents of these fabulous spices.

Spicecrafts is a fine addition to your library or a sumptuous gift.

Other works by Tessa Eveleigh: The Decorated Garden Room, Lavender, Table Settings and Glorious Country

Other works where Michelle Garret's photographs appear: Roses, Country Designs from Nature and The Country Store
(05/02/99)

Rebecca