Description

Carobs are wonderful, evergreen trees that are drought tolerant and produce edible pods in winter. The pods taste like toffee or caramel.

Carob trees start bearing at about 6-7 years of age, and occasionally earlier. Please note that they come in separate male and female trees so make sure to keep at least four plants till they flower to make sure you have one of each.

You may know carob for the powder that many people try to pass off as a chocolate substitute but I really think it should have been marketed as itself as it is delicious in it’s own right. The pods are sweet and full of fibre, simple carbs, as well as complex carbs.

During the 2nd world war carob pods kept a lot of Greek people from starving.

One thing many people don’t know is that most commercial carob trees are grown for the hard seeds inside the pods. When these seeds are ground to a powder it is used as a strong thickener for soups, puddings etc. You only need 1%. The pods on these trees aren’t very sweet.

The seeds you are buying are from a sweet podded tree grown for food.

 

Botanical name: Ceratonia siliqua

Planting: Carob seeds germinate readily. Plant in pots and transfer to the ground when about 30cm tall or so. Don’t plant in clay soil or ground that gets saturated in winter/spring.

Care: Water regularly when establishing but these are tough and drought tolerant when mature.

Harvest: Harvest when the pods are brown and starting to fall from the tree. This will be June/July.

Diseases: Carobs don’t suffer from a lot of diseases but may not thrive or grow properly in clay soils..

Cooking: Eat pods raw (spitting out the seeds). Grinding to flour may clog up your machine but there are instructions online.

Seed Saving: The seeds can be saved from ripe pods for replanting. Remember that you won’t know which seeds are female and which are male till they flower.