Ceratonia siliqua
Origin: Spain
Improvement status: Cultivated
Seeds per packet: ~10
BOTANICAL SAMPLE - NOT GERMINATION TESTED
Life cycle: Perennial
Also called St. John's Bread, carob is far more interesting and culturally important than its reputation as merely a chocolate substitute would have you believe. Native to the Mediterranean, and hardy down to USDA Zone 8, carob is a flowering evergreen in the Caesalpinioideae sub-family of the legume family (Fabaceae). It's the roasted then finely ground pulp of the carob pod that gets used as a chocolate substitute, and this is also the part most widely consumed in its places of origin, but in many of those places culinary traditions exist that highlight carob all on its own — not trying to be anything else.
Carob pulp is roughly a third to a half sugar, so it is naturally sweet and tasty. In Malta, they make a delicious syrup (ġulepp tal-ħarrub) and a traditional caramel-like candy (karamelli tal-ħarrub) from carob. In Palestine and Egypt, crushed pods are heated and then boiled to make a sweet cold beverage called "kharrub." In Lebanon, a carob molasses (debs el kharrub) is often mixed with tahini and sometimes served with bread. Cypriots also make a sort of thick molasses, called "haroupomelo," which is eaten as is or used as the base for a toffee-like snack called "pasteli." Across the region, from Portugal to Turkey, various liqueurs are also made from carob.
Carob is also sometimes used in traditional medicine, such as in Yemen, where it's considered to have a role in controlling diabetes mellitus by lowering blood sugar levels. The hard wood, with extremely wavy grain, is used for ornamental woodwork, including furniture design, tools, firewood, and art objects.
Our Spain-grown seed was imported by the good folks at Sheffield's Seeds in Locke, NY.
GROWING TIPS: Pour hot water over the seeds and then soak for 24 hours. Once you have a healthy little tree, pick a dry, sunny spot for its permanent location. Hardy to Zone 8, they can take temperatures down to around 17 degrees F.
NOTE: The photo of the dried carob pods is from user Olea, and shared under a the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. Others are in the public domain.
