On Monday afternoon, we went to harvest cinnamon with a Jungle Bay
staff member. I was glad that there was not as much walking involved in this
activity because I was tired after the Boiling Lake
hike yesterday, and it's been the activity I have been looking forward to the
most on this trip.
I tried every step to the
process except the first, which was the chopping of the tree with a machete. I
was too exhausted for the amount of effort that it would have taken me to try.
There were a few of us who did not even know that cinnamon came from a
tree.
The next step was like
shaving the outer skin of the tree with a knife. It was similar to the sugar
cane we did last week, but I thought it was much harder. If you shaved until
you saw a white color, you went too deep.
After that, the staff member
cut 6 inch pieces around the tree branch so we could get the knife under the
top layer of the tree. It looked a lot easier than it was. Most of us couldn't
get the piece off in one in order for it to curl like cinnamon sticks, but I
had fun harvesting it!
We all got to take a piece of
the cinnamon with us to dry ourselves. It usually takes a couple days to sit
out to dry. I can't wait until mine is done so I can make some cinnamon iced
tea like Jungle Bay serves because it is to die for!
Ashley Gulvik
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