San Giacomo Montesano: Sicily Carob Tree Harvest

This year's annual carob harvest was abundant. In Sicily, harvest takes place between late August and early September. The female carob trees were laden with pods. The ripe pods are a deep reddish brown. And yes, there are male and female carob trees. With so many trees on the property, the harvesting took 6 people almost 5 days this year.

The process to collect the pods involves cleaning under a tree and laying woven cloth under it. Two people would normally harvest a tree. Using long cane sticks we tap the pods which fall to the ground onto the cloth. The sound of the cane sticks tapping the pods is really soothing and soon the rhythmic sound together with the thumping of falling carob pods fills the quiet tranquility of the Sicilian countryside. Occasionally the group would exchange between us but playing pinyada requires attention and people tend to remain focused on the principal activity.

Lower pods are easy to get to; some can be plucked by hand. Even though the sun is showing off the Sicilian countryside in all its glory, under the trees it is cool and dark. The shade is a blessing, but makes it easy to miss a grouping of pods.

Some of the trees are hundreds of years old and are huge. Even the longest cane sticks are not long enough to reach the top of these magnificent living structures. Here ladders are necessary. Balancing a long and heavy cane on a ladder in between the carob tree’s branches requires an experienced harvester.

Once a tree has been harvested, the team picks up the cloth by the corners so that the pods slide to the centre. The cloth is then emptied into sacks. This year a few trees produced so much harvest that it was logistically simpler to gather the pods by the armload and place them in sacks until the load was light enough to manoeuvre the cloth.

Sacks soon start piling up. With such a rich harvest, most of the harvested carobs are taken to central depots where they are sold by weight. The tradition in Sicily is that the earnings are split 50/50 between the harvesting team and the landowners. Harvested carobs are sold to pharmaceutical companies and the food industry.

We keep a few kilos for our consumption and to gift relatives. Part of the harvest is converted into a syrup that is very effective as a natural cough syrup. The syrup tastes fantastic and is naturally sweet, meaning that a spoonful when there are no associated medical symptoms, is a frequent occurrence. Although we have never done it, we’ve heard stories of people stirring a spoon of syrup into fizzy beverages.

There are various recipes on how to make carob syrup. After washing the pods, they are broken or shredded and soaked in containers of water. They are left for 1 day. During the soaking period, the water starts turning brown as the pods release all their goodness into the liquid. The mixture is boiled and left to rest for a second day. The process is repeated a third time. The solid parts are then removed and the resulting liquid is, over a few hours, reduced to a syrup. The process is complete when the syrup coats the back of a spoon. After cooling down, the remaining mixture, now dark black, is poured into sterilized jars to be enjoyed throughout the year.

Commercial producers of carob syrup add sugar to the mixture, with some adding as much as 100% sugar. Sugar bulks up the product and reduces the time and evaporation to pass the back-of-spoon syrup test.

Another use of carob pods is to produce carob flour. To produce the flour the pods are washed, dried, and roasted. Then the seeds are removed and the pulp is then ground into a powder.

The seeds can be ground into a thickener for ice cream, sauces, and condiments.

The flour is used in both sweet and savory dishes.

The above are carob flour ravioli filled with ricotta on a base of melted Parmigiano Reggiano tinted with Sicilian lemons.

The above are carob and almond biscotti made, as you may have guessed, with the two ingredients just mentioned, together with sugar, a touch of ginger, and lots of love.

Carob produce is used in many recipes and beverages either for its flavor or as a healthy substitute for chocolate and in gluten-free recipes.