These outer sheaves are joined to each other and overlap slightly to create a standard length stick or rod known as a quill.
Back on the ground the individual cloves are snapped off from the bud cluster and they are sun dried in the streets.
The rest of the bud cluster (stalks and a few small young leaves) are used as an additive to Tobacco, and we see Kate attempting, after much effort, to make a Herbal cigarette.
We visit the Berbers of Morocco, the origin of saffron to see the purple Crocus flowers growing in what looks like a desert.
With saffron being so expensive it is often diluted with other spices (such as turmeric), stamens from other plants or species and even plastic and other contaminants.
We got to visit one of the laboratories which does DNA testing and Spectrum analysis as it seeks to maintain the high quality of saffron and to protect it from fraud and impurities which would devalue the genuine product.
The Pollination is performed by the Melipona bee that is native to Mexico and we find that it was not possible to grow vanilla elsewhere in the world until a slave boy discovered how to self-pollinate the plants.
Once artificial pollination was discovered the price collapsed and the vanilla trade in Mexico is now greatly reduced compared to what it used to be.
The Guardian found the show "interesting" and repetitive and warned Kate not to read the review because they were "going to be mean and horrid" to her.
And so it was that, not only did we meet the buyers and sellers of the spices in question, but we got to go into people's homes and hear about their families.The Mirror was more balanced, calling her enthusiastic in her efforts to engage with the locals and sincere as she states the obvious.
[4] Though every so often, she took a nibble out of a hard-edged news story – the disease wrecking India’s pepper crops and driving farmers to suicide, the rip-off deals that turn spice workers into virtual slaves – she quickly skipped merrily on, playing the colonial grande dame out to charm the exotic locals.The Express gave a factual account of the show and made it one of their "picks of the day"[5] KATE Humble travels along India’s fascinating Spice Coast to uncover the story of pepper, once known as black gold.