a cardamom town of Kerala

Kumily is a cardamom town in Kerala. There is the auction market where heaps of cardamom await the bidding of merchants from all over India. During ‘season time’ the auction takes place twice a week. One finds rows of women cleaning the cardamom. It is a native of the town of Kumily.

Although the Spice bazaar in Kumily sells many different spices and nuts, they come from different parts of Kerala. Cashew production is the largest in Kollam. Pepper and coffee have auction markets at Cochin. Eucalptus oil is brought from Kodaikanal.

In Kumily, as also in other tourist towns in Kerala, menu cards always carry ‘cardamom tea’. It is tea with milk with the flavour of cardamom. Of course, there is also ginger tea, lemon tea, black coffee and so on.

One day in the life of a cardamom is an interesting story. There are places for cleaning, places for auction, places for wholesalers and places for retailers. It has travelled through them all. Anything that is a part of a bazaar at any time has seen places and seen people.