Häagen-Dazs having a carob honey flavor was the yuppie side of the US "hippie health food" rise of carob in the '70s - early '80s. There were other products like this such as Gilbert Brockmeyer's carob milk and carob ice cream. You could buy these products in supermarkets, not just health food stores.
I wish I had graphics to post with this, but newspaper archives are all behind paywalls and enshittified websearch is making all the old newspaper ads for these hard to find.
I may get more scattershot with the #carob facts, not necessarily stringing all the related ones close to one another...
62. Häagen-Dazs used to make a carob honey flavored ice cream. (I wish they still did...it was delectable!) They were making it as late as the early '80s when I was slingin' ice cream in their busiest store location in the world.
61. Agar that comes from seaweed is used in lab media for, among other things, plant tissue culture. At various times, agar has grown more scarce/expensive due to conditions (including climate change-induced rise in temperature in the marine environment). LBG might actually be helpful in some of this lab media, which would take some of the pressure off agar.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2005.03.003 #Carob #History #EconomicBotany #Botany #PlantScience #Horticulture
60. Currently and for some time now, there's been more money in producing carob seeds for locust bean gum (LBG) than in producing carob pulp for its own taste & sugars. Prior to the mid-20th c. another use of LBG (or as it was called then "Tragosol", a trade name) was as a sizing. Sizing something applied to bolts of fabric to keep them stiffer and freer of wrinkles before they're sewn into end-products.
#Carob #History #EconomicBotany #Botany #PlantScience #Horticulture
@brunogirin You're welcome!
You should be able to find some somewhere in Valencia, I'd think. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=30032&taxon_id=82742 #Carob
I apologize that I'm still behind on carob facts. I am in short-term housing that has no desk indoors. I am using my suitcase as a "desk" and sitting on a stool and it is *murder* on my body, ergonomically-speaking.
It's a bit of work preparing the carob fact toots so when I'm in pain and exhausted, it's more difficult to do many. I do intend to catch up, though!
Thanks to those who've let me know they've enjoyed it and to those who've boosted some of the toots.
59. But the investment in equipment can require significant capital. Coit thought the lack of this equipment in California was part of the reason carob growing never took off there. https://www.hosokawa-alpine.com/powder-particle-processing/case-studies/carob-grinding-zps/ #Carob #Horticulture #Food #Chemistry
58. What is kibbled carob? Carob pods are fairly hard when ripe and even harder months after they've ripened. The advantage is that they don't need refrigeration and keep well, but the disadvantage is they can be tough to eat directly. (You can, but it's not as easy a chew.)
Part of processing carob is breaking it into "kibble" and sieving out the seeds. When industrialization came about, this process was automated with machinery. #Carob #Horticulture #Botany
57. One of the newer festivals has a twist...many carob festivals feature carob food items, but the Festa de la Garrova Estrucada de Llucmajor is a youth-oriented event where kibbled carob is combined with water and water guns to make a fun mess of an event.
https://www.diariodemallorca.es/fotos/part-forana/2025/08/08/espiritu-garrova-estrucada-enciende-llucmajor-120471257.html#foto=1 #Carob #Botany #Spain #IslasBaleares
56. There are also carob festivals (and sometimes saint days where carob plays a part), some of longer standing than others. https://www.calig.es/index.php/es/content/fiesta-de-san-vicente #Carob #Botany #Catalunya
I spent more time fact-checking and updating things I wanted to say about carob today so I'm already pooped and it's time to go look for dinner. But I'll continue catching up with the #carob facts I owe when I can.
53. Carob price doesn't just affect whether food manufacturers want to use it as an extender, but whether crooks want to steal it. Because carob prices have been higher for a lot of the last decade, agricultural theft has become a bigger problem in many of the countries that grow it. #Carob #Food #Horticulture #Economics
52. Carob powder has been used in the past to extend cocoa powder to keep it affordable. How viable an idea that is depends on the relative prices of these crops. In recent years, carob has actually commanded a higher price than chocolate so it cannot be used as an extender with any cost savings.
However, this could change again in future. #Carob #Horticulture #Economics #Food
50. Why do I think #carob (Ceratonia siliqua) is a near-perfect crop for #California (esp now)? Because it does not need much water once established. Because it is not as picky about the quality of the soil it's growing on. Because it actually likes soil a bit on the alkaline side, which is what most of California has. Because it requires a Mediterranean climate, which CA has in most of the state. Because it can take temps down to about 20 F and up over 100F and still give a crop. #Horticulture
49. Through neglect or simply prioritizing other things (like a parking lot), these institutions destroyed or lost these donated carob cultivars.
They made their way to Australia because Coit's own collection was picked over by a UC Davis graduate who then took that germplasm to Australia, where they now form a backbone to Australia's industry.
Classic example, to my mind, of short-term thinking & limited imagination by US horticulturalists... #Carob is a near-perfect crop for CA, esp now.
47. 'Santa Fe', 'Clifford', 'Waite', 'Coffin' were all seeding parent trees found in California. Their clonal progeny are now important parts of Australia's modern orchards. #Carob #Australia #Horticulture #California #History
46. Carob isn't even listed on DAFF's crop report for Australia. The only stats I could easily find recently were Tridge's percentages https://www.tridge.com/intelligences/carob-bean/AU/production
and AgriFutures Australia's claim that in 2019, Australia's production was $2 - 3 million
https://agrifutures.com.au/product/carob-a-compact-business-case/
Australia is a small player in carob at the moment, but probably the most exciting and innovative one thanks to The Australian Carob Co's approach. #Carob #Australia #Horticulture #Economics
@InkySchwartz @ClimateJenny While I've ordered from Nuts.com before, that was before things in Gaza heated up. I'd look into the leanings of their owners before ordering.
If you live somewhere with Middle Eastern, Greek, or Cypriot grocery stores, there's a good chance they carry carob syrup.
The pods from Australia Carob Co. are much higher quality than what Nuts.com and other bulk sellers carry, although the price is correspondingly higher. #Carob
45. I haven't found it easy to get free public summaries of the carob market. It seems to be less well-tracked than other commodities. In the most recent summary I can find, Spain & Portugal are neck and neck in production, with Italy a bit behind that. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368307546_Carob_as_an_Agrifood_Chain_Product_of_Cultural_Agricultural_and_Economic_Importance_in_the_Mediterranean_Region #Carob #Horticulture #Economics
44. One of the traits that makes carob so drought-tolerant is slow growth. Rapidly creating new cells means needing a lot of water to fill them with. But growing more slowly also means healing more slowly, which extends the time a graft is vulnerable before it's fully healed. Carob propagation is a real skill! #Carob #UrbanForest #Horticulture #Botany
