Clove Processing

About this event

Clove Processing is listed as a seasonal agro and farm experience at Edamon in Pathanapuram taluk, Kollam district, Kerala. The listing uses the place name Edamon Plantation and the line “clove drying processing.” Public maps for this listing open on Edamon village, a foothill settlement on the Punalur side of the Western Ghats, PIN 691307. Village records name rubber as the main crop and banana as the second. No published tour, class, fee, or drying calendar is attached to the village, so anyone hoping to watch cloves being dried should ask a working estate before travelling.

A clove is the dried, unopened flower bud of Syzygium aromaticum, the evergreen spice tree. Pickers take the buds before they open into flowers. In the Kollam belt the buds start to turn from green toward a light pink, and that colour change is the signal to harvest. Clusters are separated from the stalks by hand, and the buds are spread in the sun until they turn a deep chocolate brown. Drying takes about three days when the weather holds. Fresh buds lose much of their weight as the moisture leaves. A field figure often quoted for a good season is about 60 kilograms of raw clove from one tree, falling to about one-third of that weight once dry. Stalks and fallen leaves are sold as well, including to toothpaste makers. The finished weight depends on the tree, the season, and how carefully the buds are handled.

The published clove country of Kollam is the high range, from Kallar inside Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary to the Ambanad hills that border the Aryankavu forests. Buds appear on those trees between December and March. The trees are often more than 12 metres tall, and workers climb them on long bamboo ladders. A mature tree can take three people about four days, and branches are left intact because breakage reduces the next crop. Owners often lease the harvest to bidders. The crew has to move quickly, since buds left to open lose quality. Dried clove from this belt has long moved through markets based largely in Nagercoil. In the kitchen it is a cooking spice, and a share of the crop is distilled for eugenol, an essential oil used in medicine and flavouring. Prices move with quality and the season.

Kerala and Tamil Nadu grow most of India’s clove. Within Kerala, farm studies name Kollam, Idukki, and Kozhikode as the commercial districts. The tree reached the south Travancore high ranges in the 1800s, and the pockets still run from the Nagercoil hills through Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam. Edamon sits on the road and rail approach, between Punalur and Thenmala, so a farm listing can point here while the drying floors stand farther up the hills. The directory window of October to December does not match the December-to-March budding period, so that range should be read as a listing label.

For a visitor, clove processing means harvest at the closed-bud stage, hand separation of bud and stalk, and sun drying until the spice is brown, hard, and aromatic. It is seasonal labour on existing trees. There is no reliable public note of guided walks, tasting sessions, or entry tickets at an Edamon clove yard. Edamann railway station stands in the village on the Kollam–Sengottai line, and both public and private buses serve the settlement. Punalur, a few kilometres west, is the nearest town. The slopes around Edamon are rubber estates, with banana on smaller plots, and the road continues east toward Thenmala, the Shendurney forests, and Aryankavu. Travellers looking up clove drying in Kollam, or farm experiences around Edamon, should ask a local estate whether any drying floor is open that season.

🚆 Railway: Edamann Railway Station (~0.5 km); Punalur Railway Station (~10 km)

✈️ Airport: Thiruvananthapuram International Airport (~89 km)

🚌 Bus: Local buses serve Edamon village; Punalur KSRTC Bus Station (~8 km)

🏨 Stay: Hotel Panacea Ventures; New Kavitha Hotel; A One Hotel

✅ Notes: The pin is Edamon village in Kollam (PIN 691307), where the recorded crops are rubber and banana. Kollam’s published clove belt is Kallar to Ambanad, and buds are harvested from December to March. October to December is only a directory label.