Due to its popularity, its growth around Asia, the Middle East and Europe quickly expanded, more so than the previous spices. It had both cooking and medicinal uses.
Nutmeg originated on the Banda Islands in Indonesia, the nut of the tree group Myristica. The spice was grown only on the islands until the mid-19th century. Europeans, being Europeans, took over the islands in 1621 to get a monopoly on the spice. The East India Trading Company led this. In the early 1800’s the British transplanted nutmeg to other parts of East Asia and India.
These basic ingredients for pumpkin pie show the vast diversity of food around the globe. Some ingredients, such as the spices nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger, show the value that humans place on food, and the lengths to which we go to obtain it. This exercise in discovering the origins of food shows the long history of globalization, helping us realize that creating connections around the globe is not a modern idea, but is rooted deep in our