Atreya Spice Farm ~Goa

Spices are my life, I grew up in a household where the spice box was my mums best friend. She used them for cooking, medicinal and even for ayurveda and beauty treatments. Spices have so many wonderful benefits, they are aromatic, flavour some and if used correctly have tremendous health benefits.

I recently wrote about the health benefits of ginger and turmeric on my food blog. Spices come in dried form and of course fresh too. There are many varieties and species of plants that produce these spices and on my recent trip to Goa I was very lucky to visit the Atreya Spice Farm. The spice farm is based in Molem, Goa and you can do a day trip to the farm where they offer guided tours followed by a traditional Goan Lunch.

On arrival we were welcomed in a traditional way of a tikka and garland and offered refreshments before the tour.

Atreya farm is a 36 acre estate that is made up of forest land, wooded groves, tropical gardens, an orchard, an astrological plant park, and a medicinal plantation. It also has coconut and areca nut plantation, wildlife and birds and butterflies.

  

When we visited Atreya spice farm in October, it was recovering from a cyclone that had damaged a lot of the plants.The farm suffered a lot of damage and it is slowly being rebuilt. 

The tour around the spice gardens was very interesting. Sonali our tour guide  was very knowledgeable and she was very passionate about the plants, the spices and their benefits. She shared a lot of interesting tips with us of home remedies.

There were nutmeg trees, cardamom plants, cinnamon trees and many more. There were many more interesting varieties of herbs and plants. 

We also learnt about Feni a local liquor drink made from cashew nuts which Goa is famous for. Our guide showed us how it was fermented in the traditional way. We were offered a taste of it and believe me it was really strong, an acquired taste for sure!!!

The tour was extremely interesting and we learnt so much about how each spice can be used to benefit your health and reduce certain symptoms and ailments.

After the tour we enjoyed a lovely traditional vegetarian Goan lunch served in the rustic restaurant. The lunch is prepared on site using all the herbs and spices from the farm. It is cooked and served in earthen pots to give the food the authentic taste.

We enjoyed rice with dhal, chickpea curry called chole, stirfried dry cabbage, pakore (vegetable fritters) Goan bread and pappodams.

The spice farms also have a  souvenir shop selling farm grown spices, herbal oils, coconut carvings  and organic handmade soaps.

The Coconuts were carved in many designs such as monkeys, elephants and Lord Ganesh  a Hindu monkey god and looked beautiful.

We had a lovely visit and would like to thank Atreya Spice Farm for the lovely gift they gave us, a hand carved Lord Ganesh from a coconut shell. It is a lovely gesture from Mr Amrut the farm manager.

You can visit the farm as a trip on its own  and pay at the entrance or book through a package where you can do a combined day trip to Dudhsagar Falls, Atreya Spice plantation and the Old Goa Churches.We booked the combined trip through Trip Raja

We will definitely visit Atreya Spice Farm again on our next trip and would highly recommend anyone going to Goa to visit it. It's very educational and informative day out.

Since out visit, the farm has also introduced elephants there.

You may like to read about my other Goa posts:

Dudhsagar Waterfalls
Goan Old Churches