A Tube of Ortigia Fico D’India Handcream is perfectly handbag sized and contains olive oil and lanolin to protect the skin, with cedar and fig fragrance.
Indian Fig Plant
Introduced into Europe from Central America in the 17th century, the Indian Fig plant grows extensively in the wild in Sicily. The Aztecs had made use of it for many purposes for centuries, not only for food but they also mashed the leaves. As such the fig became a medicine and was used the balm to cure headaches, toothaches and also bruises and injuries to limbs.
A prickly problem
Apparently the fruit is also a natural controller of glycaemia. It is also effective in combating excess weight, avoiding the accumulation of fats in the critical points of the belly, hips and buttocks. However the main diffculty with eating them is the spines – experts suggest a knife and fork.
Equally, as this fruit is also known as is the Prickly Pear it must remind virtually everyone of the difficulty described by Baloo in the Disney cartoon version of the Jungle Book*. So if you can’t “pick a prickly pear by the claw”, there are a couple of alternatives, this rather odd video. Or you could let someone else do the hard work. Sicilian Fig Jam is available for those who want to test the figure trimming properies. Fancy some ? you can get some by clicking on this link.
A bit of a cactus
One of the great things about the Indian Fig is that it grows wild in the arid conditions of Sicily. This is becuase it is basically a catus and will grow using the available water, without the need for irrigation. It can therefore be farmed on quite marginal land. Water supply was always a problem on the island and many solutions have been tried, some more successful than others. Judging from the water pressure in some of the places we’ve stayed, it still is ! However, there are some great examples of historical solutions like the Roman aquaduct at Termini Imerese a few miles along the coast from Palermo. It was there that the Kanats of Sicily were built to provide water to the growing city during the Muslim domination of the island.
See other products with the fig and cedar fragrance in the Fico D’India range stocked at Abrahams Store here.
Abrahams Store stocks a variety of products featuring Ortigia Perfumes available here.
(*Which in itself is interesting as the plant is native to the Americas, not India where the film is set. The name ‘Indian’ Fig is also an error inherited from Columbus’s voyages of discovery. By trying to go West to the Spice Islands or “Indies” he actually ended up in the wrong place. Hence we now talk about both the East Indies and the West Indies.)
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