Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet an savoury foods. Cinnamon trees are native to South East Asia and it origin was mysterious in Europe until the sixteenth century.
Cinnamon is harvested by growing the tree for two years then coppicing it. The next year, about a dozen shoots will form from the roots.
The branches harvested this way are processed by scraping off the outer bark, then beating the branch evenly with a hammer to loosen the inner bark. The inner bark is then prised out in long rolls. Only the thin inner bark is used; the outer, woody portion is discarded, leaving metre long cinnamon strips that curl into rolls “quills” on drying. Once dry, the bark is cut into 2.0 – 3.9 inch lengths for sale.
According to the International Herald Tribune, in 2006 Sri Lanka produced 90% of the worlds cinnamon, followed by China, India and Vietnam.
By http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamon#History
