Traditional Ceylon Cinnamon Harvesting: A Family Heritage

Traditional Ceylon Cinnamon Harvesting: A Family Heritage

Harvesting and processing Ceylon cinnamon ("true cinnamon") is a centuries-old, family-based craft in Sri Lanka, rooted in skill, tradition, and precise handwork. These artisanal methods, passed down through generations, create the signature delicate quills renowned worldwide.

Generational Skills of Cinnamon Peelers

Heritage and Community: The expertise of cinnamon peeling has historically belonged to a particular caste or community (such as the Salagama/Chalia in the south), establishing a profession passed from parent to child over many generations. This meticulous skill is highly valued and, despite modernization, many peelers today still hail from families with deep roots in the craft.

Guardians of Tradition: The process is steeped in generational pride. Peelers are recognized for their expert touch, and preserving these skills has become both a cultural mission and an economic necessity, as demand for quality Ceylon cinnamon remains high.

The "Kurutu" and Specialized Tools

Kurutu (Cinnamon Quill) Knives: Peeling cinnamon requires a distinct toolkit. The most iconic instrument is the "kurutu" knife (sometimes called the kokettha, kethta, or Soorana kokeththa), curved and shaped for slicing through cinnamon stems without shattering the delicate inner bark. Various specialized knives are used for:

• Scraping the rough outer surface.

• Making precise incisions to separate bark layers.

• Removing knots and side branches.

Brass Rod: A brass rod is used to roll and loosen the bark from the hardwood, priming it for a clean, even peel.

Key elements of traditional Ceylon cinnamon harvesting include the following steps:

Timing and Harvesting Season: Harvesting is done twice a year, usually right after the rainy season (May to August), when increased humidity and sap flow make the bark easier to peel.

• Selection and Cutting: Skilled peelers visually identify mature cinnamon stems with brown bark about 3–5 cm in diameter. The stems are cut cleanly at a 45-degree angle about 1.5 to 2 inches above the ground to encourage new shoot growth, leaving 1-2 immature shoots per bush to develop for future harvests.

• Removal of Outer Bark: The harvested stems have their outer rough bark—called "sumbula" or "kurutu"—scraped off using traditional curved knives, such as the "kurutu" or "kethta." Multiple scraping tools with varying curvatures are used depending on stem diameter and roughness.

• Rubbing to Loosen Inner Bark: After scraping, the stems are rubbed with a brass rod to loosen the soft inner bark from the hardwood, a labor-intensive step indicated by sap oozing.

• Incisions and Peeling: Two longitudinal incisions are made on the stems using a thin, pointed knife called "sawthtuwa," allowing the skillful peeling of long strips of bark without damage. For thicker stems, the bark may be divided into three or four strips.

• Hand-Rolling into Quills: The peeled bark naturally curls inward and is carefully hand-rolled into quills—cigar-like tubes with layers of bark inside one another. These quills are often about 1 meter in length.

• Drying: The quills are shade-dried for several hours (2–8 hours depending on weather), allowing them to acquire their golden brown color and firm texture. They are then dried further indoors on racks made of coir rope.

• Labor and Skill: Harvesting and processing are highly skilled, time-consuming, and labor-intensive, typically requiring 10-15 hours of work per day to peel a modest quantity of finished cinnamon.

This traditional method, using specialized knives and hand techniques rooted in family heritage, produces the distinctive high-quality cinnamon quills known globally as Ceylon cinnamon

A Living Heritage

• Artistry and Discipline: The best peelers can create intact, long quills with minimal waste—an artful feat requiring patience, dexterity, and intuition honed over decades.

• Challenges and Preservation: While modernization and alternative employment entice new generations away, the highest grades of Ceylon cinnamon still rely on these ancestral skills, making cinnamon peeling both a profession and a cultural legacy. Initiatives like the Cinnamon Training Academy now seek to preserve and teach these endangered techniques to a new generation.

• In essence, traditional Ceylon cinnamon harvesting is a rare blend of agricultural knowledge, artisan skill, and family heritage where generations of Sri Lankan peelers transform humble bark into fragrant gold through the artistry of the kurutu knife and the gentle rolling of their hands