Karen Wils photo

ESCANABA — December is delicious with fantastic flavors.

The scent of cinnamon seeps out of the kitchen. Warm wonderful whiffs of ginger and cloves perfume the rooms.

‘Tis the season of Christmas treats and holiday feasts. Most every family has a few holiday specialties that they whip up like gingerbread cookies, meat pies, potato sausage, mincemeat pie, povitica, rosettes or cardamom rolls.

The spices of December are awesome enough to welcome a king.

Back in the “olden days” spices were a precious commodity. Explorers traveled thousands of miles to Asia and Africa to bring back cinnamon, cardamom and ginger to the eastern world. Before the days of refrigeration, spices helped to preserve food and kept it from smelling bad too soon.

Michigan pioneers treasured their spices and kept them corked and sealed in glass bottles. Making a spice cake with ground cinnamon from Sri Lanka, while a blizzard whipped at the cabin door, was sweet treat.

The Swedish immigrants to Upper Michigan enjoyed making cardamom rolls or bread at Christmas time.

The tantalizing aroma from seed pods grown in India drifted through the northern forests.

One of my many fine memories of my Aunt Nancy Hendrickson was the smell of her house on bread baking days. Her cardamom rolls, hot out of the oven, swiped with a bit of butter, were out of this world good.

Cardamom was expensive so it was used for special occasions.

There are two types of cardamom (sometimes spelled “cardamum”) green cardamom and black cardamom. Both are used for baking, tea and making chewing gum.

Today cardamom is grown in more places like Guatemala and Tanzania, but it is still considered the third most expensive spice in the world. Cardamom Christmas cookies and coffee cakes are getting more popular. Even the U.P.’s own Ternary Toast has a cardamom variety as well as their cinnamon one.

As the royal aromas of favorite spices fill our homes, let’s be ready for this special season of peace and joy.

When all of the cooking and baking is done, take a few minutes to talk over family heirloom recipes, with the younger generation.

Take a meat pie or a coffee cake to a neighbor and sit and visit for a little while.

Count your blessings as the sun sets low over the snow while the scent of cinnamon dances in your warm house.

Christmas is a time of sharing something special — like your time and your talents with others.

I’d like to wish everyone a merry Christmas. I pray that the peace and joy of this season can stay with us throughout the year.

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Karen (Rose) Wils is a lifelong north Escanaba resident. Her folksy columns appear weekly in Lifestyles.