Mother following Ford to order tropical spice (8)
I believe the answer is:
cardamom
'tropical spice' is the definition.
'cardamom' can be an answer for 'spice' (I've seen this before). I am not certain of the 'tropical' bit.
'mother following ford to order' is the wordplay.
'mother' becomes 'dam' (female parent of an animal).
'following' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'ford' becomes 'car' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'to order' becomes 'om' (Order of Merit).
'dam' after 'car' is 'cardam'.
'cardam'+'om'='CARDAMOM'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cardamom that I've seen before include "Seeds used as spice" , "Roc, Madam, may become a herb" , "Spice; a mad corm (anag.)" , "spicy stuff" , "something spicy" .)