Kwanzaa, a “First Fruits” celebration, begins the last week of December. In January, when we first arrived, everything we harvested was like First Fruits to us. We were delighted with the luscious paw paw (papaya) and pineapples, the tangy soursops, the cashew fruits and cashew nuts, and the surprise harvests of wild mushrooms.
Cashew Tree
Cashew Fruit
Wild Mushrooms
We were truly like small children. A little later on, we got plantain and guava. In this month of September we get to harvest the cornucopia of foods we’ve planted since our arrival, the real First Fruits of Shabuta.
Greens! We’ve waited a long time for African greens: potato greens, water greens, kaless greens (mchicha/kalaloo), and the many other delicious greens that don’t have English names. Baba and I got into raw foods many years ago and I love raw greens. Each year we came, I would try African greens raw, but we could never chew them. So you can imagine our delight to find that water greens and kaless greens picked straight from the farm are tender enough to eat raw!
Water Greens
Mchicha/Kaless Greens
Potato greens, just picked, are tender too, but the raw flavor is so strong, it would take my raw foodist daughters to season them to deliciousness. I did mix some raw potato greens with some raw water greens and that was very nice. I’m just sorry most of these greens are so far on the other side of the farm, but I’ll be there every day picking my greens. Cassava leaf may be Liberia’s all-around favorite dish. It certainly is near the top of our list and it grows everywhere so we can have it whenever we like. We haven’t tried the pumpkin leaves yet. They’re way off in a different direction of the farm. I remember loving them in East Africa. We also planted some arugula, tatsoi, chard, and other western greens. I planted them early in the season and they were simply delicious. Then I tried to plant them again later in the season, but I failed. I’ve learned since then, from the farm workshop we sponsored, that I didn’t store the seeds correctly. Since using the techniques we learned for storing seeds in Africa, most of my seeds have remained viable.
We’re also harvesting the pumpkins. You need ten acres to plant African pumpkin. They run all over everything and love to bear these huge, smooth-skinned fruits that are hiding far away from the original seeds you planted. You have to practice spying them out deep in the foliage and bush.
Pumpkin Hiding in the Foliage
The saying goes that you shouldn’t point with your finger when you spot one, only point with your nose or “they will spoil”. Tomorrow we’ll go pumpkin hunting. I already know where an immensely huge one is, but I’ll save that to share with guests and look for a medium sized one. They are very unlike American Halloween pumpkins. The flavor and texture are more substantial. You’ll enjoy delicious and nutritious eating with African pumpkin.
There are many African foods that are bitter, sour, have a “draw” or are hot. Many of them are eaten for health benefits, but once you begin to enjoy most of them, you really can’t do without them. Take, for instance, bitterballs.
Bitterballs
They are in the tomato family, look like little eggplants and the big ones taste quite a bit like eggplant. The tiny ones are usually our favorites because they have that special African bitter twang to them that characterizes many African foods we love. Bitterballs were planted near the legendary African peppers. Naturally, we have lots of pepper.
Palm trees are ubiquitous on the farm. We love the red palm fruits and there’s nothing like the fresh oil.
Red Palm Fruit
Cassava root, with its more nutritious leaves, is all around too and when it’s fresh from the earth, who can refuse? I just wish cassava had nutritional benefits to match the eating enjoyment.
There have also been some wild fruits for which we don’t know an English word. Our one mango tree that is bearing was picked before we discovered it. We’re watching closely now for next year’s crop.
We feel blessed to have so many First Fruits. We couldn’t put most of our crops in the ground until we got the chickens in their house. They were eating all our seeds and destroying all our beds. At least we got to taste a few delicious ground peas (peanuts) that the chickens missed. The other ground peas, beans, tomatoes, rice, okra, cucumbers, etc. will ripen later, along with the late harvesting ginger and garlic.
Everyone here wants us to plant corn, but the corn seed available to us here is that suspect American stuff and so we refuse. We’re looking for some sorghum seed, though. If anyone has suggestions, please send them along. Meanwhile, we’re looking forward to our rice harvest. With the chickens in their house we hope the rice birds don’t eat it all.
Rice Growing near the Chicken House
