Women Know About Food from Trees

Backgrounder

Content: People everywhere eat food from trees. Women farmers know about tree crops, and how to harvest and process them.

If you were asked for a list of all the foods that you and your family eat which ones would you list? Probably, you would name crops such as rice, maize, sorghum, beans or potatoes. Maybe you would also include vegetables like cabbage and spinach. But would you remember to mention the food you eat that comes from trees?

Do not be surprised if you forgot to include tree crops. Many people forget the importance of foods like fruit, leaves, twigs, bark, seeds and nuts in their diet. The people who usually know most about tree crops are women such as your grandmother, mother and sister. Today we are going to introduce you to some women farmers from around the world who know the importance of food from trees.

Fatou Diouf from Northern Senegal

First, meet Fatou Diouf, a farmer who lives in Northern Senegal. Fatou often collects the leaves of the baobab tree (Adansonia digitata) when she gathers firewood. She takes the leaves home to eat fresh or to dry for later use.

Fatou prepares the fresh leaves by chopping them into small pieces, and softening them in a bit of boiling water. She then serves them as a vegetable to her family. She also dries some of the baobab leaves by placing them in the sun for two days. When Fatou can rub the leaves into small pieces they are ready to be made into flour by pounding them with a mortar and pestle. Fatou adds the baobab flour to stews to make the stew thicker and tastier. Just before the rainy season when food is scarce or when there is no meat for stew, Fatou makes the baobab flour into porridge. She also extends her family’s staple foods, rice or couscous, by adding baobab flour.

Last year, a health worker encouraged Fatou to continue feeding her family the baobab leaves because one serving of the leaves is as rich in protein as a glass of milk. The leaves also contain vitamins A, B2, and C as well as calcium and niacin which keep her family strong and healthy.

Winnie Booti from Indonesia

Farmers around the world have heard a lot about the shrub called leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala). This tree is well-known for its many benefits, such as nitrogen-fixation and soil conservation. It can also be used as mulch, fuel, poles, and as fodder for animals. But did you know that leucaena is also used as a food crop by many people in countries such as Indonesia?

Winnie Booti is an Indonesian farmer who plants leucaena around her garden as a green fence. Each week she picks some of the new shoots or leaves off the shrubs. Winnie is careful not to pick too many of the young leaves so that the trees will continue to grow.

Winnie uses the newest leaves because they are tender and sweet and excellent for making relishes which can be eaten with cassava or yams. She simply chops the leaves into small pieces and adds some lemon juice or boiling water to the leaves to soften even more.

When the leucaena begins to produce seed pods, Winnie also picks some of the young pods and cooks them as vegetables. The amount of protein in leucaena pods is almost the same as the protein in peas and beans. Winnie is serving her family nutritious food, even during times of the year when food is not plentiful.

Mama Acholi from Nigeria

Seeds of the locust bean (Parkia sp.) are a very popular tree food in West Africa. Mama Acholi lives in Nigeria and she regularly harvests locust bean seeds from the trees that she has planted on her farm. She uses the seeds as food for her own family and sometimes she sells extra seeds in the local market.

Mama Acholi explains that the locust bean can be difficult to digest if it is not prepared correctly. Fermenting the seeds makes them easier to digest. The seeds will also be more nutritious after they are fermented.

Today Mama Acholi is teaching her daughter how to prepare the locust bean for dinner just as her own mother once taught her. The food that they are preparing with the locust bean is called dawadawa or iru. Mama Acholi ferments the seeds by placing them in a pot with water. The seeds soften and absorb some of the water. The seeds are ready when they begin to smell sour and small air bubbles form at the top of the pot. The beans are then drained before they are boiled into a sauce or soup. Mama Acholi knows the locust bean is a good substitute for meat because it is high in protein, fat, and vitamins.

Conclusion

Today we have introduced you to some women farmers who are know a lot about food that comes from trees. These stories show how sometimes we forget about the wide variety of food sources we can use to make ourselves and our families healthy.

Do you know other examples of food that comes from trees? If you have forgotten, you can always ask your mother or grandmother!