Full house

These past few days have been tough.  The Bean went to her boyfriends family’s game farm which I think was a good thing. Some young company to keep her occupied would help her pass this sad time without having to look at her tearful mother.

I dreaded the quiet moments that would come – alone without Fred, but somehow the universe conspired to force me to keep company which I did, although I would have preferred staying curled up in my bed feeling sorry for myself.

Our farm which is usually really quiet, had so many people popping past and coming to see me.  We had our conservancy meeting on Saturday where I met a few of the other owners and another couple stayed here in my guest cottage while they fix their home on the farm.  They wined and dined me and would not allow me a moment to go and mope. Some of the owners came back today to view a site where they will potentially build a cottage that I will also run for them.  I was signed up as the secretary of the conservancy and because I am the only owner resident on the farm, they decided to forgo my levy in return for me reading that water meters every month and just keeping an eye on the farm.  Suits me down to the ground.

Tomorrow two of the Beans friends from Belgium arrive to visit for 10 days. We will also be “baby-sitting” two of her girl friends from school whose parents were called out of town suddenly.  From time to time the Bean’s Boyfriend ( I must find him a name) will probably be staying over.  Do the math. That’s me and 6 teenagers/young adults.  I guess I am going to be really busy.  I am planning to split them into pairs to do the cooking and dishes.  Now I just have to find enough food

I am also trying to get my business established and will have to play tour guide for some of the time. Busy, busy, busy, – and that’s a really good thing for me now.

I am going on an interesting day trip on Wednesday to see an old African lady who is one of the old fashioned herbalists who forages her food and herbs from the wild. I hope to be able to learn from her over time.  Our plants are so different here to many found in Europe and the USA and are not really well documented with regards to using them medicinally and especially for food.  We will also be visiting a tribal village so I should have some wonderful pictures for you to see soon.

Other good news – our farm has purchased more kudus for our one lonely female.  They should be arriving on Tuesday.  They are such beautiful creatures – I can’t wait to have them walking around here.

Wild about spinach

Yesterday on our way home I saw three ladies foraging in the grass at the side of the road.  I am very interested in learning more about local foraging so I stopped to see what they were picking.  After a few stumbled attempts at finding what language (including sign language) to use in addressing them I found one lady who could speak a little english.  They were picking what they called Morogo ( the “g” sound being made as a scraping sound in the back of your throat – don’t choke).

Morogo

Description
Morogo, an African spinach, refers to a group of at least three different dark green leafy vegetables found throughout Southern Africa and harvested for human consumption. It is considered a traditional South African dish and forms an important part of the staple diet in rural communities. The Leaves have a protein content of up to 36% and high levels of vitamins A and C low levels of calcium, magnesium and iron, consumption may lower the risk of vascular-related chronic diseases and type 2 diabetes
Also known as: Wild spinach

Use
The leaves must be well washed in running water, then soaked in cold salted water. They are cooked as for spinach, wilted or steamed and seasoned, often with samp beans or potatoes and onions. Young morogo can be eaten raw in salads.

The plant they showed me however was definitely not of the amaranth variety that I know about. It was more like a creeper and they explained to me that it can climb up trees.  I managed to get a cutting which I planted at home.  Does anyone know which variety of plants are used as Morogo besides amaranth?

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Foraging for food in the African bush

Most of us are accustomed to buying our food in shops or at the most picking your own homegrown veggies and fruit.  It doesn’t even occur to most of us to look for food in any other way. There is food all around us. Foraging and gleaning is so much more fun than shopping, you never know what tasty and unusual treats you might find around the corner, and you’re reducing the amount of food going to waste too.

Some folk in frugal circles in urban environments go dumpster diving and find the most amazing things and tons and tons of still edible foods thrown out by supermarkets and other stores. There are many blogs and stories about these people in the US and Europe who never need to buy anything.  In South Africa however, most of the food rejected by stores is given to the poor. Dumpster diving is like shopping in a crazy sale with hundreds of other people trying to get in first. There are very many hungry people here.  For this reason I find that I have shunned dumpster diving, leaving the pickings to people in more desperate circumstances than myself.

I do however want to make good use of the free food around me growing in the wild.  In Europe and the USA there are many books and manuals on how to do this and what you can pick and eat.  Africa has not been explored that well by foragers who write books.  Most foraging is done by the indigenous population and the knowledge is passed down the generations verbally so it is quite hard to find validated information with regards to food safety etc. I am slowly learning about some of the plants from various sources.

One of the most productive plants in our area is the marula tree.  I wrote about it some time back so if you want to learn more about the tree click here.  It is currently marula season.  We have about 6 of these trees in the immediate vicinity of our cottages, with two hanging their boughs right over the swimming pool.  The fruit drop out of the trees just before they are ripe and ripen on the ground.  Currently amidst the beautiful sounds of birds chirping and crickets cricking you hear the plop………….plop………….plop of marulas falling to the ground.  An occasional loud GLUG as one falls directly into the pool, and quite a few  thunk……drrrr……plooop of  fruit falling onto the patio and rolling into the pool.  At night we jump awake when they hit something hard when they fall (like our water tank for instance.)  I have read that each tree can produce more than a ton of fruit per season!  Thank goodness ours seem to have much less fruit than that.  I would be drowning in 6 tons of marula fruit by now. As it is, we struggle to keep up with collecting all the fruit that fall.

The Bean and I are taking turns to fish out the fruit that fall into the swimming pool.  We collect about 20-30 a day from the pool.

What makes the marula fruit such a brilliant free-food is that it is very healthy and can be used for so many different purposes.

Nutritional Information: Vitamin C: 180 mg, per 100 g of fruit (4 times that of an orange).
The kernel (nut) is calorie dense: 700 calories per 100 grams. The nut is considered very nutritious, being high in healthy oil (57-61%) as well as protein (30%), and a collection of trace minerals and b vitamins.

The fruit itself can be used in many ways:-

• Fresh fruit
• Jams and jelly
• Beer and wine
• Fruit juice
• Seed oil for cooking (very similar to olive oil properties), preserving and cosmetic use.
• Seed kernels for eating and cooking. – High protein and healthy oils. (African substitute for pine nuts)
• Kernels can even be used as a light source. They burn like candles.

Last year we had just moved onto the property at the end of marula season and all of the fallen fruit went to the animals and compost.  This year I have been determined to make use of this valuable and free resource, so this weekend I made marula jelly. (I will post the recipe as a separate post) and I will be making marula juice and will attempt to brew some experimental beer. I will also be trying to get the kernels out of the seeds to use in salads and if I can will try to produce some of my own marula oil.

Although you may not live in the countryside or have a marula tree in your neighbourhood, keep your eyes open for wild fruit trees or even ones planted in parks, find out about plants in public areas that can be foraged for free and lastly look around your own garden – you’ll be surprised at what you can find. There are many flowers, weeds and plants that you can eat.

Related Articles

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