This afternoon, James and I went out for a walk. As we were strolling along past the school, James pointed out a particularly tall palm tree. Leaned against the tree was a ladder, and on top the ladder was one of my students, Simon. James said, "Betsy, I want to show you what this guy is doing." We walked over to the palm tree. Simon was hacking away at the base of the palm fronds with a machete.
"He is harvesting palmnuts," James said as a ten-foot palm frond fell at our feet. "He is removing the branches first so he can get to the palmnuts." I could see the cluster of plannuts, which was about the size of a basketball, wedged between bases of three of four of fronds. "You know we have some kind of traditional or spiritual beliefs about the palm tree," James continued, "We believe that when you are visiting a person or a place you should not take the palmnut soup unless you plan to stay for a very long time. You should prefer to take light soup if you are only visiting for a short time. If you take the palmnut soup, then you will have formed a connection to the place and you will not leave for a long, long time. The palm is sign of prosperity, so when you take the soup, people believe you will stay and have a very long prosperous life." Another palm fond fell. I could see the palm nuts better. The cluster was held onto the tree by a short, thick woody stem.
"Look at this part. Here," James pointed to the center rib of one of the long narrow bright green leaves sticking off the fallen frond, "We take many of these, dry them in the sun, and tie them together for a broom. Like the one in the kitchen. And this part," he pointed to the tough woody center of the frond, "We can take the outside of it and use it to weave baskets. While it is green you can weave it, but then when the thing turns brown, it will become very hard and strong," as James finished his sentence, a large cluster of red-orange palm nuts fell at our feet. We watched as Simon repositioned his ladder on the other side of the tree to get at another cluster.
I walked over to examine the cluster of palmnuts. At the base of the cluster, a few of the palmnuts had suffered a blow from Simon's machete; I could see the inside parts. The thin outer skin is bright reddish orange and similar in texture to the skin of an apple. The bright orange flesh inside is incredibly juicy and fibrous. The shell encasing the inner kernel is black, thick, and very tough. I couldn't break one by stomping on it. The inner kernel is soft like a cashew nut, pale yellow, and very oily.
James pointed to the black shell, "Blacksmiths use this part to fuel their fires because it burns very hot. Some commercial chop bars also palm kernel shells, because it can cook the food faster." Then he pointed to the kernel, "This inside part contains alot of oil, so at the factories, people extract the palm kernel oil. It is very nutritious." Another massive frond fell to the ground.
"When you prepare the soup, you boil the nuts first. After cooking for some time, you pound the nuts, like we pound fufu. You sieve it to remove the hard parts and the kernel. Then you cook it again for some time and take the palmnut oil off the top. You can use it for anything - the red oil in our kitchen, you know the one."
"Since the trees are so valuable, when people are clearing land for farming or to construct buildings, they will be very careful not to cut any palm trees. They will only cut the trees when their life cycle is finished. When it is time, the people will cut the tree at the roots. After the tree has been lying for some days, the people dig a hole in the ground at the top of the tree. The will put a big pot in the hole. Then, they take machetes and they cut the top of the tree. This will make the palm wine drain out of the tree into the pot. After the tree has drained, the people take the palm wine to drink or to make into akpeteshie.
"We let the tree lie again for some days or weeks. A certain insect comes to drill into the tree and put its larva in the hole. People take the larva, because they are very delicious! We put some on a thin stick, add salt, and roast them over a fire. Or we can put them in soup."
THUD another cluster of palmnuts hit the dirt.
"After the tree has been lying for some months, then the mushrooms start to grow. The mushrooms are the tall ones with short tails." I drew a picture in the dirt of mushrooms I've seen before in the market and said, "Like this?"
James said, "Yes yes! That's the one! We can put the mushrooms in soup or anything. They are very delicious."
"After a year, the wood has become rotten during the rainy season, then dry again in the next dry season. If you burn it, there will be ashes in a straight line. If you plant anything in that line, it will grow very, very well! You can move the ashes to your farm, but people believe it is better to use them where they are."
"You see, the palm is a very special, very important tree. But people are forgetting how to use it. These young people do not learn how to use the natural things" We took a moment to admire the palm tree in all it's beautiful utility. "Ok, let's go home now, I'm feeling very hungry!"
