Eating Seasonally

March 2011 Uploads

A short photo album of life in Burkina. Check out Brian's Facebook for photos from their trip.

Eating Seasonally
Are we obsessed with food? Yes. I would say so, but this time I want to obsess about the things we DO get to eat here. In most developping countries what you eat is closely linked to the season. Back home I know this happens to some extent as well. But you can get canned/frozen corn, green beans, fruits, etc at grocery stores for very cheap. Surprisingly canned food is rare and expensive here. The only canned food that people rugularly purchase is tomato paste. Thus, any other fruit or vegetable consumed has picked from somebody's orchard or garden only a day or two before it's eaten.

The Wonders
Eating seasonal fruits and vegetables means that they're being eaten at their peak ripeness, enhanced by the fact that most of our fruits and veggies come from less than 60 miles away. I can't remember the last time I bit into a carrot in the US and thought "wow, that tastes amazing!" Part of that is that, yes, our food selection here is limited. But the carrots back home sit in stores and refrigerators forever, and while they may still be cruncy, they are usually not fresh tasting like they are here. Lettuce is in season here as well, meaning lots of salads over the past month (well washed lettuce, don't worry). Back in the US I don't find lettuce to be very flavorful or exciting, bar garden grown lettuce during the summer.

The other cool thing about eating seasonally is that you're looking forward to what's just around the seasonal corner. Mangos and potatos are just arriving, something I've been looking forward to all year. When you can't get access to something all the time you appreciate it a lot more.

The Struggles
The downside to all of the seasonal eating here is that there is no other choice. People in the US has the option to eat seasonally/locally, or buy as much imported and preserved food as they like. Here, there is no other option (unless you live in the capital city). On top of that, food does not preserve here well. The heat severly reduces the shelf life of most fresh fruits and veggies here. When potato season arrived last year I wanted to buy 100 pounds of potatos and just save them in our house. I was sad to learn that a sack of potatoes will last 2 weeks in the coldest part of our house, whereas it would last months in the basement back home. Onions go bad in a month or so. Tomatos may last two days on the counter. Green beans that aren't eaten the same day get limp. The inability to conserve fruits and veggies means that we can only buy groceries for a day or two at a time, meaning frequent visits to our fruit and veggie ladies.

Seasonal eating becomes a struggle in May and June when nothing is in season, and it's even hard to find decent onions. People make sauces with dried leaves and dried tomatos, which have an oddly sour taste here. Mangos and Karité fruit (which Shea butter is derived from) are in season, but it's hard to make a meal out of them.

In sum, I think seasonal eating has made me appreciate the food I eat more than I did back home, though some days I would trade it for convenience.

What would you do if...a sorceress lived next door?

Well, I'll bet that most of you have never contemplated such a question. About two months ago an old woman moved into our neighborhood. We first met her when she came over to our house to ask for food and work. We said we would pay her to sweep our yard (Side note: It actually is like that scene from the Flintstones where Betty rubble is sweeping the dirt off the dirt floor. That happens here all the time, and the world actually does look better for it). After she swept our yard a couple of our neighbors warned us to keep our distance from her, that she was a sorceress.

How do you know someone practices sorcery? The fact that she lives alone and has no family are pretty solid grounds in and of themselves for accusing someone of sorcery here. Additionally, people claim to seen her practicing sorcery (making incantations, working with certain local plants).

What is sorcery here? Well it's a sort of “black magic” I guess (not voodoo) that certain people practice to cause harm to others. Sorcery can only be used for bad things. Everyone here seems to believe in it, from village kids to well educated citizens. When bad times befall a family, particularly with mysterious deaths, sorcery is to blame. Our neighbors are all firm in their belief that sorcery exists, and there's no changing that.

So what's complicated? Well it's that whole “be kind to your neighbors” thing. The woman is very very poor, so if she comes begging for food we want to help her out. However, in doing so our neighbors believe we are ignoring their well-intentioned advice to stay away from her. More than that, our neighbors believe she could cause harm to their families, and we are helping her! I can understand why they would feel insulted! Do I believe she can cause harm to their families? No. Therefore, I should continue to be neighborly to her, right? The complicated thing is being kind and neighborly to her without hurting the good relations we have established with our neighbors, which are extremely important to us here. I know that it involves finding a balance, but I'm just not sure where that lies yet.