The making of palm oil was quite labor intensive - but almost everything in Sierra Leone required hard work. I came across these folks near the River Moa and near the small village of Vaama Nongowa while on one of my many visits to this area. Here the palm koernel has been "husked" and the oil extracted from it - the woman here is skimming the oil from the top of the water in final preparation. The oil was a rich orange color - and colored the wonderful upland rice that we ate this rich orange color. And it did add an additional rich flavor to our meals. The inner portion of the palm koernels that the Mende had no use for can be seen as dark "nuts" in the baskets on the ground to the right in the photo. These would be bagged and sent off to middlemen who would sell this to the Europeans (overseas) for extraction of another type of oil.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Palm Oil
©by Chad Finer
The making of palm oil was quite labor intensive - but almost everything in Sierra Leone required hard work. I came across these folks near the River Moa and near the small village of Vaama Nongowa while on one of my many visits to this area. Here the palm koernel has been "husked" and the oil extracted from it - the woman here is skimming the oil from the top of the water in final preparation. The oil was a rich orange color - and colored the wonderful upland rice that we ate this rich orange color. And it did add an additional rich flavor to our meals. The inner portion of the palm koernels that the Mende had no use for can be seen as dark "nuts" in the baskets on the ground to the right in the photo. These would be bagged and sent off to middlemen who would sell this to the Europeans (overseas) for extraction of another type of oil.
The making of palm oil was quite labor intensive - but almost everything in Sierra Leone required hard work. I came across these folks near the River Moa and near the small village of Vaama Nongowa while on one of my many visits to this area. Here the palm koernel has been "husked" and the oil extracted from it - the woman here is skimming the oil from the top of the water in final preparation. The oil was a rich orange color - and colored the wonderful upland rice that we ate this rich orange color. And it did add an additional rich flavor to our meals. The inner portion of the palm koernels that the Mende had no use for can be seen as dark "nuts" in the baskets on the ground to the right in the photo. These would be bagged and sent off to middlemen who would sell this to the Europeans (overseas) for extraction of another type of oil.
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2 comments:
Chad and Susan,
We were returning from Maine yesterday (1 July) and drove on Rte 2 and then down 10 and at Hanover crossed to Rte 4. We were wondering where you were. Well, now we know.
I am using Mary's account since she has the Gmail account.
Please be in touch.
Dick and Mary Breuninger
and Mary at
Dick,
Oh how I wish we had been able to reach you - on Thursday 7-01 we had a mini-Sierra Leone Peace Corps reunion at our house in Norwich Vermont - and you were in Hanover and so nearby - it would have been great for you guys to come as well. Skip Smith and Tom Hull were there - we had fun. I am not sure how to send you email on your gmail account but my email address is finer@valley.net. Let's hear from you
chad
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