Ebony and Ivory (well – the flesh of the yam is ivory colored)

Ebony Trees in fruit

I think I'm figuring out a rainy and dry season rather than spring, summer, winter, and fall. I'm use to the fall weather and leaves on most trees changing to a nice shade of red, yellow, or orange – all falling to the ground leaving a bare tree. As Ghana is very close to the equator I knew that we don't have spring, summer, winter, and fall like we have in North America.


Still, I had thought that all the trees would go through something like fall near the start of the dry season. I was expecting everything to be dry and dead during this season. This is true for the grasses and some trees like the teak trees outside my house. The teak tree leaves turn brown and drop over time and I'm told they will become dormant until the rains come. At this time a few of the younger teak trees have lost most of their leaves while other teak trees have almost all their leaves still green.


However, for the vast majority of native trees in the area the idea of going dormant is certainly not true. The trees drop green leaves during the dry season while at the same time sprouting new leaves so the tree will not be completely bare. The dry season is also the time when most trees will begin to produce their flowers, then fruit and seeds. This makes sense if I would have thought about it more. The trees would like their seeds to be on the ground by the start of the rainy season, rather than near the end of it. So, as I'm able I capture some of the fruit of the trees in the area I'll try to mention it in the blog.


First up, is the ebony tree. This is a slow growing tree. I suppose the older trees would be worth some money for the lumber, but the Nandom area prohibits cutting down tree that fruit except in special circumstances. There are ebony trees around the school and up the hill on a path leading to the elementary school and the new junior high school. This time of year we frequently find the students climbing the large tree between the current junior high school and the teachers block. They are doing this to get something to eat because the ebony tree is fruiting. Still, since it is on school grounds and we don't want the parents complaining about injuries the teachers yell at the kids to get down before they break their necks. (Actually they yell something in Dagaree and as I don't know “you'll break your neck” I'm just guessing.)

Ebony tree between teacher's compound and the current JHS.  Bearing fruit but not students in this picture.

Fruit of the ebony in the tree.  The green fruit turns yellow when ripe.

The fruit of the ebony tree is about the size of a smaller cherry or one of the huge grapes that they sell in America.  The ebony fruit would be very nice if you could eat it is like a cherry or a grape. However, you cannot because the skin is very tough and thick. So the skin has to be peeled away or the fruit can be split open by pinching the sides to reveal the seeds and fruit. Inside there is one or two seed. Two seeds can take up a considerable amount of the space inside thereby reducing the available fruit.

A close up of the fruit and a leaf from the tree.

You can squeeze the sides of the fruit to split the skin.

Fruit split showing the seed

Skin peeled back from this one showing two seeds and the stringy flesh

So, how to describe the part you eat? First, the flesh is not dense like a grape or cherry or any other fruit I've have had. It is a little stringy – moist but not juicy. So far it may not sound appealing, but the taste is surprisingly close to watermelon. One needs a good handful to get an appreciable amount of fruit, but it is actually tasty and worth the effort.

Yam harvesting – the dry season

Yam harvesting in the dry season is very different than in the rainy season that I talked about in a previous entry.  The yams are planted in raised beds because the area floods in the rainy season.  Each raised bed is maybe about 4 feet by 8 feet.   There are six plants around the edge and one plant in the middle of the bed.

Now that we are in the dry season at least the top eight inches of the soil has been baked hard. The impressions made by bicycles, feet, and animals in the paths to the fields and in the fields the last time it was muddy have also been baked hard. In places riding the bicycle is nearly impossible due to the rough condition. I wear my hiking boots to avoid twisting an ankle while walking in the field.

Part of the path to the farm.  The grass on the sides of the path have been burnt down.

The farmers return to their yam fields in late December through early January. By this time the fields are completely dried up. The yams that they collected by the the end of the rainy season may have all been consumed. The farmers generally start harvesting before Christmas so they can share yams with others during the season. They will continue to dig up the yams until they are done. It seems that the yams remaining close to the surface will begin to sprout around this time – possibly because of the heat of the sun or something. This will consume the tuber so they don't want this to happen.

Field of yams with a pit dug out in the foreground.

In the rainy season a blunt stick could push the dirt aside to get to the yam. To get past the baked ground to the yams I now see the true purpose of the “hoe” design that is commonly used. The idea is to drive the blade into the nearly rock hard dirt and then use the handle as a lever to break off a chunk. The long handle of a shovel used in the states would be a little use and likely break under such treatment. Also driving the blade of the hoe on a downward swing provides more force than the shovel. The work is difficult. I would need to build up my endurance and the calluses on my hand and refine the technique to dig up yams or to dig a pit before I could be useful with the digging.

A hoe and cutlass displayed at the front of my house.  And yes there is a chicken walking past to show relative size

Roger digging in the hard ground

When I go with Roger to help with the yam harvest he is the one doing the digging. He still uses the cutlass, machete, at times to find the bottom of the longer yams. My job is to carry the yams to a common site and sort the yams by size and type.

Using a cutlass to find the bottom of the yam in the dry ground

In Roger's field there were two types of yams. The longer one that I saw during the rainy season. For this variety, if there was a larger yam growing when he stopped harvesting, then that one tuber would continue to grow a little during the dry season. Some of these longer ones were brought back to the house to replenish their supply and as gifts to others. The other longer ones are stored in a pit in the field. If a long yam was harvested close to the end of the season then plant will send out a number of tubers in a cluster. These are smaller and will be used to plant next season's crop so all of these are placed in the storage pits.

Pile of long yams waiting to go home or into the pit.

Bunches on smaller long yams with my boot as a fashion statement and to show relative size.

There is also a second type of yam, one that is round, that becomes sweeter if kept in storage. So all of these are generally buried until Easter. I did not see these during the rainy season as they only grow “one crop”. I understand that there are other variety of yams grown – some always small and some with an orange flesh. I've not seen these.

Pile of round yams ready to go into pit storage until Easter.

The storage pit is dug in the field, in one of the raised beds.  The pit is about 4 feet deep. A layer of yams, maybe 1 or 2 feet, will be buried in the pit with more of dirt mounded on the top so the yams are under maybe 5 feet of dirt .

Pit ready for yam storage

Mound over pit in foreground in the now harvested field.
The haze in the background, compared to the field picture above, is dust blowing not fog.  More on this in a future blog.

Roger and I generally got to the field before 7 am and worked until about noon or 1 pm. We've went four times and he went other times to do some small amount of work.  Three times some of Roger's children came around 10 am. They came with water and to help dig or at least carry the yams back.

Another job I had was the build a fire so we all could have roasted yams after most of the work had been done.

Workers are fed roasted yams in the field.

Since I helped with the harvesting I get, must, take, some of the yams home. I think that Roger should keep more for his family, but he is generous – giving yams to me and other other community members.

Martin and Theresa in the foreground carrying yams home with Raymond taking the lead.
More on carrying things on the head in a future post.

My payment for four days working in the field.  The yams should store well for several months.

Mice, pigs, and two legged pigs.

Another reason for harvesting the yams is because as dry season progresses the animals will begin to search harder for food. We had one yam that had been chewed by a mouse. Pigs can also get into the field and dig up the crop. There are a number of pigs running round the school and the community – but I've not seen any around the major farmland in the flood plane east and south of the village.


Another problem is people coming to dig up the yams. On the last day of harvesting Roger noticed that someone had dug up 6 plants and you could still see impression of the big yams that were taken. Some of the smaller ones were left. This was likely the work of two kids we saw on the last day. They were “looking for mice” in one of the adjoining yam fields. Digging for mice in the same places as the yams were planted. As Roger did not actually catch them taking the yams he could not do much about it with the African mode of justice of catching people red handed. He says “no problem” and tries not to let the theft nag at him.


I'm still trying to figure out this place where my wallet can be found on a bus and returned by a total strange with all the money and where people steal yams, goats, eggs, chickens, etc for their neighbors. I'll post an entry when I have a better understanding of the situation.


Love always,

John