Wild Food: Learning How to Live of the Land

Water Apples, also known as Rose Apples.
Other WILD plants that grow here include: Banana, Orange, Lime, Coconut, Lychee, Guanabana, Jackfruit, Biddyba, Nancy, Mango, Avocado, Guava, Papaya, Grapefruit, Sugar Cane, Peppermint, Spearmint, Lemongrass, Ginger Root, Yucca, Squash, Naranjito, Ginger Flower, Plantain, Noni, Cacao (that's chocolate!) and so much more!

I was shocked today. Shocked to my core.

I knew the Ngobe did not have much variety in their food. I knew they sold the cacao and lychee and limes and bananas and coconuts and mangoes and papayas and guanabanas and jack fruit and ice cream beans for cash and I knew they bought rice. I have seen them carrying 50 pound bags of rice. I have also seen them carrying huge bags of sugar, which was a little troubling to me. I could not imagine what they needed so much sugar for. I am talking like 25 pounds of it at a time.

Ngobe Indian children carrying rice and sugar.

Then I discovered they live on rice with salt and sugar water.

Now there is much I could say about this, not the least of which is...how are they getting the nutrition they need?

And the answer of course is...they are not.

The flip side of this tragedy is the people of Jamaican descent. They were slaves brought on ships from Africa to Jamaica to work the sugar cane plantations and then shipped here to Panama to work the banana plantations. These are the people who seem to know everything there is to know about the bush--the jungle. They understand about bush teas and medicine and what to eat and what not to eat. They harvest food from the wild and know the seasons and have so many wonderful recipes using the native plants that grow everywhere. It is true that the older Ngobe understand these things too, but the younger generation has left the wild and are selling it for a pot of rice and a cup of sugar water.

I have always been interested in growing my own food and harvesting from the wild. Always. I had a big organic garden for years and canned and dried and pickled and jammed and jellied and froze. And when I see the depth of knowledge of the Jamaicans here I am so excited to learn from them. But when I see what the Indians have lost and the suffering it has caused, I am wrecked. So I have made a commitment to myself to learn all I can about the wild food that grows here. I am talking to every local I can about what grows where and what to do with it. I am asking questions galore and gathering fruits and berries and seed pods and herbs and grasses and trying new things. I have so much to learn, but I want to know. I feel it is important. I want to understand it for my own good. I want to understand what the Ngobe have left and why they left it and how they used to live. I want to know how to live sustainably off the land should I ever need to (we are not going to discuss politics here).

Guanabana, also known as soursop or graviola. A Powerful Cancer fighter!

I am going to document what I learn. I will take photos and try new recipes and eat things I have never eaten and make teas I have never tried. I will write it all down and preserve the knowledge, for myself and for posterity. I will guard it as if it were a treasure....because it is. And I purpose to make good use of what God has given me right here in my own back yard. I have always been a put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is sort of person. Its easy to talk about how great it is to know how to live off the land. But how easy is it do actually do it?

Determined,
laura

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