This report is the second in a series of three evaluating underexploited African plant resources that could help broaden and secure Africa's food supply. The volume describes the characteristics of 18 little-known indigenous African vegetables (including tubers and legumes) that have potential as food- and cash-crops but are typically overlooked by scientists and policymakers and in the world at large. The book assesses the potential of each vegetable to help overcome malnutrition, boost food security, foster rural development, and create sustainable landcare in Africa. Each species is described in a separate chapter, based on information gathered from and verified by a pool of experts throughout the world. Volume I describes African grains and Volume III African fruits.
This beautiful book is a collection of indigenous recipes from five South African provinces: the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, North West, Limpopo and the Eastern Cape. Each indigenous recipe was chosen for its potential for commercial endeavours and each is beautifully photographed in full-colour. A feature photograph on each left-hand page accompanies a favourite recipe featured on the right-hand page. Fascinating text boxes are positioned below the recipes highlighting famous indigenous sayings or words of wisdom, such as: 'Do not grind the meal before the milking has been done', with a Western translation: 'Or, never be too sure of a good thing - first things first'. Western translations are also given for indigenous ingredients, such as 'Lepu', which means pumpkin leaves. A handy guide to quantities, weights and volumes - and their approximate equivalents plus the names and descriptions of some of the more unusual crops, is also given at the beginning of the book, just before the table of contents. Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape - who take pride in the tradition of indigenous food preparation. South African Indigenous Foods is a wonderful gift for friends, family and overseas visitors.
This food-lover's delight presents exciting, innovative recipes from a well-known figure in the culinary world. Enjoy uniquely presented traditional African cuisine with international flair, all tied together by the common element of ingredients that are organic, natural and sustainable. Elegantly produced with full colour photographs throughout.
After highly successful outings with her first two books, Sharon Lurie, aka the Kosher Butcher’s Wife, decided that it was time to make it official and combine the influences of her culinary heritage as both a kosher cook and a proud South African. As she says, South African cuisine is as deliciously diverse as its inhabitants, from the many indigenous peoples to the waves of immigrants and settlers who have made the southern part of Africa their home. In A Taste of South Africa with the Kosher Butcher’s Wife, Sharon Lurie takes you on an adventure through South Africa’s diverse and iconic dishes, but with traditional Jewish culinary twists. The mouth-watering recipes often include non-dairy options. And don’t think because Sharon is the Kosher Butcher’s Wife that she only thinks about meat dishes; there are ideas from starters to sweets with everything in between. An in her inimitable style, Sharon will keep you laughing along the way.
Scenes of starvation have drawn the world's attention to Africa's agricultural and environmental crisis. Some observers question whether this continent can ever hope to feed its growing population. Yet there is an overlooked food resource in sub-Saharan Africa that has vast potential: native food plants. When experts were asked to nominate African food plants for inclusion in a new book, a list of 30 species grew quickly to hundreds. All in all, Africa has more than 2,000 native grains and fruitsâ€""lost" species due for rediscovery and exploitation. This volume focuses on native cereals, including: African rice, reserved until recently as a luxury food for religious rituals. Finger millet, neglected internationally although it is a staple for millions. Fonio (acha), probably the oldest African cereal and sometimes called "hungry rice." Pearl millet, a widely used grain that still holds great untapped potential. Sorghum, with prospects for making the twenty-first century the "century of sorghum." Tef, in many ways ideal but only now enjoying budding commercial production. Other cultivated and wild grains. This readable and engaging book dispels myths, often based on Western bias, about the nutritional value, flavor, and yield of these African grains. Designed as a tool for economic development, the volume is organized with increasing levels of detail to meet the needs of both lay and professional readers. The authors present the available information on where and how each grain is grown, harvested, and processed, and they list its benefits and limitations as a food source. The authors describe "next steps" for increasing the use of each grain, outline research needs, and address issues in building commercial production. Sidebars cover such interesting points as the potential use of gene mapping and other "high-tech" agricultural techniques on these grains. This fact-filled volume will be of great interest to agricultural experts, entrepreneurs, researchers, and individuals concerned about restoring food production, environmental health, and economic opportunity in sub-Saharan Africa. Selection, Newbridge Garden Book Club
""This book examines the politics, culture, language, history, socio-economic development, methodologies, and contemporary experiences of African peoples from around the world"--Provided by publisher"
Africa’s art of cooking is a key part of its history. All too often Africa is associated with famine, but in Stirring the Pot, James C. McCann describes how the ingredients, the practices, and the varied tastes of African cuisine comprise a body of historically gendered knowledge practiced and perfected in households across diverse human and ecological landscape. McCann reveals how tastes and culinary practices are integral to the understanding of history and more generally to the new literature on food as social history. Stirring the Pot offers a chronology of African cuisine beginning in the sixteenth century and continuing from Africa’s original edible endowments to its globalization. McCann traces cooks’ use of new crops, spices, and tastes, including New World imports like maize, hot peppers, cassava, potatoes, tomatoes, and peanuts, as well as plantain, sugarcane, spices, Asian rice, and other ingredients from the Indian Ocean world. He analyzes recipes, not as fixed ahistorical documents,but as lively and living records of historical change in women’s knowledge and farmers’ experiments. A final chapter describes in sensuous detail the direct connections of African cooking to New Orleans jambalaya, Cuban rice and beans, and the cooking of African Americans’ “soul food.” Stirring the Pot breaks new ground and makes clear the relationship between food and the culture, history, and national identity of Africans.
