We went to visit Thiako’s
uncle in Tcherôt, an old village at the end of a long winding track into the
bush to the south and east of where we were staying. Before, many families
lived in Tcherôt, but they had all moved away to the city and to Senegal; only
his uncle and his small family remained as permanent residents. Despite the
paucity of inhabitants, the village is well known as a place of palm wine
collection, and any decently learned child from the sub-prefecture could point
out the appropriate turnoff from the main road.
We were guided to the
place where his uncle was working by his young son Talan, a small boy with eyes
and head equally round. We found his uncle and others at their camp, a low
place, where a stream would flow during the rainy season. They were collecting
palm wine.
Palm wine, as collected
by the Coñagui people of northern Guinea, refers to a family of drinks made
from the sap of a variety of palm tree. Thiako’s uncle explained the process to
me while his nephew August kept working, and Thiako translated and elaborated
as necessary.
“Palm wine is collected
during the dry season, while the palm trees are flowering and fruiting. During
the dry season, honey wine replaces palm wine as the tipple of choice, as the
honey harvest is performed at during the last month of the dry season. Female
palms (or the female parts, recognizable via their more prominent fruiting
bodies) are sought as they produce more sap than the males. These fruiting
bodies are located at the crown of the tree, requiring an often significant
ascent for all but the youngest of palms.
For this purpose, a
sort of harness/sling is fashioned from a few long pieces of palm frond. Two
rigid bands are formed (presumably with hot water) into U-shaped sections. The
long flexible tips of the two fronds are braided together into a thick rope,
and then joined with the other ends in a sort of square knot, easy to tie and
easy to untie. The result is an oval-shaped
hoop, fitting the diameter of the trunk of the palm and the back of the
climber. Additional flaxen rope is wrapped around one side of the oval for
abrasion resistance where the contraption slides along the tree.
After ascending, the trunk,
barefoot for increased traction, all of his kit swinging from its strings, the
climber removes one of two sharp bamboo-handled chisel from their bamboo
sheaths (the two chisels are identical, maybe the extra is a backup?) and cuts
a small hole at the base of the fruiting body. A small piece of young frond is
wound into a cone and pressed into the hole to serve as a funnel. The climber
then takes an empty plastic bottle (repurposed soda or water) and suspends it
beneath the funnel, attaching it with string to the fronds above. The sap
starts to ooze within minutes.
The process (cut spout
capture) is repeated four or five more
times around the crown of the tree, one bottle per fruiting body. Then the
climbing process is reversed, and the climber seeks out a new tree.
An average palm will
fill an average water bottle in about 12 hours. So, twice a day (in the morning
and in the evening), the bottles must be emptied. The hole can also be plugged
with a wadded up frond, so as not to waste nor attract more insects and
sugar-loving animals. On the ground, the contents of each bottle are filtered
(a plastic bottle cut in half with a bit of fabric inside) into large bidons (20-liter vegetable oil
containers). As the bidon becomes
full, a thin white foam—the head, really—puffs out. This indicates the
freshness of the wine. Checking the filter afterwards shows bits of palm,
windblown detritus, and some insects that died happy.
The sap is not
naturally alcoholic. Freshly tapped, it is very sweet, and only a little bit
tangy. However, yeasts naturally present (in the air, in the containers,
everywhere) metabolize the sugar and , within a few hours of being tapped,
create a wine that is distinctly acrid, slightly sweet, and perhaps three to
seven percent alcohol by volume. The more it sits, the stronger it gets, until
all the sugar is metabolized, and then it turns vinegary. It is drunk at all of
these stages.
1 comment:
You have a video??? The internet gods of Labé must've been in your favor that day. :)
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