Palm Wine (11)

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These are pictures of how palm wine is extracted from the oil palm tree.



1) Banggi05.jpg
The tree is knocked over by severing the roots with a machete, the top is whacked off, and the pith is exposed by cutting away all the leaves. It is then covered with a piece of leaf. The farmer is uncovering the pith in order to extract more sap. Cote d'Ivoire, 2006.








2) Banggi12.jpg
Lighting a fire in the pith in order to draw out the sap. Cooking the pith helps produce a cleaner tasting banggi. Cote d'Ivoire, 2006.










3) Banggi11.jpg
Scraping the cooked face of the pith in order to stimulate movement of the sap. Cote d'Ivoire, 2006.











4) Banggi02.jpg
Collecting the sap in a used plastic container. The sap is good for about a day before the sugars are converted completely into alcohol or into vinegar. Cote d'Ivoire, 2006.










5) Banggi06.jpg
Pouring out the banggi. Cote d'Ivoire, 2006.












6) Banggi03.jpg
The Banggi maker enjoys his product. Cote d'Ivoire, 2006.












7) IMG_1469_Schnapps.jpg
Schnapps (palm wine liquor) still in Ebekawopa, Ghana, 2007.








8) IMG_1472Schnapps.jpg
Schnapps (palm wine liquor) still in Ebekawopa, Ghana, 2007. Another view. Note plastic tubing emerging from mucky pond. Yellow container is a previously used palm oil container.








9) P8110013.jpg
Schnapps (palm wine liquor) still in Ebekawopa, Ghana, 2007.









10) Djahakro_Coutoucoui.jpg
Coutoucou in Djahakro, Côte d'Ivoire; we drank this during the donations ceremony. It's distilled palm wine. Evariste, our first representative, calls coutoucou "African Breakfast". This is, of course, an African joke. But it also expresses reality because farmers work so hard and sometimes begin the day with something very bracing.







11) IMG_5825_PalmWine_med.jpg
Cutting the channel that the juices collect in.