Project Report
| May 14, 2020
Kyinyanya
By LEE KOELZER | Director GRU
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Kinyanya are better known as tamarillos or tree tomatoes. Though the 'trees' often feel quite woody and can grow over 10 feet tall, they are actually a member of the nightshade family like tomatoes and eggplants.
The local village way of eating the fruit it to bite of the tip then suck out the sweet pulp on the inside. This is of course my preferred method as well, though other people cut them in half and scoop out the insides with a spoon. The skin of the fruit has an extremely unpleasant bitter taste, so you definitely don’t want to eat that!
As with all our fun fruits, we distributed seedlings throughout our surrounding villages, and the day before market days we gather the fruits to sell at the farmers market.
This is a fruit that locally in the rural areas had basically no value, which we have helped turn into a cash crop for our beneficiaries.
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Dec 31, 2019
Mulberries
By LEE KOELZER | Director GRU
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Mulberries are one of my favorite berries in Uganda. I’m told they were actually brought here by the British during colonialism… though I’m not sure if that is accurate. Regardless- they are DELICIOUS!!! When ripe they turn a deep purple color. I can just stand next to the mulberry bush and scarf them down. But we also give the mulberry bushes out to the villagers as well.
We propagate the bushed from cuttings, which we root in a soft soil and after about 8 weeks they are ready to be planted. With our variety, the full size bushes only grow about 15 feet tall with long billowing branches that are easily pulled down to pick the berries up on top. The bushes produce fruit 2-3 times per year and they produce A LOT!
We bring the berries to Kampala and sell them by the kilo. Both individual people and jam makers buy the berries. As the berries have a stem that runs all the way through, jam makers have to boil the berries then mash them to strain out the stems. But for me, and most other bakers I know here, we just eat/ cook with the berries whole and eat the stems too!
![Mulberry Pie!]()
Mulberry Pie!
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Sep 23, 2019
Kiwano Melon
By LEE KOELZER | Director GRU
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One of the things I love most about Africa is the abundance of interesting and unique fruits available. One of which is the Kiwano Melon, also known as African Horned Mellon, and Bush Cucumber.
The kiwano melon grows freely in Northern Uganda where the temperature is typically hot and dry. We decided to cultivate the seeds and grow them in the southern Region which is a more tropical atmosphere.
The good part is that being so close to Kampala we are able to bring the fruits to the farmers market where they fetch a price of about $0.70 cents each, which is pretty awesome considering that in Uganda they previously had basically no monetary value! As they are covered in spikes, they are somewhat difficult to transport, which is another benefit of our famers living so close to Kampala.
In addition to their awesome appearance and high price for our farmers, kiwano melons are packed full of iron, vitamin C, antioxidants, and other beneficial vitamins and nutrients. Their taste is rather bland compared to their colorful coating. But they are healthy, and definitely one of our most interesting crops we have started cultivating!
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