By Lee Koelzer | Director
The first time I’d ever seen oyster nuts was driving by this Mzee’s (Older Gentelman’s) roadside stand. I pulled my car over and asked him what they were. He told e muzungu binyebwa (white people peanuts) and I disagreed with him because they were not like any peanut I had ever seen. He then went on to explain that although they look different, they are a type of peanut- just like how white people look different from regular people, yet they are people all the same. I about died. That was possibly the best justification for wrong terminology that I had ever heard!
Since then, I have learned that these are actually called oyster nuts and while rural Ugandans eat them similarly to how they eat peanuts (roasted, boiled, or ground and made into soup) they actually grow from a LONG, thick vine, in weird alien-looking seed pods. The vines can grow 60 feet long and are about as big around as my forearm. The seed pods normally weigh between 30 and 60 pounds. After the seed pods are mature, they fall onto the ground and burst open spreading the seeds.
Interestingly enough, the vines have genders and the seeds of each gender looks slightly different. Female seeds tend to be rounder and larger, while male seeds are smaller and a bit misshapen. In order to pollinate the female vine, both a male and female vine need to be planted together so that they grow together and intertwine as they climb up the host tree.
The flavor of the oyster nut is nearly identical to that of a walnut, and they are filled with protein and healthy fats. On the local market, these nuts sell for about 15,000ugx $4.41 per kilo (2 pounds). This is actually a very good price so we planted about 40 sets of the vines, one male and 1 female growing together, and distributed them to nearby villagers who had large mature trees for them to climb. The vines actually take about 7 years to start producing the oyster nuts so we have some time to wait, but I am excited for the future. And until then, I just continue to buy my own from Mzee.
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By Lee Koelzer | Director
By Lee Koelzer | Director
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