Air Namibia, Flamingo, Jan 2006 Photos and text by Tim Osborne
Dadels and Rosyntjie Jam
“Where did you find those?” asked Martha as she watched me stirring the sticky potion brewing on the stove. Martha our Damara housekeeper had caught me in the middle of making bird plum jam. Normally Martha disapproves of my messy cooking methods but this time she had a big smile on her face. Again she asked “Where did you get the dadels?” “Oh out in the bush somewhere,” was my cagey reply. Bird plums are a highly prized and delicious bush fruit and I was not sure I wanted share the location. The previous day I had walked on a track seldom used and found a bird plum or wilde dadel Berchemia discolor just dripping with fruit. This was the only bird plum found on the farm that had actually produced “plums”. Earlier in the season we had looked at many plum trees but all were barren.
The bird plum is not a common tree in the mopane woodlands near Etosha National Park where we live, but has a widely scattered distribution. None of trees on our farm has any branches lower than browse height, about 2 m, as the leaves are a favoured food of the kudu. The tree flowers during the rains and from March to April bear fruits which are high in Vitamin C and contain up to 30% sugar. The bark is commonly used for the brown colouring on local baskets. Ever since a bushman neighbour gave Martha some fruit he found on the southern part of our farm, she had been eager to go on a dadel foraging trip.
“OK, on Sunday we’ll go out to my secret spot,” I told her as I went back to cooking up the yellow fruit which was now turning a dark red colour. Separating the fruit from the pips was rather difficult as most of the flesh remained on the large pip. With enough mashing and pounding I finally had a pot of pulp. After the addition of sugar and Gelfix it was ready to boil and jar.
Sunday arrived with rain and low clouds, not the perfect weather for a dadel outing. Finally the sun came out after lunch so we all headed out to the secret bird plum tree. When we arrived, Martha and her husband Ben were first out of the truck and began rapidly collecting fruits off the ground. After they had gleaned all they could, I said, “Now I want to show you an easier way.” I spread a shade cloth on the ground and climbed a ladder up into the tree. Sitting up top like a monkey, I shook the branches until it rained dadels. We gathered up the shade cloth, poured out the dadels and voilá! We had tripled the volume of fruit in their buckets in just three minutes. With smiles all around, we called the expedition a success and headed for home.
In our part of Namibia there is very little edible fruit on the trees and bushes. The Damara people say that there are only three kinds available: bird plum, shepherd’s tree Boscia albitrunca and rosyntjies, which come from various species of the Grewia shrub. Abundance and quality depends on the rains. This year, with very good rains, the wild fruiting season has been prolonged.
While Ben and I were clearing thorn bushes from one of our roads, we discovered a patch of rosyntjies Grewia flavescens covered with ripe fruit. Normally the fruits ripen a few at a time so it is best to just eat them on the spot. However, there were so many that I returned to the patch later that afternoon and easily collected about 2 liters of ripe berries. Back into the kitchen I marched and after cooking up another sticky potion I managed to produce one whole jar of rosyntjie jelly. Once again Martha wanted to know where my “secret patch” was located.
While there are other species of Grewia on the farm like cross-berry G. tenax and mallow raisin G. villosa, the flesh is only about 1 mm thick. Although they are sweet to chew on they barely qualify as “fruit”.
Perhaps this winter, when the Boscia trees bear fruit we will find one laden with enough for both eating and jam, if the kudu have not gotten to them first.