Oussouye, Senegal (Casamance)

2019-01-24 : Oussouye. Mathias, the bird creator and Joseph's cashew heritage

The birds creator:

Mathias is both an artist and a self-taught ornithologist. Instead of carving masks and other giraffes or wooden elephants he chose to reproduce his everyday companions visible in the surrounding forests or mangrove: birds. He works discreetly in the yard of his farm at the end of a 1.5 km track. For his birds he uses the soft wood of the kapok-tree that he will look for himself in the forest.

Mathias explains his work

Joseph's cashew farm heritage:

Our next goal is Joseph's cashew processing unit. It is not very far at the exit of Oussouye on the Mlomp road. The track is initially well indicated but unfortunately the indications disappear where it is complicated and where we would need it the most. We have to ask several times. The track is in some places very narrow between the trees and crossing some small hamlets.
We arrive at the end of the track where we park Gandalf in a beautiful forest of majestic trees. A mixture of mango trees, cashew nuts tress, kapok trees and even some palm trees.
It is Patern, the son of the founder of this unit, who will guide us through the various stages of transformation. His father, Joseph Diamacoune, created this unit in 2005 with his retirement benefits. He has disabled workers, single young mothers and young people in difficulty.
Patern will make us discover all the stages of the transformation, from the fruit in the tree to the finish. We are still a little too early in the season to find ripe fruit in the trees but we still have the chance to find flowers and even the first nuts in formation.

Gandalf under majestic trees

Cashew nut in formation

Description of the formation of the fruit with the help of some pictures

Patern explains the cooking (steam cooking)

These are the shells that serve to fuel the fire.

Drying after cooking

The most demanding work in term of labor is shelling

The shelling machine

indian design, local manufacturing

The shelling

The shelling

Shelled

Roasting ovens (fireplace side)

Then the almonds will be roasted in a double-chamber wood-fired oven for 3 hours at 70 ° C.

" The shop "

Now we understand why cashews are so expensive...