We’re honored to have Ignacio Medina as a guest contributor to Canopy Bridge as someone who shares our commitment to the transformative power of food and ingredients and communicates that passion with exceptional clarity and flair. One day in Panama dining at a fine new restaurant, […]
This post was originally published on the Environmental Defense Fund website. Across the Amazon, indigenous peoples have long harvested well-known commodities like cacao, coffee, Brazil nuts, and hearts of palm. Indigenous communities rely on such “non-timber” forest products—which also include traditional crops and less well-known natural products such as sacha inchi and camu camu—for the communities’ own consumption and for sale. […]
This Article was originally published on the HuffingtonPost.com website. There is a type of river snail — a churo — in the Peruvian Amazon, large and meaty, that is especially delicious when slow-braised and served in the shell with a bright sauce of golden tapioca pearls. Indigenous people harvest the giant snail when the forest is flooded and transformed into an otherworldly realm where, because of the rising water level, fish swim among the majestic kapok tree and through the umbrella-like branches of the cecropia tree. […]
I was in the Amazon rainforest of Peru to see how Brazil nuts make the long journey from forest to nut mix. I wasn’t expecting a gourmet treat, but they tend to show up in unexpected places. Harvesting Brazil nuts is hard manual work, in remote areas, deep in the jungle. Harvesters spend long weeks in the forest gathering the cannonball-like fruit from the forest floor, shelling them on site and then hauling them in heavy loads miles through the forest. The harvest is intimately […]
Read More… from Feast in the Forest: Shiwi and its Brazil Nuts
Ojoche, Ojite, Ojushte, Ujushte, Capomo, Manchinga, Pisba waihka, Huje, Mojo, Ax, Ramon Nut, Breadnut… a partial list of many names for the same seed. Where I live, Ecuador, it’s called Sande but I had no idea it existed until I heard about the Maya Nut Institute a couple of months ago. Since 2001 Maya Nut Institute has improved livelihoods by empowering women and supporting nutritional health through this amazing seed, which they named “Maya Nut.” Maya Nut Institute […]
Read More… from Rescuing Ancient Superfoods – Changing lives in the process
