Rice Harvest Part 2 (written January 25)

After my post about going to the rice fields, I got a request for more information on rice farming in The Gambia, so here goes:

The three steps of growing rice are sowing the seeds in nursery fields, transplanting the shoots to give them space to grow, and harvesting the rice. There are three local/river rice harvests each year. In some areas of the country they also have highland/upland nerika (sp?) rice (Gambians call it "American rice"), which doesn't need to be grown in marshy areas (which are often far from villages and difficult to work in), is more resistant to drought, and is significantly more productive than the local rice. However, Gambians say the nerika rice is not as "sweet" (see Jacob's note about sugar in his last post). Peace Corps tells us that Gambians are very reluctant to try growing narika rice because rice comprises such a large portion of their diet...if the rice fails, they quite literally would go hungry...the stakes are very high. The is something the Agriculture/Forestry volunteers are working on. Increasing Gambian rice production is particularly important because even though there are three harvests, farmers rarely produce enough to last them between harvests, so every few months they have to buy bags of rice imported from Asia, as do the people who do not live near enough to the river to farm rice.

After the rice is harvested and transported back to the village, it has to be pounded with a mortar and pestle three times: once to remove the rice from the stalks; once to remove each grain of rice from its shell; and once to break the actual grains of rice into the "broken" rice that Gambians in our village eat almost every meal. NOTE - We're not exactly sure why Gambians like their rice broken, but our two hypotheses are that it makes it cook faster and/or it balls better (they don't use utensils, they make balls of rice and sauce in their hand and pop the balls in their mouths). If the rice was completely "ripe" when it was harvested, it can be pounded right away, even the same day it is cut. If it was still a bit green when it was cut, it needs to be dried for a few days in the sun before pounding. Some villages have rice milling machines that eliminate the need for hand pounding, but it seems most of them have fallen into disrepair, possibly because of the minimal value placed on an individual's time/effort Jacob mentioned in his last post.

Cooking the broken rice consists of the following steps: (1) Pick small rocks and debris out of the rice; (2) Wash the rice thoroughly; (3) Steam the rice for a while, using a pot of water boiled over a wood fire with colonder-like bowl on top and a strip of cloth tied around the pot where it meets the colonder to keep the steam from escaping; (4) Dump the rice into the boiling water and cook it the way we are used to; and (5) Before all the water is boiled off, remove the rice from the water with a large strainer spoon. Most Gambian dishes are a large communal bowl of rice with some kind of sauce poured in the center. The main types of sauces are relatively bland but delicious leaf sauce (plasas), spicy peanut sauce (domoda or durango) and a tangy red/brown sauce made from onions, peppers, tomato paste, vinegar, etc. The leaf and peanut sauces generally have ground/pounded fish mixed in; the red/brown sauce is generally served with fried (generally dried but occasionally fresh) fish or chicken (only if you're really lucky) and sometimes a small chunk of a commonly grown local vegetable (cassava, potato, sweet potato, eggplant, bitter tomato, cabbage, once in a blue moon a carrot). The exceptions to the rice/sauce rule are breakfast, which is generally porridge (porridge can be made from many grains but is generally made from rice in our village) and a couple kinds of very tasty kinds of fried rice that are served with everything pre-mixed.

I hope that answers all your questions about rice...keep the questions coming if there's anything you're curious about!

MODIFICATION FEB 7 - It has come to my attention that I left out a step that you must include when cooking Gambian rice (but not for the imported kind). After step 5 above, you add more water and remove it again a couple times to rinse the rice...it does something to the texture/stickiness I believe. Also, with the Gambian rice, you cook it in the pot until all the water is gone, instead of removing it from the water with the strainer spoon.