Ancient foods for the future

MAYAN TREE SPINACH TO KAROO WILD ROSEMARY: ORPHAN CROPS RECLAIM THEIR PLACE

- Alice Spenser-Higgs

EVEREADY. Zimbabwean Shallot.

Did you know that there is the vegetable called the Mayan Tree Spinach?

It was a staple food of the ancient Mayan civilisation and it is making a comeback. The cooked green leaves are as tasty as spinach yet provide far more protein, calcium, iron, vitamin C and carotenes.

It is growing in Pretoria and forms part of the University of Pretoria's Future Africa Agrobiodiversity (and Orphan Crop) Collection, which, according to Jason Sampson, is the only orphan crop collection of its kind.

He explains that "orphan" crops are those that were grown in much earlier times by indigenous communities around the world but mostly fell away following the introduction of more commercially available varieties like tomatoes, potatoes, carrots and spinach.

Some 200 orphan crops from around the world are being grown under trial at the Future Africa campus and according to Jason, who is head curator of the University's Manie van der Schijff botanical gardens, these crops can form a vital part of sustainable food production for the future.