YANTA !

I’m supposed to work with female associations for environment protection and cleaning up the city.

There are so many female associations existed in Burkina.

Their domain or interests vary from one association to another ;
HIV/AIDS, activities for women’s income generation and their social statue improvement, literate education, environment protection, orphan support etc…

Today, I present one of these associations and the one which I am going to work with :
“ Union YANTA ”

This union organizes several female associations for national forests protection (agroforestry), activities for income generation, improvement in living situation etc.

Some examples of their activities ↓

1. Cashew nuts processing

Do you know that the nut of cashew nut is like that ? I didn’t…

Boil them

Clack the nuts with this machine one by one. There you go, now inside we see the “nuts” that we know !

Take out the nuts

Dry them out under the sun

Peel the skin

Sort them by their size

At the end fry them then sift salt or sugar on them
You see how much work it is to make these nuts ?

By the way, there is another product which is now my favorite sweets ;

☆Caramel cashew nuts☆

Today, exceptionally I show the recipe here !
At first, crush nuts which became in small piece during the processing

Put sugar in a pan then mix it until it becomes brown.

Add the nuts’ flour there

After mix them well, put on the board (from here, speed is important!)

Make it flat. They don’t use a roller but a bottle with lots of oil on it!

Cut it in lozenge

Twist them to make them look nice☆(I had hard time twisting because the caramel was so hot that my fingers got burnt! Other women were laughing at me. Their finger skin is much thicker than mine…)

Hummm yam yam…

I know I shouldn’t eat it too much…
The caramel is made of just sugar and nuts which are in the category of high, high calories!
But you know, my small contribution (purchase) becomes a part of their income…
I choose sacrificing myself !


2. Karité butter
Have you ever heard of Burkina Karité butter ? You must or you should ! It is now pretty well known in Europe and some in Japan among ladies who care their skin.

At first, eat the pulp of Karité (delicious!)

The nut is the raw material.

Smash them in this mortar that all burkinabe families possess.

Boil them then put them in these huge bowl.
Then in pair, women start mixing and tapping the liquid with hand at a great tempo although their style must be one of the causes of their lumbago…

With this tempo, some start singing songs and flapping hands. Others start dancing. These are all for encouraging women working hard at the moment !

Then add water a couple of times until it becomes gradually clear white.

Finally heat them up and separate the oil and butter then done !

The butter is great to keep lady’s skin smooth&young☆

If there are L’Occitane or Body Shop at your city/town, go there and check out the label of body soap or cream! It might say « Karite from Burkina Faso »☆