Regina’s green fingers turn to Africa’s wild spinach superfood
Kasongo has zoned in on one particular varietal of amaranth which is jam-packed with nutrients, and hopes to take this onto supermarket shelves across SA
Green-fingered businesswoman Regina Kasongo has partnered with a farmer near Kareedouw to grow and harvest the African superfood imifino, also known as wild spinach, morogo and by its botanical name - amaranth.
Imifino in isixhosa is a collective noun designating traditional leafy greens which for millennia have been foraged directly from the land.
In SA, they are rarely cultivated on a commercial scale but they do grow freely like a weed in nature.
Nelson Mandela Bay’s Kasongo has zoned in one particular varietal of amaranth which is jam-packed with nutrients, and hopes to take this onto supermarket shelves across SA through her company African Indigenous Produce.
“I grew up eating it in the DRC, we called in lenga-lenga, it was something I knew,” Kasongo said of her childhood in the Congo.
“My mother would say ‘if you are not feeling well, eat this veggie to help you’ so that is what I am trying to do now, to let people know about its nutritional properties.
“At African Indigenous Produce, we grow and promote vegetables that are indigenous to Southern Africa. These vegetables combine wonderful qualities and benefits to consumers.”
According to research published in the Journal of Analytical and Pharmaceutical Research, this humble African leaf can indeed be called a “super food”. The journal carried a study outlining its health benefits, as:
• The seeds are high in protein, including several essential amino acids;
• The leaves and seeds contain unsaturated oils such as omega-3 and omega-6;
• Amaranth oil can reduced total and “bad” cholesterol (LDL);
• It is high in dietary fibre, and
• It contains phenolic compounds, folic acid, flavonoids, phytates, vitamins and minerals.
The authors noted that “amaranth can be considered a main vegetable protein with high nutraceutical values converting it into a pseudo cereal that easily can compete at a nutritional level with other cereals or health foods”.
The hardy plant also is resistant to climate change, making it an ideal crop for the Eastern Cape.
“It grows in poor soil, needs little water, is affordable and available,” Kasongo said.
Through mutual friends, Kasongo got in touch with Kareedouw farmer Rikus du Preez, who grows and harvests the vegetable for her.
She said two young entrepreneurs were helping her to distribute imifino, which so far has been on sale in selected Spar stores in Gqeberha, and at Food Lovers Market in East London. However, the amaranth season is now drawing to a close, so consumers are likely to see the leaves on shelves again from September.
Amaranth has incredible diversity – 100 different edible plant species have been recorded just in SA. The seeds and leaves may be eaten, and it also can be dried and rehydrated for later use. It is also, says Kasongo, part of Africa’s rich plant heritage where it goes by many names: imbuya (Botswana), dodo (Rwanda), lenga-lenga (Congo), bondwe (Zambia), bonongwe, mowa (Zimbabwe) or efo tete (Nigeria).
It is also eaten elsewhere in the world: India knows it as Indian-spinach, the Spanish call it el amaranto while the French call it amarante. The ancient civilisations of the Incas, Mayas introduced it to their diets and it is now grown around the world. However, commercial cultivation is rare – and Kasongo wants to change that.
She also is growing other African vegetables, such as the red eggplant, and hopes to develop into other produce such as okra and pumpkin leaves.