What if a plant that you have been pulling out of your garden may actually be edible and highly nutritious? Ruliv has recently completed a project with Research Consultant Claire Kockott, and funded by the National Heritage Council, aimed at helping us to identify and include edible wild plants, or in IsiXhosa ‘imifino’, in our diets’.
Workshops were held in the communities of Needs Camp and Ncera where Ruliv had previously undertaken Agro-ecological Training and Garden Establishment mentoring. It was a great exchange of learning. The project culminated in the attached 2023 Revision of the 2003 freely available Rhodes University booklet in English and IsiXhosa “Imifino: A Guide to the use of wild leafy vegetables in the Eastern Cape”. Based on input from these communities, the original version of the 9 most popular plants was extended to include 4 more. There are plain and colour illustrated versions of this revised guide.
An electronic version in colour was produced to aid identification. Now that smart phones are so widely used, colour versions in IsiXhosa and English were produced for anyone to access electronically, free of charge, in the spirit of the original Guide. A black and white version is to allow for cost effective printing. A further version has been produced in English to accompany the East London Museum’s exhibition ‘Plants and People’ and will be available for sale at the Museum.