Training in Noungou

A women group of the farmer association Teel Taaba in the village of Noungou is working on the processing of onions and tomatoes. Except solar drying, the women also want to apply other techniques. Through a training of two days, Kini, Safieta and I taught them how to make onion marmalade, tomato purée and tomato ketchup.

All starts with hygiene: you need water and soap. The women cut the clean onions in small pieces. Without tears.

Many hands make light work: in no time several kilos of onions are being cut up.

The onions are put on the fire with a dash of oil. You add sugar and salt. After half an hour you add vinegar and bissap.

The result: onion marmalade. Which even appears to be tasty!

Then the tomatoes: at first they are boiled briefly to take away the skin.

After having peeled the tomatoes, you use a hand-mill to separate the grains and the remaining skin from the juice.

The tomato juice is put on the fire: tomato purée on the left, ketchup on the right.

Safieta demonstrates how to fill the jars with the hot tomato purée.

One of the women does the same for the ketchup. The filled jars of onion marmalade, tomato purée and tomato ketchup are sterilized at 100 degrees for 25 minutes.