I can't believe that I've been blogging about farm life for 1 1/2 years and have not done a post on our Safflower crop yet ! It is one of the crops which we grow every year, and the main crop which we grew when we lived on our old farm (where we were surrounded by 14 000 acres of the stuff - and no, that is not a typing error !) In fact, the company which my husband works for is the biggest Safflower grower in Tanzania (with 8000 acres planted in Tanzania this season alone) ... so you see, it's about time I blogged about it - don't you think ?!Anyway - the photo above shows a field of safflower here on our farm. The photo below shows a close up of the safflower plant - these plants pictured are drying out and almost ready to harvest. As you can see, they are very spiky (almost thistle-like) in appearance. For this reason, safflower is resistant to cattle (no wandering herds ever feast on these fields !) and also quite drought resistant - well, to a degree. The plant survives quite well in dry conditions.
The seeds of the safflower plant are similar to sunflower seeds and ours are used for manufacturing cooking oil for export. Safflower oil is quite sought after as it is low in saturated fatty acids and high in Vitamin E, and although we used to mainly supply the American market, we now supply the European market (as the prices are higher).We harvest the seeds by machine and they are then bagged and sent by truck to our factory in the city. (The 2 photo's below show our warehouse - known here as a 'go down' - where the bagged seeds are stored)
During the harvesting season on our farm, we have trucks delivering to the factory pretty much on a daily basis. We have 400 acres under safflower on our farm this season, with around 3000 acres in total under safflower in our entire area (West Kilimanjaro) - mainly being grown by small contract growers.Some of these contract growers plant as little as 2 acres and we provide them with full support - seed, chemicals, advice and equipment to harvest the crop as even 2 acres cannot be harvested by hand, due to the prickly nature of the plant. (Harvesting 2 acres by machine is pretty rare in a country where the majority of small scale farmers still do everything by hand). Each year more and more small scale farmers are growing this crop as an additional source of income for their families, and it has been exciting to see over the years, the impact that this crop has had on small rural communities as a result of this.
The photo below shows our safflower oil press at the factory (sorry - not very clear as it was a dull, rainy morning when I took this photo). It is here that the seeds are pressed to extract the oil. (I love the smell of this part of the factory, as it always smells like freshly popped popcorn !) The oil is then pumped straight into huge black 'bladders' inside rail containers (there is a railway which runs through the factory area so the oil is put straight into the containers) - much like the silver bag you find inside a box of wine.
The rail carriages then run to the Tanzanian coastal port of Tanga, where they are then put onto a ship and sent across the ocean to Europe. The leftover seeds/shells which have had the oil extracted from them are gathered and packaged and sold as animal feed - our current market for this is the neighbouring country of Kenya. So you see, not a bit is wasted !
We usually have as much safflower oil as we need for use in our own home if we like, but to be honest I do not cook with it much - firstly because I prefer to stick with what I know and have always used (sunflower or olive oil) and secondly because to me, safflower oil has a 'different' sort of smell to it (which I think flavours the food in a different way, too). I suppose as the wife of one of the largest growers of safflower in Tanzania, I should not tell you that - but I am always honest with my readers ! (I'm not saying that it has a bad smell/taste - just an unusal one, and I suppose it's a case of what you're used to).So, the next time you're shopping and you see a bottle of safflower oil on your local supermarket shelf - who knows ? It may very well have come from our farm, right here in Kilimanjaro's foothills !
