PALM WINE TAPPING

Greetings to you all my blurt family, Dannicomnet is here once again, a young African Ghanaian want to share something interesting happening in my locality.
I travelled to my hometown to checkup on my little girl, she was fine and kicking. I decided to return but grandpa said I should assist him in his farm the next day and to my surprised, HE WANTED TO GIVE ME FRESH PALM WINE.
In rural communities located in the thick forest belt, the process of tapping palm wine from palm trees is called palm wine tapping.
Firstly, A palm wine tapper will uproot the palm trees then he will cut some palm branches to expose the tissue and use the knife to create a hole in the tree. A hollow bamboo or empty pipe is used to direct the sap into a gallon or calabash which is fastened around the tree.

To enable him to collect the sap, a container is fastened to the flower stump into which the sap drops intermittently.

The white liquid that initially collects tends to be very sweet and non-alcoholic before it is fermented. An alternate method is the felling of the entire tree. Where this is practised, a fire is sometimes lit at the cut end to facilitate the collection of sap.

A typical day for its palm wine tappers begins at 6:30 a.m. when they head to the farm on their bikes to carry out the business of the day.

By the time they go back to the farm again around 3: 00 p.m., the gourds tied to the stem would have been full of the juice which they take to the various drinking centres in the community where various customers are waiting.