Ukwa, one of local dishes which we love to eat at all times. It's very nutritious and tasty. We enjoys it a lot but there's a challenge while we don't eat it often as we wanted. Let me share with you what it is, it's recipe and the challenges.

Ukwa is my native name for breadfruit so this cuisine comes from that wonderful tree and it's seeds to be precise. As people from rainforest belt, our personal names and foods are mainly from trees. For example, my native name is Orji, a name acclaimed for iroko tree. A famous tree that is very flamboyant, strong and powerful so are other people names. Our foods are made from such trees too. Ukwa is one of them and we love them.

At maturity stage, the breadfruit trees bears fruit and when the pod riped. It falls on it's own. They are kept along the footpath and when they fermented and their seeds, easy to be washed. They are taken to the nearby streams or rivers. Washed and dry for wonderful and tasty meals. These activities are locally assigned to the female folks in my area.

These wonderful seeds are good and many as one big pod can give out over a thousands of them. After being washed, there are many ways of cooking them as well as many recipes. I preferred when their back are removed, although it's a tedious job and cooked as porridge with palm oil, peppers, onions and salt. It's very wonderful to be behold and tastes wonderfully.

As a seasonal fruit, it makes it difficult to have all year round. No matter the supplies, it usually ran out and very costly to purchase as the demand for them is very much higher than supply. Few trees of such wonderful breadfruit still stand in our forest as urbanization and development keep pushing them into extinction. Also, in some areas it's a communal tree which means it's fruits and other resources are for everyone. When picked and washed by all, it will be shared thereby affecting its supply and making it difficult for many like me to have them regularly.

Most of work that surround such fruits is very tedious and tiresome. Waiting for the fruit to be ripe, picked them, leaving them to ferment and washing them in the streams is a serious task and not everyone like to do them. Reasons might be because it's very menial, time - consuming and not industrialized. Also, the work is mostly done by women. Those women in village still can do it but they are few, weak and old thereby affecting its supply and presence in our local market.

Many areas have cut down the trees because of own boisterous, they can be. When the fruit ripes, it can fell at all times. There's a taboo associated with the fallen fruit. For example, if the fruit falls on anyone, for them, it means that such person is evil. This superstitious belief and many more like that are reasons why some people are secretly cutting them down to avoid problems. Another reason why they are scare resources too.

Finally

Despite these challenges, we still find out times to get a handful of this wonderful seeds and prepare a good meal out of them. It's very nutritious, tasty and edible. Its a wonderful meal which is even featured during important occasions like wedding and other festivals.