FOOD FROM THE VELD

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Cachet: The cachet on this cover shows a stylised tree in flat, graphic colours, its two main branches spreading in opposite directions and dotted with round golden fruit against olive and dark green leaves. The simplified, decorative style gives the illustration a modern feel distinct from the botanical realism of the stamps themselves. The title "Food from the Veld" appears in plain black type beneath the illustration, with a small Venda crest and the series marking "1.24" placed alongside it in the lower corner. Four stamps run across the top of the cover, each illustrated by S. Nowers and showing a different indigenous plant used as food in Venda, from the Transvaal Red Milkwood to the Brown Ivory. Two Tshakhuma postmarks, each built around a small flower motif, cancel the stamps.

Info card

FOOD FROM THE VELD The Vhavenda are connoisseurs of edible wild fruit and food from the veld, and their diet is supplemented by a variety of nutritious indigenous plants. The women are skilful cooks who know how to use leaves and roots as vegetables and for flavouring. 12c stamp Mimusops zeyheri Mububulu Transvaal Red Milkwood This evergreen tree grows to a height of 15 metres. It has a widespreading, rounded crown and glossy, dark-green simple leaves borne on long petioles. The young shoots and leaves are covered with a layer of short reddish hair which is soon shed. The small white flowers are star-shaped and fragrant, occurring in groups in the leaf-axils. The bright yellow fruit is oval to round, and has a sweet, mealy, yellow flesh with a high Vitamin C content. It is usually eaten fresh, but is also crushed to obtain the juice which is taken either fresh or fermented. Birds, monkeys, baboons, bush pigs and elephant all relish the berries. 25c stamp Ziziphus mucronata Mutshetshete Buffalo-thorn The buffalo-thorn is a medium-sized deciduous tree with a slender dark-brown stem and a sparse spreading crown. The young branches are armed with sharp stipular spines borne in pairs, with one spine recurved. The shiny dark-green leaves have three main veins arising from the base of the leaf. The small yellow-green flowers are borne in clusters in the axils of the leaves. The fruit is smooth and round, and ripens from yellow through reddish-brown to dark-red. The mealy flesh surrounding a large pip is not particularly palatable, but when dry is pounded and made into a porridge. Roasted and ground it may be used as a substitute for coffee. Livestock and game browse on the leaves. 30c stamp Citrullus lanatus Gwadi Wild Watermelon This member of the cucumber family is a highly valued veldfood often cultivated in maize and sorghum plots. It is a prostrate, spreading annual with many herbaceous stems, deeply lobed hairy leaves and small yellow flowers. The fruit is globose, up to 20 cm in diameter, with a tough green rind mottled with longitudinal darker green bands. The crisp white flesh is juicy but tasteless, with numerous embedded flat brown seeds. The wild watermelon or tsamma is a prized source of water in arid areas. The fruit is topped like a boiled egg, the centre portion cut out and eaten, and the rest of the pulp is then mashed inside the rind to a watery mass for drinking. The pared fruit as well as the young leaves are prepared as a vegetable or stewed with meat. The melon is also cut into slices and dried in the sun for later use. The seeds are ground and made into a bread, or roasted and eaten. The hollowed dry fruit is a handy container for food. 50c stamp Berchemia discolor Munii Brown Ivory The brown ivory is a semi-deciduous tree with a widespreading crown. Its leaves are conspicuously bicoloured, dark-green above and pale below. Groups of small yellow-green flowers are borne in the axils of the leaves from October to December. The fruit ripens from March to May and is elliptic, yellow to red, with a sweet yellow pulp which has a high Vitamin C content, and it may be eaten fresh or dried. The dried pulp is pounded to a meal, mixed with wild manna seed, and kneaded into a biscuit dough which is baked or steamed. Several bird species feed on the fruit and the leaves and twigs are browsed by game. The yellow-brown wood is hard and durable and suitable for cabinet-making. A brown or purple dye is obtained from the wood and bark.

Additional information

This cover is postmarked on 21 June 1985 in Tshakhuma. It carries a set of four Venda stamps illustrated by S. Nowers, each depicting an indigenous plant that forms part of the traditional Vhavenda diet. The wild watermelon featured on the 30c stamp, known locally as tsamma, has long served as a vital source of water in arid areas, with its pulp mashed and drunk directly from the hollowed out rind.

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