God's Gift - Samoa's Breadfruit Tree

The breadfruit tree is native to some island countries in the South Pacific, such as Fiji, Polynesia, Tahiti and so on. It is grown in countries such as Brazil, India, Sri Lanka and tropical Africa.

The bread tree is a tropical, masculine, fast growing tree. It needs strong light and is heat, drought, moisture, barren and slightly shade tolerant. The seeds can be sown as they are picked and germinate in about half a month, but it takes 6-8 years to bear fruit; the bread tree fruit is very rich in starch and is usually baked or steamed or fried before consumption. A bread tree can produce up to 200 fruits a year, making it one of the most productive of the edible plants. The bread tree is easy to grow under adapted conditions, and because of its high yield, it is an important solution to famine.

Legend has it that this miraculous bread tree food was given to Samoa by God as a solution to the famine of the time. According to historical records, in the middle of the 18th century, the British colonialists' colony in the West Indies, due to the monoculture of sugar cane, the black people were oppressed and lived bitterly, especially not enough food, and there was a great famine, between 1770 and 1777, in the island of Jamaica alone, 15,000 black people died of hunger. The British colonists had to take measures to improve the food situation there, so they ordered a cruise to the South Pacific island of Tahiti to collect bread saplings and transport them to the West Indies to plant, and successfully solved the famine at that time.

The independent country of Samoa, located in the heart of the South Pacific, was described by the famous Scottish writer Stevenson as a South Pacific paradise. It consists of 10 islands with a total land area of 2,900 square kilometers, of which the two largest islands, Savaii and Upolu, account for about 95% of the land area. The Samoan people are of pure Polynesian origin, with a total population of about 180,000, 90 percent of whom are Polynesian, with a few of mixed European.

The life of the Moa people is very leisurely, and the whole country's industry and agriculture are developing very slowly. In Apia, the capital of Samoa, the country is sparsely populated, and the mountains and valleys are full of thorns, but the only thing hard to find are crops and orchards. But Samoans are fortunate to have a special resource, the bread tree. 12 bread trees bear enough fruit to feed a person for a whole year. Usually the Samoans slice the "bread" from these trees and bake it to make it a delicacy on their plates.

The bread tree is also the raw material for a variety of items. The bread tree or bread tree wood is light, soft and thick, can be used as a raw material for construction, the Samoan islanders use the bread tree to build houses, can live for 50 years. Boats built from breadfruit trees are the primary means of transportation for Samoans, and the bark is even used to make rope and for various household purposes.