SHEA FRUIT ? A DELICIOUS TREAT!

Shea fruit is the sweet, plump, greenish-yellow fruit of the shea tree, and people in northern Ghana eat it fresh. Baraka Shea Butter is made from the seed inside the fruit, by hand at the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Wa, Ghana. This post explains what the fruit is, how it tastes, whether you can eat it, and how it connects to the butter.

In our last post, you learned about the difference between Refined vs Unrefined Shea Butter. This post goes back to where it all starts: the tree and its fruit.

What is shea fruit?

Shea fruit is the fruit of the shea tree. It is plump and greenish-yellow when ripe, with a soft, sweet pulp around a large seed. People searching for shea butter fruit, shea fruits or shea tree fruit are all asking about the same thing. In northern Ghana it is a seasonal treat, tasty, delicate and yummy, and people say it is like a taste of heaven.

The fruit is only half of the story. For making butter, it is the pit inside that we need. So what happens to the fruit itself? Does it just get cast aside? No way! The pulp is eaten, and the fruit is part of village life during the season.

Many people also search for shea butter fruit benefits. We make no medical claims. What we can say is that the fruit is valued where it grows as food, as a seasonal gift from the tree, and as the source of the seed that becomes butter.

Some people mistype the name and search for shear fruit. It is the same fruit, spelled shea. The word is usually said "shee" or "shay".

When does shea fruit ripen?

The shea fruit heralds the end of the dry season. The land turns green once more and farming gets going in earnest. The fruit ripens in a fairly short season, so people enjoy it while it lasts.

For months people will have been patiently watching the trees. They wait for the small flower, which eventually grows into the delicious fruit. The shea tree flower is small, and it is the first sign that the fruit is on its way.

The season is short, and it comes at a busy time. Fields are being prepared, and families are getting ready for the farming months ahead. The ripe fruit is a welcome sweet start to that season of abundance.

Is shea fruit edible, and can you eat shea nuts?

Yes, shea fruit is edible. It is one of the most loved fresh fruits in northern Ghana. Young and old, birds, animals and insects all enjoy this gift from nature. People eat the sweet pulp fresh, straight from the tree or from the ground beneath it.

You may also ask: can we eat shea nuts? The shea nut is botanically a seed, and it is the part used to make shea butter. Shea butter is eaten and cooked with in Ghana, and has been for generations. Most of the world's shea goes into food, including chocolate. Baraka's own shea butter is sold as a cosmetic, so we never describe a Baraka product as a food.

If you are looking for shea fruit recipes, the honest answer is that the fruit is mostly eaten fresh. It is sweet enough that most people do not cook it. You can find it in northern Ghana in small bags and baskets during the season, which is where it is usually bought and eaten.

What does shea fruit taste like?

Shea fruit taste is sweet and soft. People describe the pulp as delicate and creamy. There is not much pulp around the seed, so it is more of a little treat than a meal. It is best eaten fresh and ripe.

Taste is a personal thing. Many people who grew up with the fruit remember it fondly, as one of the first signs that a new season has started. It is a flavour tied to the time of year and to the place where the trees grow.

What plant does shea butter come from?

Shea butter comes from the shea tree. Its botanical name is Vitellaria paradoxa, and it is also called the shea butter tree or shea plant. It grows wild across the savannah belt of West Africa, including northern Ghana. It is not planted in rows like a crop. People look after it where it stands, and it often grows in the farmland and fields of the villages.

If you look up a shea butter tree picture, you will see a broad tree with a thick, rough trunk and a wide, rounded crown of leaves. The leaves are glossy. The small flowers come first, then the fruit.

The shea tree is slow to mature. It takes many years before a young tree gives fruit, and it can then go on giving for a very long time. That is one reason the trees are valued in the communities that live alongside them.

How does the shea seed become shea butter?

After the fruit is eaten, the seed is kept. In the traditional way, the seeds are gathered, dried and cracked to take out the kernel. The kernels are then crushed, ground and worked by hand until the butter comes out. This is the long, hands-on way shea butter has been made in West Africa for generations.

Baraka's shea butter is made by hand by women at the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Wa, Ghana. Our shea butter is unrefined and made by hand, and it is sold as a cosmetic. You can read more about Baraka Shea Butter on its product page.

What happens to the fruit that nobody picks?

Any fruit that gets overlooked during the short harvest simply rejuvenates the soil beneath the tree. Nothing goes to waste. Fallen fruit breaks down and returns to the ground, helping the land around the tree.

During the season you will also see people, often children, selling small bags and baskets of shea fruit along the roadside. There is even some money to be made, so the fruit adds a little income to the season as well as food.

Why the fruit matters to Baraka

The shea fruit is a sweet and lovely start to the season of abundance, and to the process that ends in handmade Baraka Shea Butter. We work with women in Ghana who make shea butter by hand, and we think the story starts at the tree, not in a jar or a pouch.

Baraka is Community Certified Fair Trade, which means we are certified by the community. You can read about our work and what it does for the women and their families in our Impact Report.

Shea fruit at a glance

• What it is: the plump, greenish-yellow fruit of the shea tree.
• Where it grows: the savannah of West Africa, including northern Ghana.
• Botanical name of the tree: Vitellaria paradoxa.
• What people do with the pulp: eat it fresh when ripe.
• What the seed becomes: shea butter.
• When it appears: at the end of the dry season.

So the next time you pick up shea butter, remember that it began as a small flower on a wild tree, then a sweet fruit that children sell by the roadside, and finally a seed worked by hand into butter.