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Thursday, November 12, 2015

Karité Nuts to Shea Butter

         




I am always in awe of the hard working Burkinabé women. Karité nuts used to make shea butter are abundant in our village of Kimini.Young children can be seen very early in the morning gathering the nuts during harvest season. 

That is just the beginning of the long, arduous process of producing the shea butter used in numerous beauty products worldwide. 
Boiling karité nuts
Roasting nuts in outdoor ovens

Grinding roasted nuts to extract the butter.




 
Butter is beaten by hand.


Testing  the consistency.

Women selling balls of shea butter for 5 francs which is about a penny a ball.

I never fail to be humbled by the strength and tenacity of these gentle women.