When I came back from the States in August I brought with me a bunch of seeds, including thyme, oregano, Thai basil, dill, and a couple types of flowers. In order to keep them from dying I waited until the rainy season (December) to plant them. Being on the equator, even during the rainy season the Sun is very hot and so three of my students assisted me to build small green houses. We bought 6m plastic pipes, cut them in half, and attached yellow, partially opaque plastic to the outside of the plastic frames. This has turned out to work marvelously, and until the other day, I had very healthy 4 inch tall plants.
But then it struck, like an elephant in the night. I was doing my evening hour of meditation and I heard a funny rustling coming from somewhere. There are always funny noises around the school, so I ignored it, put in my ear plugs and continued to meditate for the remaining part of the hour. When I removed the earplugs the noise was still there and I found that it was coming from outside. In the dark, I could barely make out what it was. Then as my torch scanned the black abyss, I realized that part of the darkness was really a cow. The bull had escaped from its pen and was easily destroying the green house, trampling on the baby plants and eating them too! With some harsh threats I scared the cow away from my garden and into the school's tomato patch, where it continued to eat happily until the night watchman came with a stick to chase it away.
The man that the school hires to take care of the cows had done a poor job that evening, and I hope that he will help me rebuild. Most of the damage was due to the cows hooves, as it was only trying to eat the tall weeds that had grown up around the sprouts. All in all, the damage was not so bad. One variety of flower was almost completely wiped out, and the parsley looked quite mangled, but at least a few will carry on.
The biggest trouble that I have now is figuring out what delicious food I am going to use each of the spices for. When I find someone asking me what foods each spice will be used in, I end up saying “that one goes well with meat.”
Lentil Soup:
lentils
onion
carrot
tomato
thyme, oregano, basil
meat (a little bit for flavoring)
One exemplary recipe that makes use of these spices is lentil soup, which also happens to be a huge favorite of mine, dating back to the days when my grandmother would cook it for me almost weekly.
On Sunday I prepared cooked it and invited Mr. And Mrs. Mutia over to sample it. Despite their friendly conversation, as we were eating it I found myself lost deep in thought thinking about my grandmother. It was not the same as the recipe that my grandmother used to use. For one thing, I used cow meat instead of the turkey-ham that she used and I also added a little brown rice to make it a more complete meal.
I filled my biggest stock pot to the brim, and yet we managed to finish all of it between four of us. I do not know whether or not Mr. Mutia was exaggerating, but he told me that it was the tastiest food that he had ever eaten. In America I certainly would not accept this as true, but most Kenyans have never tasted a food spiced with oregano, thyme, or basil before, so maybe his accolades were at least partly true.
I enjoyed this gathering very much. There was a Sunday last term when I invited some neighbors over for fresh pizza made from my oven. Maybe I will try to start a tradition, cooking different dishes making use of my spice garden each weekend.
So far, the dishes I can think of are potato salad, lentil soup, pizza, and pasta salad, as well as generic soups and stews.
Maybe I can make good on some of those threats towards the cow and serve guests roasted cow rubbed oil and rosemary.
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