The inaugural Farm & Food Tour

Fifteen Danish farmers visited us with our partner, Zamag Tours & Safaris, based in Zambia’s capital, Lusaka. Chris led the group around his working farm, later bringing them up to our ‘lodge’ for lunch. I served a lamb tagine and jeweled couscous–all recipes to follow in time–along with a fennel and mixed lettuce leaf salad. For dessert I created a trio of fresh tropical sorbets–mango, guava and pineapple–all of which came out of our garden. After coffee and homemade hazelnut biscotti, I showed the group around our summer vegetable garden, ending up at a teak tree where above the front step of our house, in an egg-cup nest, sat a male African Paradise Flycatcher. It was so close to us Chris, who is 6’6″, could almost touch it. Traveling in pairs–I’ve read they are monogamous–the flycatchers are migratory birds that come to nest in our surrounding teak trees during the summer months. Nest duty, it appears, is shared equitably!

2014-01-25 15.05.31
The ZAMAG group of 15 Danish farmers with Chris.
2014-01-25 12.55.42
New tables made for us in the farm workshop, adorned with a cloth and napkins produced locally in Livingstone.

Annabel Hughes Aston is a writer and an award-winning chef in Livingstone, Zambia. She is the creator of "bush gourmet" cuisine.