The Rain is Splashing in Color

To witness the near death experience of a dehydrated landscape abruptly transfigure into a swatch of different shades of green is life-affirming. To then watch the rain splash-paint dabs of violet, buttercup yellow, white, red and cerise all about the green turns one’s evening walk from a meditation into art.

Here, the flowers are everywhere.

Wild Mushroom Risotto (if you survive the test)

According to The Kenya Settlers’ Cookery Book and Household Guide, which was first published in 1928, there is a TEST FOR MUSHROOMS. I quote: “With mushrooms one cannot be too careful. Commence peeling the outside white skin of the mushroom, from the edge to the crest. If the skin does not come off easily the mushroom is suspect.

“The end is where we start from …”

I love rituals and I love symbols. As a seeker I’m always digging around for a sign or a metaphor in books, in nature, in life. I turn often to ancient wisdom and mythology. I celebrate the significance of eating certain foods at certain times of year. I marvel at a fibonacci sequence.

A Taste of 2014’s Farm & Food Tours

Mikey & Gypgyp waiting for our first ever visitors, who had traveled to Livingstone from Denmark in February.
A mixed bean salad with, among others,  Christmas lima beans, yellow cherry tomatoes, and fresh herbs from the garden.
The Danish farmers.
Mixed green salad with a lemon and mustard dressing.
A table of agricultural leaders from California enjoying lunch under the teak trees.

Baobab & Rosewater Christmas Cookies

The baobab tree, with its ancient skin and root-like limbs, levitates above our landscape. To me it’s the n’anga of trees. The magical medicine man. The traditional healer.
In the Kalahari Desert I used to work near Chapman’s Baobab, which is said to be the third largest tree in Africa.