Life in a Mud Hut: Food

I mentioned in my newsletter that many of the foods we eat we have to cook from scratch. One book that has been a huge help has been the More With Less cookbook as it has recipes for most things and they are from scratch. Google is another huge help and I’ve been able to find some good recipes with it. My biggest challenge so far is to get produce in the local market. For the most part so far all that has been available on a regular basis is onions, garlic, and some local greens which I’m not sure what to do with. I have seen some potatoes, oranges, and watermelon, and mushrooms but they are there on a limited basis. There for a few weeks then gone until next season. Other basic necessities are readily available such as noodles, flour, soaps, sugar, salt, tomato paste, and coffee/tea for those that drink it. There even are a few stores that have cheese, canned tuna, and other luxury items we normally ship from Kenya. Its expensive but then so is flying the stuff in, especially the canned goods. one thing I have been working on figuring out is how to eat from what is available locally instead of flying foods in.

One such sort of success was spaghetti. The pasta and tomato paste is available locally and once my tomato plants start producing tomatoes I should be able to make spaghetti and only need to ship in the spices and herbs from Kenya. That being said I have a few ideas on how to grow my own herbs and spices too but I’m still working on that part.

Another success was homemade potato chips. I have yet to see any potato chips in the market but there are potatoes some times. I found a recipe online and decided to try it. The result was a great success. Now I just have to figure out how to add the different flavors to the chips. Salt is easy enough. I recently even found some salt/vinegar powder in the big city when I was on my R&R. I’ll try that and see what happens.