My neighbor friend, Helen, an 18 or 19 yr old mother of 2 has been nursing these kale (sukuma) along in the corner of the compound she shares with four other women, many many children, three men (whenever they are home), and many cows and goats (at night). She seems pretty proud and happy for this tiny spot of food.
I raised the kale from seed and helped her plant the seedlings. She keeps these going with water that she has used during the day. Every day, she carries two large jerrycans of water (1 in the a.m. and 1 in the p.m.) about 1/2-1 km from the stand pipe. These may look a little wilty, but that is because it is late afternoon and they are eager for their daily drink.
Another view of her efforts. Unfortunately she is not pictured, but rather some others in the compound. Her thorn fence seems effective for protection from goats. I intend to help each mama in this homestead that wants it to have at least a tiny plot of kale to increase the nutrition of their diets. My goal is that through experience of growing these, they can see how to continue growing kale on their own.
They love kale and its easy to grow as long as the locusts and other pests don't get too crazy. Usually, they have to buy it at the market on Mondays (10 km walk, one way) - to have vegetables once a week, if they have the cash.
Awesome work, cousin! Reminds me of ECHO, a neat organization that my Farmer and I visited once when we were in Florida. I wonder if they could be of use to you in your efforts to teach gardening .... www.echonet.org is their site.
ReplyDeleteso proud of you Helen! it's so nice to see the picture Corinna. may the joy of sharing settle down deep and give your heart joy- you've done a beautiful thing. I'm imagining that maybe that's a taste of how God gets joy in loving/giving so lavishly to us?
ReplyDeleteGod bless those little kales, and the precious families who eat them, and the big-hearted person who planted the seeds.
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