Rufaro Makamure

Sunday started off low and slow. I was supposed to start working on a project that my sisters and I agreed to take on, during school holidays. I did start putting order in the house, but today is when I really made progress. We are preparing our house for kids we intend to host. My sisters and I decided to officially carry on our parents' and grandmother's tradition of supporting family that goes beyond the nuclear one. We are working on health, education and self awareness as usual, but this time it's more organized and well thought of. One of my sisters is funding the whole thing, the other one is managing the kitchen and health area and I am working on the education bit, especially for those that are writing this year. We will teach most of the things, through the lifestyle we will live during the time we have the kids. For example, I am cleaning the house like I would, if I was expecting a special guest so that the house should make the kids feel important. My sister who is working on the food is not around so I have started to try out how to add fibre and vegetables to our meals and still have them looking nice and tasty. I am also going through my clothes to plan what I will wear so that I look clean, simple and young for them. We intend to celebrate one of the kids' birthday and I will be wearing a pretty dress and heels on the day, I could not find one of the straps for my heels and I might have to wear them without, though they look so much better with the straps.

Today I received groceries from my sister and once I am done with the house, I will start structuring the lessons I will be teaching in advance. I noticed how organizing a lesson on the day I need to teach a class is difficult, the last time I did this.

There goes my butternut. I don't know what else to do  I cannot control my emotions. Yesterday I covered the butternut with an old potato sack but the rat got to it anyways. All the plant's tips have been eaten and I don't know if this will kill the plant altogether. I was liking the way the place with the butternut, ginger and tumeric was shaping up.

I have dug a hole and put some water in a container to trap some rats. I used peanut butter right around the level just above the water to attract them. It is meant to trap the rats, if they fall in the water they should drown. I tried this once it didn't work, but Baba Mitchell who used to stay at the plot did it and it would work wonders.

The place where I stay is different from the plot where the snake was. So I am working on two different properties to make them productive especially where food is concerned. I hear you on distracting the rats and I will see what I can do. It's hard for me to even think of giving the rats water to drink though I don't have any other alternative.

This morning there was no sign that the rats went under the wire mesh. The germination is slower in the  covered area because there is more shade, in comparison to the opposite side which has more hours of unobstructed sun. When I saw a line of seeds that I  put down early last week germinating (on the sunny side), it dawned on me that I no longer have time for sowing as I hoped for. So I have broadcasted seeds randomly  on the part covered with wire mesh. The first time I put seeds there not a single one from thas side germinated, and I don't know if it's because of the rats eating seedlings or there was no germination at all. For now there are individual spots that are showing signs of germination but since more than 2 days back, I am not seeing any new spots.

I figured that since I am already watering the shady area, there is no harm if I have many seeds germinating as opposed to nothing or just a few. I can't put anymore seeds on the sunny side, there is no more space. I also covered the mesh with a plastic to minimize evaporation as much as I could and keep the space warm. For now I have done all I can to try and create a productive place as far as the onion seedlings are concerned. I am not going to feel too bad if I get to a point where I have to buy seedlings to go with to the plot.

I woke up today to find that the rat had eaten a female flower from the butternut plant and it dug its way under the mesh and got to my seedlings. I am looking around to see if I can get things to block the rat from going under the mesh, to protect any seedlings that will germinate, I hope this woll not be an issue. Eventually I will have a proper cover made which I can hopefully sink into the soil and I need to budget for this. As of now, whatever money I  have, I would rather save it to buy seedlings ready for planting in case I fail to grow mine. My mission is to prove that it is possible to build wealth no matter what circumstance one is in, in this case, I have to figure out how to outwit this rat without spending money.

I managed to get some mesh wire to put over the upcoming seedlings and though I don't know what else will come my way, it's such a relief to know the rodents aren't the ones that will get to my seedlings if anything is to happen to them.
There was a plant in the squash family that just started to grow. These days I am allowing things to grow on their own, in and around the garden area as long as it does not disturb any of my plans. I just realized today that it could be some butternut plant and I am excited. There are tree seeds that have also germinated, maybe its seeds we were throwing at the composting area, where I got some of the soil for the garden, and we are putting them in pots for my sister, who has a larger place to grow them. So far we have a baobab tree and some mango trees.

I am also watching the bananas that I cut when I was filling the keyhole garden with organic matter. They are growing back, as if to prepare for the next time I will need organic matter to raise the level of my bed. It will be a great thing if I can again just get things from within the yard to fill up the garden.

I have 4 rat traps and I caught one. They seem to learn very fast because no matter what I put on the trap, they are not bitting anymore. The one that did eat the bait was smart enough to not set off the trap.

Yesterday I saw that the patch of onions that were left was now being cut/eaten also, it's a really small patch but I am using it to learn how I can care for the ones that are now germinating. I put some wire mesh on top of the onions and today they were intact. The weeds around though had been eaten. So I will be using a wire mesh to protect the new seedlings.
The other thing also is that the level of the soil in the bed lowered a lot, as the organic matter underneath is rotting. I am suspecting that the onions are lacking enough sunlight because they look long and very thin. There is so much food in the soil and I have been watering religiously so these factors are out. I have started removing a section of the wall supporting the bed to let the sun shine above the onions for longer hours, I will see how this goes.
I had breakfast sitting quietly by the garden and I finally saw the rat that's visiting my garden. So I am now sure the plants are being eaten by a rat and I will figure out my way around this problem.

Stories around the globe are evident of a lot of instability, almost everywhere. In my country, ours is mainly political and economic instability. Socially there has been some resilience, because of the culture which had an Ubuntu backbone. This culture is wearing away fast and recently we have been experiencing things that people are doing to each other that we never thought were possible.
Yesterday most businesses were shutdown because of politically related statements that have been said. I won't go deep into this,
1) because I am afraid of being misunderstood
2) because my knowledge of politics is not strong.
Preparing for yesterday involved stocking up on groceries because we didn't know what was going to happen and how long it would affect us. Luckily businesses seem to be normalizing now. In most households people are living from hand to mouth and not too many can afford to stock up on groceries, meaning things would have been difficult for a lot of people, including us, if yesterday's outcome resulted in some sort of lock down. I am happy to say that for our two families, Mai Kumbi's and ours, we were better prepared, not because we had seen this coming, but because of some life choices we have been making. The main commodity that was being bought is mealie meal, for making sadza, the staple meal. Between Mai Kumbi and myself, none of us worried about food too much, at least for a few weeks. We have maize and vegetables (nyemba bean leaves). There is no variety yet, but just having these things easily accessible has helped us be calm in our situation. We didn't have to be intentionally unjust to anyone, for us to assure ourselves of some stability at a family level and this is such a huge achievement for me, considering this is entirely based on the produce from the land we are custodians of, not from an outside support, be it, an official job, project or support from family members. Below I have included images of the seeds we are getting from the field which is our hope for variety in the future, we will also get some maize grains for seed when we are done harvesting.

We have started harvesting our maize and most of the cobs are big in size. We have also harvested $15 worth of nyemba leaves from the same field. It has not been raining for some weeks now and though we have harvested maize, I hope the rain comes back for the nyemba plants. They have just started growing pods and we would like to still harvest as many leaves as possible.
I am impressed at the effort that is being put on the vegetable beds. Reducing the number of beds was a very good thing for us, because we were spreading our resources thinly for sure. Now that the space to be worked on is smaller, the mulch that's been put in the beds is a lot and there are weeds that are soaked in water for weed tea. All of this is being done in my absence and, it makes it a lot more exciting. Now that we are all on the same page on the importance of taking care of our soil, the next part is to work on productivity. Though the beds are mulched well and have healthy plants, there are gaps within the beds on spaces where there should be plants. I am going to be more strict on having a plant on every position that should have one and this will improve on effectiveness. The water and feed we put in our beds should be equal to the maximum produce we can get from each bed and we have to intentional about it. I know Kumbi and his mum want to expand, but we will only do this when we have successfully filled up the area we are currently working on with a plant on every   planned position.

The keyhole irrigation bed which I planted onion seeds has its own headaches. Most of the onion germinated well, but some of the seedlings would just wilt and die and I  dont know why yet, but I have deepened my planting depth in case the root area is too exposed. I would also wake up to find some cut by something. I don't know if it's rats because I don't know why but I thought rats do not eat onions. I did a second batch and covered with mesh wire and this worked well. I went away for about a week and when I got back, our dogs had started using the keyhole as a bed. Now I'm doing my third trial and I will keep at it until the beginning of May. If by this time I won't be having onion seedlings of my own, then I will have to go and buy some. That's one other up side to having my own seeds, there is room to experiment and grow.  The keyhole garden came with one pleasant surprise, it grows tomatoes effortlessly, something I did not think was even possible. There is a tomato plant that grew on its own, and I transplanted it in the keyhole bed. It is so healthy and I have not sprayed it with any chemical whatsoever.

A puzzle has been solved. I have always wondered why dried nyemba bean leaves or rather most traditional/ local vegetables aren't common in our households. It's the labor it takes to pick them up and process them. It has been difficult for me to sell the dried nyemba leaves and I only found out it's because of the soil still in the dried leaves. I never used to understand this, because I would cook the vegetables the wrong way. One old lady I visited and asked more on how to cook the leaves explained perfectly.

The leaves that are picked are the tender new leaves which you see because they are shiny and the green color is not as deep as the old ones. After picking, the leaves are thoroughly washed to remove any soil and this is something I learnt a few years back. (My mistake: I was not too bothered about a little bit of soil remaining, because I would then thoroughly wash the dried leaves just before cooking a meal). The wet leaves, still fresh from the field are then left to drip and dry a little in the sun, before they are boiled until they turn brown and then they are dried. When cooking the dried leaves, they should not be rewashed, because it takes some rich flavor away. So apparently it is so difficult to find these dried leaves without soil in them and this is why people don't buy them.
But because I believe we are at a point where we need food accessibility, crop variety and plants resilient to changing times that can protect our soil, we need to revisit some of the old and traditional ways of cooking even if it might be labor intensive. Now that I have learnt this, I will work on our dried leaves and have people trust me, the community I am in has mostly the elder people who grew up eating these leaves and they have a higher chance of buying. Once they do, they will expose their grandchildren to the leaves and this in turn will reintroduce the leaves into our lives. People in the rural areas still eat these leaves.