Permaculture advocate in Zimbabwe - too little/too much rain

So glad to hear an update from you, Rufaro!! And how good that things are going well.

Mai Kumbi surprised me. She sent vegetables again this week. My sister and I harvested a bunch of bananas from our yard, which is adding on to the week's food supply.

The two vendors that I have added to the vendors to help with peanut butter sales are still asking for it, although the sales are still very low. One of the elderly vendors said he does not need any money from us for selling our peanut butter because to him, we are just like his children. I am not sure how to be with him. He keeps on saying I do not know how to accept a miracle. I have stopped insisting on giving him a token of appreciation, but he has left me with an itch to want to work with him in a beneficial way and as usual my brain has ideas swirling, and maybe when the time is right we will do something more than peanut butter selling together. He also gave me hope that we can be humane to each other for no reason at all, so he is definitely someone I want to develop with. As for the upgrade with Apo's business, my idea of growth is gradual and step wise growth. I am not sure if my friend sees it this way, and I did send him an audio, hinting on this, and it's getting to a week with no comment on this. I am afraid to ask him about this because I do not want to push this opportunity away.
I think slow growth can help us look at the business holistically and create an opportunity to grow the business into some really stable investment opportunity as opposed to if this business gets big sudden changes, which could shock the existing operations and risk destroying even what Apo has built for himself so far. I have to communicate this, but I do not know how without appearing as someone who is getting in the way of a big sudden growth.

I put pumkin, bottle guard, and long Thai beans in the keyhole garden from the seeds I received. I will keep on trying them until all conditions are good for me to grow them successfully. We are in winter, which might not be the best season, but I figured, if I have tomatoes growing, I could be lucky. If it doesn't work, I will try again in the summer.

One other random thing is that we used lemons, mint and guava leaves to help my sister fight off a flue which was promising to be a very bad one and she was not too affected by it. Everything we used is from within the yard.

Today, I  have an achievement that is not necessarily tangible, but it is worth noting. I managed to get some funds to continue to work with Apo. It involved knocking on multiple friends' doors, something I just started practicing, and being coldly rejected of any help by most people I reached out to.

The last time I wrote, we had made progress in getting help to mechanise the peanut butter production process, which is currently manual in a way that has made it fail to grow. The problem is that everything froze because I was failing to get any feedback from my friend I am working with on a concern I had with the upgrade. The proposed approach to upgrading the system is too big for where the small business is. The upgrade involves buying completely new big machines which are ideal for the business in the long run, but for now, the personnel and the environment might limit the success of such a system.

At the moment small steps in upgrading the system, utilising the existing equipment, can be helpful in that it will be extremely economical, it will also allow the people in this system to grow and to be ready to manage a bigger system. It will also allow the business to find ways to blend in our very complicated business environment, which, in my opinion, is unkind to thriving businesses, especially if their pockets are not deep enough. We still need to keep things at a family trading level as we improve the system's efficiency before we can even begin to consider going big.

I can write my thoughts well, but my biggest issue is not being able to articulate myself well in a conversation. Everything gets twisted, and nothing seems to come out right. One other thing is, how do you tell potential help to scale down their assistance a little. I did try without much success. I ended up going to Apo to find out the prices of putting a motor on one roaster so that I can look for help. The amount was equivalent to the amount I was holding onto, that I could not use because it is my friend's the one who has been helping me with this project, and he seemed to not have much time to entertain down scaling the upgrade idea. Well, today he did give me a go-ahead to use this money, but of course, it's not specific to anything, we still have not talked about the upgrade since its proposal. I now have the chance to have a motor put on one of the peanut roasters, which I believe will bring significant changes to the small business. I will show my friend that with a few dollars, we can make a huge difference through improving efficiency whilst prioritizing stability as we develop things. A sudden growth might look profitable, but it involves so many different aspects that can easily be overlooked, for example, the ability of the business owner and his employees to manage the introduced growth. So I will be going to Apo to start working on putting a motor on one roaster.

At the plot we have consistent supply of tomatoes and some greens. The images of the new beds they started, with no fertilizer application are really good. They are working so hard now.
At home I am doing experiments of my own and the rats are again a problem. My work on mixed cropping has been destroyed. I realised the fastest way to try things out is if I have a real life sample to show, and the rats have drawn me back so much. I have started fencing some of the plants on the smaller pots, once I buy a longer fence, I am definitely  covering the key hole garden area.

Twists come from the oddest things. Last week when I visited Apo, we talked at length about what we were seeing as a huge draw back in his business and we both agreed that we needed to start shifting from a fully manual system. The part of the process that he chose to start with was the roasting process, and the main reason was that it is the hardest part of the whole process, because of how hot it is for someone who has to rotate the roaster manual for the whole time the nuts are roasted. Having the roasting area outside makes it a lot more difficult in the hottest months.

Today when I went to celebrate with Apo, for the money we have for one roaster, I  was shocked to hear him propose we buy more nuts instead. I was both confused and disappointed because we had a lengthy talk about this. He has unprocessed nuts rught now, that are queueing to be processed from people who come for his services with their own nuts, he has even stopped processing his own nuts so that no one goes back without being served. This is something I thought would make us choose efficiency over anything else in how we should use this money because the volume of nuts coming his way this season is more than he can handle. He wants to get the peanuts before their prices increase, which I think makes sense, but I still don't agree with it being of more priority than putting a motor. If he buys nuts now, they will be parked as he works on nuts from people who are coming for his services, which is going to keep the capital locked in the nuts. If he has the motor installed it will be like additional manpower and it will speed up the processing of the peanuts and it will help with the backlog he has and it will also allow him to process his own peanut butter. We currently don't have any peanut butter to sell because he doesn't have his own, even though he has peanuts.  So we might get the nuts when they are slightly higher than they are now, if we go the motor installation way, but I believe it's a sacrifice that has to be made. To just explore the possibilities, we started looking around for things we need to put a motor on the roaster and the first task was to look for someone who is experienced in industrial machines. We got someone and what he was saying was strangely affordable, and Apo became a little excited, but the problem is an electric motor to fit into a motor sprocket with chain transfer mechanism, is not common anymore and the time it will take to find  the components we need might be longer than we both want. This time is making Apo choose buying of nuts first. He is now more open to the installation of the motor being of higher priority and if we are able to get the parts we need to fit on his roasters in a short space of time, we will work on the motor installation.
I had a good ending to our discussion now I need to figure out how we can get the things needed without taking too much time.

Rufaro, I have some questions about groundnuts. I recall you grew some.

I have the opportunity to acquire some groundnuts to use as seed, to start my own plants. Nobody in my area has ever grown them before, nor eaten them. Could you give me some hints on growing them? And how do you eat them?  

I’m always looking for new crops to add to my homestead style farm. So I’m excited that I have been offered these groundnuts.

Oh my god Su....! I am so excited for you. I love peanuts, I love peanut butter, I think I will love peanut anything. I am hoping you will enjoy them as much as I do.

Yes we did grow some, well it was my mother mostly showing me how to grow them, when I was telling her how we could grow them in the same field as maize. Most of the information I will share with you is thanks to Apo, he helped with his knowledge. They are very easy to grow.

You need to make sure your area has loam to sandy soil, because they do well in loose soil. Also they require warm temperatures. When preparing your soil, you can work in your soil feed, compost or any manure you have, and this should be enough to take care of your plant until maturity. People put fertilizer but when we grew them, we didn't put any and they turned out well. You can mark out lines with a depth of 5cm and  around 30cm apart. These will be your rows. You can drop your peanut seeds about 10cm apart within the rows and cover them. When they start to flower, they form pegs, which are root like things that shoot from the stems into the ground. When you see these forming, you can mount some soil on the peanut plants to cover the pegs, this has a tendency to increase your yield, (almost like what is done when hilling potatoes, only with peanuts you do it once). The only other thing that you have to make sure you do is to weed. Because they are such a low plant, if weeds are not monitored they will reduce the yield significantly. Your soil has to be well drained.
They take about 3 months to mature and you see this when the leaves start to turn yellow. Harvesting them is just pulling them out of the ground, but they can be difficult, with the ground nuts remaining in the soil as the leaves and stems are pulled. You can dig them up if this happens.

I will send you how to cook nuts.

Peanuts can be eaten fresh or dried. Soon after harvesting you can roast or boil and salt nuts in their shells. You can dry the peanuts, then remove them from their shells, then boil or roast them. When roasting dried nuts, you add your salt when they are almost cooked, by dissolving salt in a little water, which you pour into the nuts just before removing the cooked nuts from the stove. You have to allow all the water to evaporate, leaving the nuts dry, (the water is very little it is just to help the salt stick onto the nuts).
These are the most common basic ways to prepare nuts. They can be used when baking, making candy or boiled together with other grains.

Have you seen this machine?
https://speworks.com/product/hand-operated-peanut-shelling-decorticator-machine/
Storage: Pack the freshly made peanut butter into clean, airtight containers or sterilized glass jars to maintain freshness.Shelf Life: Because the natural oils have been released without added preservatives, store them in a cool, dark place

It would not be hard to attach the motor to the drum.
Can a pulley be attached to the shaft through the drum?

We went with the sprocket and chain for the transmission system. We are yet to find the components to put everything together.

During the weekend this project had gone to a halt, I had given up on it. What happened is that, I called Apo asking him to make us some peanut butter and it was almost two weeks now since we have been asking for it. His answer remained constant, that he had to finish the backlog he had before he could process our peanut butter. The problem is I had been to his place twice looking at his production process and I could see people bringing their nuts for processing after us. I had hoped that if I asked him enough times he would realise that he was being unfair, considering that we had already paid for the peanut butter we had booked. I couldn't keep how upset I was inside, well I could not verbalize my feelings but I just stopped talked to him completely even when he would try to reach out.

I spent the weekend trying to understand why I was so upset to an extent of not wanting to work with Apo or even talk to him. It took me time to realise that I felt he was taking advantage of me. So I went to him on Monday and I told him how I felt.

He told me that, for the time being, he was prioritizing new people who were seeking for his services, especially those that were from out of town. The 'from out of town' part made a bit of some sense, but again it didn't, I was on the queue, I had paid and I still did not see a reason why he would not just be fair. His other reason was, I am working for his brand and he paused making his peanut butter and he was just concentrating on others. I have been working so hard to keep our clients by being consistent and the one time when there is a lot of competition (soon after harvesting), he decides to stop his product to process other people's peanut butter... On this particular Monday, when I went to talk to him there were just a few people with nuts they wanted processed. I was still upset, how was he not seeing that he was not doing any justice to himself or to me. If he can balance offering services and making his own peanut butter for his regular customers he will not have to start again to work on gaining his customers' trust, I would not have to start from scratch also. I am not sure my wish for us to be consistent was understood, but he promised he will try not to skip me as long as I was in the queue. I realised something in all this, which I will talk about in my next thread. We are now working together and the project is back on track. He is processing peanut butter for his other customers as well as for me, then he will leave for the capital city to look for the different parts for the motor project.

Can you start your own processing system?
could we on permies assist with fund raising etc?

Hi John, I appreciate your message. Thank you for the thought. I am afraid things are a lot more complicated than just starting my own process. I will tell you how I ended up getting involved with Apo's business in the first place.

There is a statement I saw in a regeneration group document that stuck with me. It's by Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

With Apo, just like with mai Kumbi, it's not his business I want, but it's him I want as feed into the regenerative centered lifestyle I am working to build. He is already a survivor in a very difficult business environment, and whatever skills he has, that has made him survive and focus on building a dream rather than just making money to survive is what I need. His business also has a higher chance of making it, where it's at. He is a very big opportunity for me in so many ways if I help him grow and stabilize, of course I would want some paid job when his business can afford it, if I prove I have what it takes to help him develop. It will help me stabilize as a person, financially that is. I will also widen my area of influence into his business in terms of introducing regeneration principles.  I will have mai Kumbi and her family, Apo, his family, and potentially his employees. I already have my family. I hope what I am working on makes sense somehow.

As I mentioned I realised how we are shaped by history that dates way back, our upbringing, and all our experiences as well as dreams. The one thing that made Apo and myself to talk is the common goal we now share, that is, seeing the peanut butter business flourish even if it's for different reasons. Developing a common goal helped us swallow pride and other emotions that block us from  actually hearing each other.
Some of the changes that can bring about efficiency are not seen as a need because there's labor. People are willing to work long hours for very little.  It's not okay from a humane perspective, we can be oppressive to each other without realizing it. It might be the norm to expose some people who help us in our projects to difficult working conditions and low salaries, but it does not make it right. Productively we are taking away our potential to grow, we can do so much more with the energy we have.

It made me think so hard about buying a hose pipe at the plot. We have one that I bought from a garage sale, which has been around for years, and that's it. Watering is being done using buckets and it's no longer making much sense to expect mai Kumbi to manage watering all the beds with mostly a bucket. She is doing it because she needs to stay at the plot, but it can be so much better. The reason I have been delaying to buy a hose pipe is because I cannot afford it. I have been borrowing money for Apo because I believe his project has gotten to a point where it can return any money that it borrows. I have not stopped to look at my plot project but since last month we actually can borrow less than $50 and make a payment plan for this. It can look like a small amount to make a payment plan for, but if I want us to be efficient I can buy an extremely cheap hose pipe  which will improve the working conditions at the plot as well as grow our potential. I can take from my peanut butter sales a little money to add onto money I can give back if we borrow to reduce the payment plan duration.
With money, I realized that for myself it is very difficult to see abundance,  I am extremely hard on myself even when it makes little sense and I do not know why this is.

Today two items from the plans have been ticked off the list. I gave Apo money and he will be traveling to the capital to look for his motors. A belt and pulley system is now an option, this will increase the chance of getting the components of either one of the options. John thank you for this idea.

Mai Kumbi has bought a hose pipe and she is very excited about this. We now need to buy cow manure to make sure our soil is fed adequately and our yield is at it's optimal level. This Friday is our due date for this task.