Saturday, November 23, 2019

Back to the Garden

By Sara:

I was happy to come home to Soroti and to find my garden still flourishing.  The guys who work for us took good care of it and enjoyed using the produce for themselves while we were gone.  However, it has been raining excessively, so the weeds were also flourishing and some of the trees needed pruning.  But such is life.



This is chia (as in, what sprouts out of the heads of chia pets):


Sort of sad looking ginger:


Matooke (cooking bananas):


Chaya (a super nutritious vegetable):


Then the garden in our neighboring empty plot is satisfyingly jungle-like:




Paul and I had fun harvesting one of the cassava plants.  I had to share a lot of it with other people because it was way too much for us to eat on our own.

 


And some interesting finds in the garden.  First a (probably dead) caterpillar covered in parasitic wasp cocoons.  I find it cool, Anthony finds it disturbing.


Probably a little less creepy is this tiny frog I found hanging out in the winged beans:




3 comments:

  1. Such a lovely garden. I love the frog. Sara, what is chia used for?

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Bill. Chia seeds soak up a lot of liquid, so you can mix them with pureed fruit to make jam, soak them in water/milk with different additions to make pudding, or use them as an egg substitute in some baking recipes. People also add them to things like smoothies. They have a good amount of fiber, protein, and various nutrients like calcium and magnesium.

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  2. It is so nice to look at your garden photos, since my garden is buried under the snow.

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