Memories of an African Airport

Which of you can claim, as I can, to have landed on Matekane Airport in Lesotho. The runway is 400 meters long and the straight down drop at the end of the runway is 600 meters down a cliff. This was all made a bit more exiting as the pilot, who smelled very heavily of the local fermented maize drink when he arrived three hours late and the co pilot during this time was siphoning some fuel out of a 44 gallon drum with an old hosepipe to fill up the plane. The last straw, after two failed attempts to take off,  was the pilot admitting to the only passenger – me – that he does not fully understand the Russian plane. Never the less, we took off from Maseru and landed “safely” at Matekane. Needless to say, I took a donkey taxi down the mountain back to Maseru – taking all of two days.

2016-03-11 - Matekane Airport - Lesotho

GROW FOOD AND ENJOY IT

2016-03-08 - Back Yard Steps

Two years ago when I moved to this property in Dunedin, it had a tidy garden – clay soils covered in plastic sheeting and pebbles with the odd decorative plant sticking through. To the farmer this was unproductive and artificial and should the attached photograph of steps leading to the back garden where I keep all my animals and also have a healthy vegetable garden today, have been taken then, only a hazelnut and apple tree would have been edible plants in the photograph. Today I can harvest at least 20 edible plant species from the area covered by this photograph alone – Apples, Hazelnuts, Chamomile, Olives (two varieties), Parsley, Time (three varieties), Sage (two varieties), Oregano, Marjoram, Zucchini, Rhubarb, Sour Cherries (two varieties) Bay Leave, Black Current, Red Current, Raspberry, Strawberry, Rosemary, Basil (two varieties), Peas and Cape Gooseberries.

 

 

LA FRITTEDDA Broadbean, cardoon flowers, fennel flowers, and tiny baby carrot pasta

Fresh vegetables in the pan

2016-01-18 - Frittedda 1

Ad cooked Orechiette

2016-01-18 - Frittedda 2

Frittedda fit for a King

2016-01-18 - Frittedda 3

Today my harvest amounted to one handful of broadbeans, one handful of tiny carrots that were meant to be big, some wild fennel leaves, a few cardoon flowers and an onion. Undaunted, Mrs BYO made one of the best pasta sauces we have ever had, modeled on the La Frettedda made in spring in Sicily. The main thing is to use fresh vegetables straight from the garden. Peas are normally used in stead of the little carrots, but my peas get grazed from the plant long before maturity by the grand kids. The fennel used in Italy for this recipe is wild fennel.

LA FRITTEDDA (the amounts are arbitrary – use what you have)

1 cup  broadbeans out of the pod. Remove the skin from the bigger beans

1 cup small carrots whole, or fresh garden peas

6 cardoon flowers, boiled, outer leaves and choke removed, leaving only the tasty hearts. Normally artichoke hearts are used, but I hate wasting the tasty little cardoon flowers

1 onion finely chopped

pinch of peperonchino (chili flakes)

salt and pepper

1/2 cup olive oil

fennel leaves or flowers to taste

a strip or two of pancetta (home made off coarse), leave this ingredient out if you do not have any (any smoked meat like bacon will ruin the fresh taste of the vegetables)

adding tomato is considered a crime!

Soften the onion and pancetta in the olive oil. Add the chili and all the vegetables. Slice the artichoke hearts up if they are too big. If the vegetables are fresh they cook in a few minutes, so your pasta must be almost cooked by the time you add the vegetables to the onion in the pan. We liked the orecchiette (little ears) type of pasta  with this sauce.

ENJOY and do not forget the home made wine!!