It's The Second Anniversary of 'Food, Fun & Farm Life In East Africa !'

The photo's above are a selection which have been published on the blog over the course of the past two years of our farm house in different light/seasons/angles - the house & it's location with Kilimanjaro behind it, has probably been one of my biggest sources of inspiration for this blog !

I can’t believe that it’s been a whole two years since I decided to start this blog ! I never knew, when I published my first post on Valentine’s Day 2008, how wonderful blogging would turn out to be …. how many wonderful people I’d ‘meet’ along the way and how it would change the way I saw the world around me.

I have each and every one of YOU to thank, for reading what I write, for (hopefully !) enjoying what I write about my life here in Tanzania and for all the comments and emails you send me. If it weren’t for the people who read this blog, there would be no blog – ‘cause what’s the point of writing if no one is there to listen ?! So, thank you all for your support and for being such loyal readers – and to all the new readers, too – it’s always lovely to welcome you !

For last year’s anniversary post, I did a recap of the best/worst/most popular posts of that year (you can see that post over here) and I thought it would be fun to do the same again this year, as ‘Food, Fun & Farm Life !’ reaches her 2nd year anniversary …. so …. here goes !

Two of the most popular & most visited posts of the year were -:

‘The Incredible Kitten Rescue Operation” where I wrote about the lengths we went to, to save 2 kittens which had fallen down between 2 storage containers and faced certain death, and ‘Come For A Drive Out To The Farm With Me ?’ where I took you on a tour out to our farm !

My most anticipated post was when I was awaiting the birth of my son in South Africa in May/June last year … he was born with some problems and had to spend a week in Neo Natal ICU and I even did some late night blogging from my hospital bed !

This past year was also the first time I’d ever met an online friend … my dear friend Jo who is also a fellow blogger over at Memorable Meanders – I was in South Africa & just about to have my son and you can see the blog post and photo’s of our meet-up over here.

And then a few months later I disappeared and had you all guessing as to where I was when I posted greetings from the top of Kilimanjaro (?!?!) and a few days later some photo’s as clues as to which country I was in over here !

I had a scathing couple of comments on this post over here and I retaliated over here and what was most hurtful about these comments were the fact that they came from a couple of fellow Tanzanians – when my blog has done nothing but sing this country’s praises and promote it over the years & I was being accused of showing it in a negative light. But there you go …. I was amazed at the support of all my readers as people rallied around in my defence – thanks once again, everyone !

Some interesting stats – the majority of my readers live in the USA, followed closely by the Australians and then the British … and my visitors come from as far afield as Malaysia, Japan, Slovenia and Puerto Rico …. I have more and more local Tanzanian readers, too, as the months go by.

‘Life’ posts still seem to be more popular than ‘Recipe’ posts and many new readers find the blog through Google searches for certain African recipes.

I know that I haven’t been putting as much in to the blog lately as I used to, this is mainly just down to time issues …. with an 8 month old baby, a home schooled 5 year old plus a home to run, family meals to cook … I really never have enough hours in the day ! But hopefully that will all change as the months go by … I certainly want to keep the blog going and to also improve on it without changing it too much, too.

There are some exciting prospects in the future, too, for us as a family, which will also affect the blog. So all I can say for now is … watch this space and THANK YOU, THANK YOU for continuing to read, comment, email and support the blog …. you’re all great !

Spraying Our Crops By Air

Staff on standby at our airstrip with the water bowser and aircraft fuel

Due to the large size of our farm (3500 acres) our crops are often sprayed by air. There've also been times when we've suddenly had a crop disease (or insect infestation) and have had to quickly call in the air sprayers in order to get the situation under control quickly - as spraying by air is much quicker than doing it on the ground.

Our farm has it's own 'bush' airstrip for light aircraft and is well maintained (eg. if we needed to use it in a hurry for a medical emergency / Flying Doctors). Our air sprayers (a father & son team from Kenya) are well known to us and have sprayed for us for years now - both here and on our old farm.

Intense spraying programmes where you are meeting tight deadlines (due to disease or changing weather conditions) mean that sometimes the spraying lasts for several days - so our air sprayers have become regular guests in our home, staying over with us and entertaining us with incredible stories of crop spraying all over remote parts of the African continent - and have become good friends over the years ! (I've also served many a 'picnic' breakfast or lunch at the airstrip as they've had no time to stop - grabbing what they can on landing, to eat in the cockpit as they continue spraying, before swooping down for the next course as they re fuel the 'plane !)

The modified Cessna single engine spray 'plane on our farm airstrip

I always know when the crop sprayers are due in, and without fail they announce their arrival by swooping LOW over the house - so low that they can see right in the windows as they approach ! (They joke that this is to see what I am up to & keep me on my toes !) They do the same thing when they leave - we are usually all out on the front lawn (including the house staff and dogs - who bark madly at the 'plane and try to chase it !) In fact, this is pretty much the 'tradition' here in Tanzania with light aircraft. Whenever we have people flying in/out of the farm they always swoop low over the house (as you would toot the horn on your car) when arriving and leaving .... but none as low as the crop sprayers dare !

Our crop sprayers are two of the hardest working people I've come across & work from sunrise to sunset if weather conditions are good

The spray 'plane is a modified single engine Cessna and lands frequently during a day of spraying in order to refuel (we keep AvGas or Aviation Fuel for this purpose) and fill it's spray tanks up with insecticide. This is mixed on the ground and we have a crew of farm staff standing by to help mix and put it into the aircraft's tanks. We also have a mobile water bowser on the airstrip as the insecticide usually has to be mixed/diluted with water.

The spray 'plane is just visible on the horizon as it sprays a field of our wheat

If you click the photo above to enlarge it, you can just see the 'plane spraying on the horizon. These photo's were taken a few days before Christmas last year, when we had to spray 800 acres of wheat with a weed (grass) killer.

The drone of the engine becomes a familiar sound as the 'plane flys over the house many times during the spraying process - sometimes for several days at a time, until the job is done

We have to be extremely careful that the 'plane does not spray anywhere it is not supposed to. Extra caution is also called for during strong winds, as these can carry the e.g. weed killer on to nearby neighbouring subsistence crops which are grown by local people along the borders of the farm to feed their families and wipe their entire maize or bean crops out - a real disaster.

You can read a blog post I wrote some time ago about our farm airstrip and company 'plane over here. I have never taken the offer up of going up for a quick spin to see an aerial view of the farm and surrounding areas, though. After spending the first 5 years of my life in Tanzania regularly flying around remote locations on light aircraft when I was working in the safari industry here, I swore upon leaving the industry that I would never do so again and so far, so good. Many years ago, I 'missed' a lift on a 'plane flying out of the Serengeti National Park and on arrival at my destination (I flew in on another 'plane) there was a huge 'buzz' at the airport as the 'plane had not yet landed .... I found out later that it had crashed, killing all on board instantly. Sometimes death taps you on the shoulder .... breathes a warning in your ear .... and the 'what if's ?' freeze on your lips ... you realise then that yes, sometimes it's best not to tempt fate. And to grab any second chances you have in life, with both hands.

Chicken Stuffed with Cheese, Bacon & Spring Onions

As pictured above - take 4 chicken breasts (flatten slightly if you like - place under plastic film and beat with a meat mallet or rolling pin) .... and place a thick slice of Cheddar (or other) cheese on top of each breast, followed by a piece (or two) of bacon. Sprinkle with chopped spring onions.

Now, fold or roll the breasts over so that all the filling remains inside. Secure in place with a couple of toothpicks and place in an ovenproof dish. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, sprinkle some more spring onions over the top and pour a few splashes of olive oil over the lot so that it looks like this -:

Bake - uncovered - at Gas Mark 5 for around 30 minutes or so, until chicken is done (check by piercing a breast to check that the juices run clear). Cut each breast in to slices and arrange on plate (a 'la fancy hotel/chef style) as pictured below ... pour some gravy over & serve with hot roast potatoes & some veg. A quick an easy meal that looks like you spent ages in the kitchen preparing it ! (For a similar recipe which I published on the blog 2 years ago, click here).