Finally a good corn harvest!
Prisca harvests some fresh ears
At about this time last year, our first corn crop ripened. Because there was no rain the harvest was very disappointing, both in quantity and quality - most ears were too small, and there were not very many.
But this year, we had two "new" sources of water. Not only was there some rain, but we also reconfigured the irrigation system to be able to bring water to the high field where the corn was planted. The corn is now ripe, and the farmers have harvested about 100 ears for fresh consumption. The rest will become maize - the ears will be left on the stalks to dry for a couple of weeks, then will be harvested and stored to be later ground into mealie meal, the basis of nshima, the staple food of Zambia.
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Sydney, our Zambian manager chats with two of the farmers, Nophreen and Exhilda, about nshima.
Exhilda shucking