Tea in bed!!! I went for an hour's walk. After reading and relaxing, Don asked if I would like to come with him to pick up tomatoes from his supplier.
On the way we encountered the pothole guy. There was a cardboard sign in the middle of the road."PLIZ HELP!" The guy was to be found further down the road filling up the potholes. The roads need lots of attention in Harare, and many guys take it upon themselves to fill them up. Grateful motorists give them a tip, so this creates employment. Many potholes are filled up with red bricks!! You see patched potholes all over the place!!
We arrived at the tomato lady's home. She opened the gate to a huge property and gave Don a bag of tomatoes. Don asked if we could see her tortoises, and she agreed. Many many trees were to be found here. I took a pic of the lovely flowering cherry tree. She rears tortoises, and then lets them go in national parks. There are two kinds of tortoises that she kept: leopard tortoises and bell hinge tortoises ( named after the shell near the rear that kind of hinges!) Some were very small , and the slightly bigger ones five years old. Tortoises live to a ripe old age. She feeds them on hyena poop ( if she can get it), lettuces, prickly pear fruit, and egg shells ( for calcium). There was a bone in the enclosure and the babies chewed on it ( part of an elephant skull she said!) The pics say it all.
Then she took us on a tour of her huge greenhouse with six foot high organic tomato vines. Very impressive indeed!! We sampled grape tomatoes, hot from the sun and they were delicious! There were two workers in the greenhouse, picking and doing other jobs. I learned that tomatoes and tobacco are the same family, and subject to the same pests. At 3:30 PM Mary Jane, and her two wards arrived and Don, Carrie and I played lawn tennis. Great to play barefoot. I enjoyed it despite my severe lack of skill!!
Above: Vimbai kneading dough for bread!!
Below: different patterns on the shell denote the type
Below: the underside looks like a basket weaving pattern of shell
Below: a different underside
Smile!!
Below: Aubergine tomatoes
Below: add some yellow to aubergine
Below: pure aubergine tomatoes.....first time I had seen them
Below: in the greenhouse
Below: grape variety that we are familiar with
Below: the owner, and tomato lady
Below : the worker has green tomato oils on his hands!!
Below: gorgeous flowering cherry tree, ornamental , probably doesn't yield fruit?? Bees were a humin'
On the way we encountered the pothole guy. There was a cardboard sign in the middle of the road."PLIZ HELP!" The guy was to be found further down the road filling up the potholes. The roads need lots of attention in Harare, and many guys take it upon themselves to fill them up. Grateful motorists give them a tip, so this creates employment. Many potholes are filled up with red bricks!! You see patched potholes all over the place!!
We arrived at the tomato lady's home. She opened the gate to a huge property and gave Don a bag of tomatoes. Don asked if we could see her tortoises, and she agreed. Many many trees were to be found here. I took a pic of the lovely flowering cherry tree. She rears tortoises, and then lets them go in national parks. There are two kinds of tortoises that she kept: leopard tortoises and bell hinge tortoises ( named after the shell near the rear that kind of hinges!) Some were very small , and the slightly bigger ones five years old. Tortoises live to a ripe old age. She feeds them on hyena poop ( if she can get it), lettuces, prickly pear fruit, and egg shells ( for calcium). There was a bone in the enclosure and the babies chewed on it ( part of an elephant skull she said!) The pics say it all.
Then she took us on a tour of her huge greenhouse with six foot high organic tomato vines. Very impressive indeed!! We sampled grape tomatoes, hot from the sun and they were delicious! There were two workers in the greenhouse, picking and doing other jobs. I learned that tomatoes and tobacco are the same family, and subject to the same pests. At 3:30 PM Mary Jane, and her two wards arrived and Don, Carrie and I played lawn tennis. Great to play barefoot. I enjoyed it despite my severe lack of skill!!
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