Living Locavore in Rwanda

August 2, 2012


Before living on the farm in Virginia, I did not spend much time thinking about where my food comes from. Yet in the years ate fresh blackberries from right outside my back door, watched the squash grow slowly by slowly and, yes, fed our cows every day all summer, I became increasingly curious about the myriad of foods we grow, transport, and consume both locally and around the world.


I began reading widely, including books from Michael Polan, Mark Bittman, and the like. I was particularly fascinated with Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, in which her husband and kids move to the old, rural family farm to live exclusively off their land for one year in an effort to embody the true locavore experience. When I left for Rwanda, I did not know that it was here that I would have a taste of just what that means.


The day before I left Minnesota, my Dad came home with a variety of freeze dried foods, the kind used for camping and astronauts. I too was worried that I might be hungry here, but I was scared of offending my host family and left the packages at home. Little did I know then that having enough good food would never be a problem here. In fact we scholars spend much more time devising strategies for how to communicate to our families that we need to eat less, not more.


Food is of central importance in Rwandan culture. When you see the amount of time that people spend cultivating their fields and preparing their meals, it is not hard to see why. We are eating a true locavore diet, with the corn, cabbage, potatoes, cassava, plantains, bananas, beans, and ground nuts we eat coming directly from our family's plot of land. I read an article that reported that Rwandans eat 550 pounds of bananas per person each year, and I believe it! Some fruit like mangoes, pineapple, and oranges might come from the weekly local market or neighbors, but the only things purchased at the corner store are chai tea, salt, sugar, vegetable oil, and the occasional can of tomatoe sauce or bottle of Fanta soda. When was the last time you knew the source of everything on your plate?


We are all starting to crave things like cheese, broccoli, and ice cream, but for the most part, it is refreshing to eat so simply and so well. There are basically no preservatives, and our diet is essentially vegan except for the milk from our cow. Surprisingly I do not really miss the meat. Combined with the daily running and walking and all of the Vitamin D from the sun, we feel amazingly healthy. I can't say that I will continue to eat 5 or 8 bananas per day, but one of the most wonderful parts of living in a different place is finding new habits andy lifestyles to bring home. My family here has given me a new arsenal of culinary tools to continue to experiment with at home.


Here are some of the specialities from Mama Shalom's kitchen:


1. Cassava, plantains, vegetable sauce and beans.

2. Daily staple of plantains, beans, and sauce.

3. My personal favorite, ubugali (cassava bread, or really a warm, doughy substance) and peanut sauce with tomatoes.

4. Akahunga (made from corn flour, water and milk, the consistency of mashed potatoes) and cabbage and bean sauce.