The last couple of weeks Kenya and Tanzania were extremely dry, the effects of El Niña being felt strongly. Many people suffered from the dry heat and the enormous amounts of dust that were in the air. With the sudden onset of rains viral infections become widespread. This is the time of the year when people start suffering from eye infections, cough and flue. Quite a few people have recently asked me for a natural cough remedy and I would like to share with you what we do when we are suffering from coughs. But let me start with a word of caution: if your cough don't seem to get any better by itself after a few days PLEASE go and see a doctor! You don't want to develop a full-blown bronchitis or pneumonia and you also need to make sure your cough isn't in fact caused by an allergy or hay fever.

Our all-time favourite cough remedy (actually I am sipping one right now while I am writing this) is a brew from freshly ground ginger, some lemon or lime juice and a spoonful of honey topped up with boiling water. This will draw a sweat and is also a great remedy for flue. Best taken at bedtime or whenever your cough doesn't want to stop. The lemon juice will give you a good dose of Vitamin C and boost your body's selfdefense. The ginger helps in fighting bacteria and inflammation and the honey is a natural antibiotic. All three together make a powerful natural remedy against cough and flue.

Peel and grate a piece of fresh ginger 1/2 the size of your thumb.

Squeeze a the juice from 1 small lemon or lime.

Add 1-2 teaspoons of natural honey, depending on your taste.

Top up with boiling water. Stir and let brew for a moment. Then drink as hot as possible. 

Sometimes when you have a cough, especially the kind that is caused by dry heat and dust like we experienced recently, you feel more like drinking something cold to get relief. In that case pineapple-mint juice is my remedy of choice. The pineapple juice provides me again with a good dose of Vitamin C and acts as an anti-inflammatory. The peppermint works as an expectorant, which means it helps to loosen and cough up the mucous. And  tastes absolutely delicious and refreshing. If you can only invest in one kitchen machine, I suggest you buy a good juicer. Fresh, homemade juice is just sooooo much better than anything you can buy in a carton and it also saves you a lot of money. Right now is the time of plenty (regrading availability of suits) here in East Africa. Make the best of the season and store as much juice or fruit pull as you can. I will poet a few more recipes for that in my next blog post. I promise!

With a good juicer you don't need to cut off the peel. Just rinse 1 fresh, ripe pineapple with water, remove the leave crown at the top and the stalk at the bottom. Cut the pineapple into 1/8 lengthwise and run them through the juicer. 

Wash a bunch of peppermint or spearmint and run them through the juicer together with the pineapple. 

Dilute with clean water to your own preference. Refrigerate the juice for a while and enjoy every time you feel like you need some cold drink to give you relief from your cough. Make sure your family doesn't finish it before you. That is the danger of it being soon good! 

These few ingredients can of course also be used in other combinations. 

You need:

• 1.5 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup peeled ginger, finely grated
• 3/4 cup fresh lemon or lime juice

Mix all in a pan and bring to a boil. Lower heat and let simmer for about 10 minutes until the liquid is reduced to a syrup. Fill in bottles and close immediately to create a vacuum, which will keep your syrup preserved without refrigeration. 
This syrup can be diluted with cold or hot water to taste. 

You need:

2 Tbls fresh ginger, finely grated
1 Tbls fresh or dried mint, crushed
2 cups of water
Mix all ingredients in a pan and bring to a boil. Let simmer over low heat until liquid is reduced bu half (5-10min).

Add:
1/2 cup of natural honey. 

Stir in well until completely dissolved. Fill into a bottle and close immediately. Keep refrigerated and take 1 tsp full whenever needed (every few hours). 

Most of all - drink enough! Especially in this hot and dry weather help your body to stay hydrated. This will also help to loosen the mucous. If you find some liquorice tea simply add a fews sprigs of fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon of dried thyme) and brew yourself s cup of tea from those. Sweeten it with natural honey if you like. The thyme will help to relax the muscles and bring relief if you suffer from cough spasms. The liquorice soothes the throat and also aids in loosening the mucous. So in case the ginger-lemon tea is not after your taste, this is a nice and soothing alternative. 

One home remedy that often also works wonders is a steam bath. This is a bowl of steaming hot water over which you bend your face as closely as you can bear and cover your head with a towel to catch as much of the steam as possible. This helps hydrating and soothing your respiratory tract. It also applies heat to your sinuses, something that also helps with a blocked nose and sinus pain. 
To make a steam bath more effective you can add a number of different herbs or etheric oils to the hot water. A great relief for dry cough is in that case chamomile, which soothes and relaxes. Other good choices are peppermint or eucalyptus leaves. If you use a steam bath to mainly help with a blocked nose and flue, a few sprigs of fresh marjoram or a tablespoon of dried marjoram added to the hot water do an excellent job. 

Natural home remedies are excellent helpers to prevent a cough or flue from getting worse or settling in your body for prolonged periods. Start using them as soon as you experience the first symptoms of a cough or flue coming. Use them several times throughout the day as often as is convenient for you. Besides that always remember that some symptoms and illnesses need to be assessed and treated by a doctor. So never keep on treating yourself if you feel the situation is not improving. 

2017 is promising to become an exciting year. I personally have moved back to Tanzania, the country that has been "home" in my heart ever since 1997. Together with a few close friends we started Mama Chakula Foundation and plunged head on into our new task: enabling people to transform their lives and communities. To impact society through this transformation. Access to relevant information and knowledge is key, but just as important is growing as individuals who respect each other as equally although uniquely gifted and important human beings. This is based on the deep understanding that everyone is created for an individual purpose with different gifts and resources. That we all belong to the human race through fulfilling this purpose, through using OUR unique gifts and resources. We won't all be Nelson Mandelas or Maya Angelous. There are and there will always be people called for huge tasks. But nevertheless we can all keep it with Maya Angelou's poem:

"Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise."

This is my wish for you and for all of us in these challenging and exciting times, that we all may rise. Together. Hand in hand. Let us be as great as we are meant to be. 

The move to Arusha, the new year, all good reasons to get organised. Here in Arusha we have a 1 ha demonstration farm. We started by making compost :-) We need to get the soil into top shape as quickly as possible. But I also started planning. The dairy goat house, the chicken house, the green house, the water catchment and irrigation system. So much fun to think of the best possible design. And then the vegetable beds. Where do they go, what do we want to grow.
I brought a ton of seeds with me, all in small sealable ziplock bags, labeled with name and year. Now I am starting a seed inventory to be able to see what we have, what might no longer be viable and what we might need to buy. As many of you might want to also start harvesting and using your own seeds or keep stocks from last season, I decided to share my inventory template with you to make your life a little bit easier.

You enter the date on which you harvest or purchase the seeds. Purchased seeds usually come with a code. This is the product ID. It will make it easier to identify the same seeds again later, if you want to restock. In column 3 you note if it is you harvested the seeds yourself or you write the name of the seed company from which you purchased the seeds. Under name you write the common name of the plant and in the next column the botanical name if you have it/know it. This can also be useful to identify seeds later again. Under quantity you can either write how many grams, seeds or seed packages you add to your seed bank. That depends on your personal preference or the kind of seeds you keep. Keeping records in grams can be useful if you have larger stocks and want to be able to calculate the acreage for which this quantity of seeds is sufficient. Simpler systems will also work with just the number of packages you have. To provide yourself with some more information at a glance you can add in the next column if the seeds are for annual, biannual or perennial plants. The next column is very important but needs a bit of knowledge or research. Shop-bought seed packages sometimes also provide this information. "Viability until" gives you information about the time frame in which these seeds will usually germinate. Some plants have seeds that are viable for several years if kept properly, others will germinate only for a very short while after harvest. This information in your inventory will help you keeping your stocks well-organised. Seeds that are beyond their viability date can usually be thrown away. If they are very valuable you can of course always do a germination test before planting.
Then last column gives you space for your own  notes. Anything you want to copy from the seed pack, any information regarding the plant, anything you want to remember regarding these particular seeds.