Yesterday my husband came home from Embu loaded with gifts from farmers. What to do with 5kg of ripe tomatoes in a small household? I decided to make ketchup.

3 kg ripe tomatoes, washed

1 heaped tblsp paprika powder

1 heaped tblsp curry powder

1 teasp allspice (pimento) powder

1 cup apple cider vinegar

50-75g herb salt (to taste)

1 teasp black pepper, crushed

1 heaped teasp garlic, crushed

1 bunch of fresh herbs to your liking (lovage, celeriac, parsley, chives, oregano, thyme, basil, etc.)

1 small fennel bulb

1 chili (or more if you like it hot)

1 tblsp green stevia powder

a blender or juicer, a strainer or sieve, a large cooking pot, wooden spoon or whisk, clean empty glass bottles or jars with lids (to total 1 litre).

1. Start by crushing your tomatoes. You can use a blender or juicer and if you don't have neither you can also simply cut them into small pieces with a knife.

2. Give all the crushed material (juice and pulp) into a large cooking pot. Don't use aluminium pots as the acid from the tomatoes will release toxins from the aluminium.

3. Add the spices (paprika, curry, pimento, black pepper), the herb salt and the crushed garlic.

4. Add 1 cup (about 250ml) of apple cider vinegar.

5. Add 1 tblsp of green stevia powder (or 50g sugar) to taste.

6. Roughly chop the fennel bulb and mixed herbs. Add to the rest.

9. Reduce heat to minimum and let simmer for about 2 hours until the liquid is reduced by half.

10. Pour the thickened sauce into a strainer or sieve and scrape it until all fine parts are passed through and only the skins, seeds and larger parts remain. Discard these. Pour the sauce back into the cooking pot. Adjust the taste to your liking.

11. Bring the sauce to a boil again and let it simmer until it is reduced to the thickness you like.
12. Meanwhile pour some boiling water into some clean glass bottles or jars (old ketchup bottles, pickle jars, etc.). Pour the boiling water also over the inside of the lids. This will sterilize the bottles and lids to avoid contamination of the ketchup. Then turn them head over to drain all water.

13. Once the ketchup reaches the thickness you like, fill it boiling hot into the glass bottles. Clean the rim with a towel and close with the lids immediately. Leave to cool so that a vacuum forms and closes the jars tightly.

Once the lids close with a vacuum (you can hear it go "plop") the ketchup can be stored for several months. Once the bottles are opened it needs to be refrigerated. Enjoy your homemade ketchup free of any artificial ingredients!

Today I would like to introduce you to one of my favorite crops, the zucchini or courgette.  Under the right climatic conditions the zucchini is an easy enough crop to grow, gives you high yields and besides being delicious at home, has sure markets with hotels.

Zucchinis need soils with a high organic matter content and good moisture retaining capacity. It is recommended to add 1 wheelbarrow of compost and/or manure to each m2 of soil and prepare a raised bed, about 25 cm high to keep the zucchini leaves off the ground. Zucchinis need a pH of 6 - 7.5. So liming is a must if your soil test shows that your pH is below this.

Zucchini is a warm weather crop but it can withstand cooler conditions better than other cucurbits like cucumber or melon. It is very important to mention that zucchinis are not tolerant of humidity, which will cause mildew. Therefore plant your zucchinis in full sun. To improve the germination rate soak the seeds for 3 days between two wet kitchen towels. Use only seeds that started to germinate. Per planting hole sow 3 seeds at 1.5 cm (1/2 inch) deep. Then thin out to the most vigorous plant after 2-3 weeks. Alternatively you can plant two plants at opposite edges of the bed. Some varieties might need a climbing support to improve air circulation around the plant. Growing vines then need to be tied to this support regularly to avoid breaking or vines touching the ground, but most varieties will form big, sturdy non climbing plants.

Top dress with compost after 4 weeks or give a liquid fertilizer.

To grow your zucchinis successfully keep the soil only moderately moist but throughout. Always make sure you don’t wet the leaves. So never water overhead! Mulching with straw is recommended.

120 cm x 60 cm
1 plant / sqft

The zucchini fruits look similar to cucumbers but have a firmer flesh. They are eaten raw or cooked and are popular in hotels and restaurants. Some people prefer to harvest them very small as baby-courgettes as they have no seeds, while others let them grow to their full potential of over a foot length. Young shoots and leaves make a similar spinach as pumpkin leaves and the flowers are a delicacy, raw in salads or fried.

Pests and diseases of zucchini are the same as for other cucurbits (cucumber, melon, pumpkin) although zucchini is the toughest of them all.
Powdery and downy mildew, wet rot (if vines are grown on the ground), mosaic virus and wilt.

Fruit flies, Epilachna beetle, spider mite, white fly.

This is a very good link on fruit flies: http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/uhmg/Maui/Maui-fruit-fly.asp

I guess I owe you a post about homemade liquid fertilzers, because yesterday I received the following Email:

Hello!

I informed you that I would experiment on a small section on home made fertilizer. I did not use inorganic fertilizer at all. I instructed the farm worker to spray the home made fertilizer twice a wk.

Finally, harvesting time came! I honestly wasn't sure. But today, when they harvested (my mom was there, I was in Nairobi where I work and live, they got eight (8) bags from a very small piece of land! They said the harvest was all huge size potatoes, no small sizes that you keep for seed!In the month of August I had harvested from 3 and a half acres, which I had harvested earlier, and the yield was very low.

I am very, very excited! Got some thousands in my pocket!

It works! It works!!

That article you wrote in the SEEDS OF GOLD has revolutionized my farming from now on. Will make very, very good use of it. From Thursday this wk, I am beginning to plant 8 acres of potatoes. I had plenty to seed from previous harvest.

Thank you Anja Weber! 

Sincerely,

Michael Wambugu

What are homemade liquid fertilizers? They are the organic farmers' best solution for topdressing. They are easily made at home with very simple ingredients and tools. In fact you can make them from any kind of green (organic) matter plus water with the help of a bucket, a panga and a stick.

As I said, you can use any kind of fresh, green plant material like weeds or hedge cuttings e.g. to make your own fertilizer, but there are three special plants that I would like to mention because of their high nutritional value. The first one is stinging nettle (Urtica). Every farmer and gardener should grow a patch of it in a corner of their plot. Stinging nettle is usually regarded as a weed and much hated becuase it gives you a terrible itch, when you touch it. But for making liquid fertilizer it is my favourite!

The second plant is Tithonia, a plant that is grown in many parts of Kenya, often as hedges or wild along the road side. This one is my plant of choice when I am making Phosphorus-rich fertilizer.

The third plant that needs extra mentioning is Comfrey (Symphytum). I have often seen it on farms being grown as a fodder crop (especially for pigs and poultry) but also as a spinach. It is very healthy and rich in Vitamin B12, which works as a growth stimulant. I therefore use fertilizer made from it at transplanting.

1. Collect enough fresh, green plant material (weeds, stinging nettle, tithonia, comfrey, borage, etc.) to fill a bucket. You can choose any size bucket, depending on the amount of green materials you have.

2. Use your panga or secateurs to chop all materials up, roughly into the size of your hand. (For stinging nettle you better wear gloves!)

3. Fill the bucket with the chopped up material. 

4. Fill the bucket with water until all the plant material is completely covered.

5. Cover the bucket losely so that mosquitoes can't breed in it.

6. Use a big stick to stir your "brew" daily to incorporate oxygen. The more oxygen you can incorporate, the better.

7. Leave the "brew" for about 2 weeks, stirring daily.

8. The "brew" will start to bubble and smell (some people would say stink...). This is good, it means that the fermentation process is well under way. After about 2 weeks the bubbling will stop. The plant material will have more or less disolved and only the harder parts will remain as kind of a sludge. Remove them with the stick. The fertilizer should now have a dark green, opaque colour.

9. Strain the liquid through a cloth (if you want to apply it with a sprayer) or a sieve (for application to the root area).

10. Store it in a closed container in a dark, cool place until you want to use it.

1. Never use it undiluted. It is very strong and can chemically burn your crop. Always dilute 1 litre of liquid with 10 litres of water (1:10) for root application or 1 litre of liquid with 20 litres of water for foliar application.

2. Apply it with a watering can to the root zone of each plant or use a knapsack sprayer to apply it as a foliar feed. No protection gear is needed.

3. Weekly applications are recommended.

This simple and quick method provides you with a good and cheap source of fertilizers that can be easily stored and safely applied any time.