Norma's Letter from Jos: 9 February 2011

Note: Norma runs Zamani Farms near Jos and writes weekly to her customers about life in Jos and the progress of her plants..."We still hear rumours of incidents in different parts of the town, but the military patrols have been increased, and more soldiers added to the task force. Air Force helicopters are constantly flying overhead all around Jos and environs, and hopefully these measures will deter more large scale violence."

Norma's Letter from Jos: 9 February 2011

Hello customers,

We have had a week's break in the normal violence of our environment in Plateau State, and we have had some time to concentrate on more mundane problems of vegetable production. In particular, we have been battling with environmental issues and wildlife pests who have been giving us a lot of headaches. You will remember that there was a big bush fire around a good part of the farm in December, which also affected some of our own crops, especially our grape vines, and pawpaw and lemon trees. Now that we are recovering from the initial fire damage, we have the problem of birds and animals coming in to the farm. Because of the bush burning, there is no food for them in the area, so they are all converging on the relative greenness of our farm.

There seems to be a large population of wild rabbits, who have decided that their favourite food is our French bean plants. We have been planting many batches of beans at that end of the farm so that we would have enough for you. However, the rabbits have now eaten all of the batches that were on the verge of setting fruit. Even when the plants grow back, the rabbits nibble them down to the roots again. So this is giving us real problems.We are trying to get rid of the rabbits in an environmentally friendly way, but so far we have not been successful. The next step is to find rabbit traps and try to get rid of them that way. The upshot of all of this is that we are going to be short of beans for a couple of weeks. We are planting new batches in another part of the farm where hopefully the rabbits will not bother them, but it will take a while before we can start picking them.

In addition to the rabbit problem, we are also battling with birds, especially a particularly pesky bird called the mouse bird. They have also been deprived of their normal sources of food as a result of the fire, so they have descended on our strawberries and other fruit like the cape gooseberries. We are trying to get rid of them as well so that hopefully we will soon have some strawberries for you.

Meanwhile, all of our crops on the farm are doing well, and we have been able to expand our list of available items. We now have lovely celery, as well as some other items that were previously scarce. Hopefully in the next few weeks we will be able to increase the variety of items we can supply.

At the moment our lettuces are really delicious and also lovely to look at. We have many varieties available, including iceberg, butterhead, lollo rossa, red and green salad bowl, prizeleaf, kendo, red cos and many other leaf lettuces. Green cos should be available in about two weeks. Our endive is also finally ready to pick and we will have some for you. However, radicchio is still growing and needs another few weeks.

We have beautiful herbs, including plenty of Genovese basil, rucola and others. Let us know what you need. Please remember when ordering herbs you need to specify which ones you want, not just order "herbs". All varieties are available except for sage and tarragon, which are still growing. Our lemon grass was burnt during the fire, but is now growing back and we will have some to supply.

We have very nice cabbages, Chinese cabbage, spinach, sorrel and mizuna. Red cabbage is starting to make heads, and should be available soon, but not next week. More bok choi is on the way, as is new kale. We will let you know when they are ready.

Courgettes are still good and plentiful. New batches are coming up, including some cousa. Unfortunately we have run out of seeds of yellow courgettes and crookneck squash, so we will not have any until we can get a new supply of seeds. We had a problem with the last batch of butternut squash and have had to remove all the plants, so we will not have any for a few weeks. However, a new batch is now setting fruit, so we will have more soon.

Carrots, cucumbers, celery, are very nice. Beetroots and leeks are still a problem, but hopefully we will have enough of them in a few weeks. We have transplanted more spring onions and are trying to keep up with the demand, but they take a long time before they are big enough to pick.

Getting onions is still difficult here. None are coming in from Kano and other places in the far north because drivers are still very afraid of coming into Jos. However, we are getting a few from places like Gombe and other areas, and we will try to get nice ones for you. We are starting also to get some cauliflower, and we have ordered some for you for next week. They also come from Kano, and we are hoping that things will be peaceful so that the farmers can bring them.

We still hear rumours of incidents in different parts of the town, but the military patrols have been increased, and more soldiers added to the task force. Air Force helicopters are constantly flying overhead all around Jos and environs, and hopefully these measures will deter more large scale violence.

Our pawpaws are ripening and we have enough for you. They are very nice, and generally large in size (will over a kg). We weigh them, and charge by weight, and of course we can't cut them, so we will try to approximate the weight you prefer, but we can't guarantee small sizes.

For details of all items available please consult the order form attached. Please do get your orders in early so that we can supply you with what you need. Late orders are not likely to be complete. We send our orders for beef tomatoes to the supplier on Sunday afternoon, so if your order comes after the deadline we won't be able to supply you, since we only get the quantity we need for the orders submitted before 3pm on Sunday.

Thank you all again for all of your kind comments and messages of support. We really do appreciate them. I usually share them with our farm staff, who are all enormously impressed with the generosity and sympathy you have shown us during these recent difficult times. They (and I too) find it really amazing to have such loyal customers. Thank you again.

We hope to be able to bring you another positive report from the farm next week. Meanwhile, we wish all of our customers a very happy Valentine's Day.

Best regards,
Norma