Grown in Eunice’s garden!

Eunice is famous at The Advocacy Project for her giant Chinese cabbages, grown in her splendid garden. Eunice’s garden was also the first to be used by several members of Shield of Faith, which makes it the first composting “hub.” In addition, Eunice has grown many different fruits and vegetables in her garden, most notably strawberries. Last year’s Fellow Caitlin took a memorable photo there – the strawberry seems to glow in the gloom!

Eunice – who has three children – does not share a communal space with other families like some Shield of Faith members. On the other hand, her garden is a lot bigger than any I have seen so far. The fruits and vegetables were doing incredibly well when we visited and anyone could see how much of a green thumb Eunice has. I learned that she used to be a farmer and judging from the success of her garden, I would say she was an amazing one.

Eunice’s garden had an abundance of vegetables: carrots, red onions, chiles, kale, and pumpkins although I learned that her pumpkin plants had not produced pumpkins until this year. Stella and Eunice told me that if you fry pumpkin leaves with kale, spinach, onions, and tomatoes, it produces a popular side dish to go alongside the Kenyan staple food known as “Ugali.”

Eunice’s garden is a big success, helped by the organic compost and heavy rains from recent weeks. After her strawberries are harvested, some of the cuttings will be taken to the model farm, a plot of land outside Nairobi acquired by the project, along with being planted in Emma’s garden. The model farm will make an important contribution to the project next year. Making it possible for SOF members who cannot garden in the settlements to grow food and enable Stella to store Lishe-Grow fertilizer as well as train women in gardening techniques.