One of the great things about the community garden is how much you can learn. This bed of traditional African vegetables brought me a lesson about what I might eat if I lived in Kenya. As well as kale, a daily staple not shown in this photo, these green are all important to African cooking. I wish I’d had a pencil to write down the names. On the left, what looks like young bean plants are grown for their leaves. In the middle is an herb that is very tasty boiled and seasoned with a little salt. On the right is “Mchicha in Kiswahil” – amaranth. In Canada, this nutritious plant often shows up in our gardens unbidden. Ironically, here it is pulled for a weed when in other places it is valued for food.
