It enables us to provide fresh and seasonal fruit, vegetables, salad and herbs for our kitchen without the added carbon footprint of food transport from hundreds of miles away. The Farm is forever growing and developing and we are constantly planting new vegetables and fruits and thinking of ingenious ways to use them. Any excess harvest is used to make delicious staples in our kitchen such as jams and marmalades, juices, sauces and salsas, as well as sundried fruits and tomatoes.
As well as providing produce for the lodge, the Farm also provides training and employment to our local community.
We have 35 beehives on the Farm, and our busy bees pollinate the plants and provide delicious honey, which is one of our kitchen staples.
The worm farm, based at Mfuwe Lodge, is where all our organic food waste, garden clippings and fire ash is turned into mulch by 1000s of worms. It is then taken to our farm to organically grow our fresh produce.
In 2020 and 2021, we planted 5000 mango trees at the Farm. We also purchased a drying machine, allowing the surplus mangos to be dried and put to use, rather than simply going to waste.
Our favourite crop, our chillis have gone from strength to strength (quite literally!). From our world-famous chilli oil, served in all our camps at breakfast and lunch, to bunches of dried chillis, our chilli products are sensational – and now available to buy at Mfuwe Lodge.
Safari cooking, whether in a well-equipped kitchen or over an open campfire, has developed into a specialised art that The Bushcamp Company’s team of chefs have truly mastered. These talented ‘bush chefs’ are great characters who not only take pride in presenting their meals, but also coming up with new ideas, recipes and cooking methods.
Such creative talent deserves a showcase – and here it is. Cook & Conserve is a collection of our chef’s favourite recipes that we have collated into a beautiful, photo-filled cook book that is now available for download.
Each download costs $15, the proceeds of which go to Conservation South Luangwa (CSL), as they continue their efforts to protect and save South Luangwa’s wildlife and natural resources, and to our Commit to Clean Water programme, drilling boreholes to provide safe drinking water to the Mfuwe community.