The little garden plots around the 60 guest chalets at Damara Mopane Lodge are exceeding the boldest expectations in their first Namibian summer: vegetables, herbs and fruit thrive so splendidly after the good rains in December and January that the lodge’s seven gardeners have got their hands full.
The little gardens yield various types of pumpkin, marrows, tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet corn and lettuce. Vegetables and herbs are available in sufficient quantities to cover demand. Only potatoes and onions are not being planted yet and have to be ordered from elsewhere. Every so often it happens that guests proudly find the largest pumpkin growing in ‘their’ garden. But usually it will be harvested swiftly and chopped up in the kitchen. Every night our guests can look forward to a delicious mixed vegetable stir-fry and many other appetizing dishes, like spinach quiche or pumpkin filled with sweet corn.
No reason to worry, however: it goes without saying that meat, fish and poultry specialities also continue to be part of the menu because vegetarian cooking obviously is not everybody’s first choice. The dinner fare is complemented by tasty sauces with self grown herbs and spices like basil, chives or chilli. The chilli dip has already brought tears to quite a few guests’ eyes; still – some like it hot.
Cantaloupe and watermelons are currently also harvested by the crate at Damara Mopane Lodge. They are an important ingredient of the fresh fruit salad at the breakfast buffet. In the meantime the efficient gardeners have planted pawpaw trees, too. Apart from bringing in the crop they also have to wage battle at a different front: greedy little animals like porcupines and mice have noticed the delicacies in the gardens and forcefully have to be kept at bay. Apparently they find biologically grown greens, treated with a special organic fertilizer, particularly tempting.
Once a week, Damara Mopane Lodge sends a list of the crops to be harvested to the Etosha Safari Collection, some 200 km to the north, which places its order accordingly. Any remaining surpluses of fresh produce are given to the hospital or the police station in Khorixas, or they are offered for sale in the local supermarkets.
Damara Mopane Lodge is Gondwana’s latest accommodation establishment. The first guests were welcomed on 1 November 2010. The little gardens around the chalets are bordered by a small wall in the African wattle-and-daub style and not only yield vegetables and herbs for the kitchen but also lend a village atmosphere to the lodge. Many Namibians in the rural areas grow their own vegetables in the front garden.
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