Idris Lekaria, horticulturalist, is the founding director of the Memita Disables Tree Nursery, in Wamba, Kenya, is the only nursery in Samburu East. As a nursery specializing in trees, its primary focus is afforestation, or, as founder Idris Lekaria puts it, “Making the land green again, and fruity.” Food scarcity is an issue so one component of the nursery’s tree growing program is to grow fruit trees and fruit bearing vines, like passion fruit. Then nursery also grown vegetables and ornamental plants, produce pots and concrete tables, and offers training programs in what for the Samburu is the new art of gardening. Idris is a well trained horticulturalist who has developed a set of best practices for horticultural projects in the arid environment of the arid equatorial North.

If you are interested in supporting this nursery, even small donations would make a difference. There are also opportunities for staying at the nursery in Wamba to help with Idris’ project through a work-stay ecotourism experience. Use the contact form if you are interested and I will get in touch with Idris.

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Published by William Rubel

I am an author who writes about traditional food and foodways. My book, The Magic of Fire (2002) is about hearth cooking. I have written an introductory history of bread, Bread, a global history (2011) and am currently writing a history of bread for the University of California Press. Other areas of interest include wild mushrooms, and specifically the treatment of Amanita muscaria in the historic record. I also write about Early Modern British Gardens, and for a more general audience, I write for Mother Earth News on bread, gardening, and more. I have an ongoing research project into the smoke-cured fermented milk of the Kenyan Samburu tribe. I am a co-director of the Samburu Lowlands Research Station, Lengusaka. I am the founding editor (1972) of Stone Soup, the magazine of writing and art by young people.

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