Noun
Pronunciation: XXX
Milk a wife sets aside for her elpayan (husband) when he is away on a journey, so that it is available for him to drink immediately upon his return.
Depending on the length of the elpayan’s time away from home, the milk will be more or less sour. The elpayan must share the milk with another elder, because drinking this milk alone is taboo, thus, kule mparan is the only milk that a married man may not drink alone.
Return to Stages of Milk Fermentation.
This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel.
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.
View all posts by William Rubel
Samburu Research 