When we first arrived I was all over the show, I would go the local markets and buy the fresh vegetables and fruit. There is a small super market Mayana which stocks general groceries, meats and alcohol. It is owned by Sarah and Mark who supply Flatdogs and the valley with the most tender high quality beef, they are very loved and happy cows. Though our night off would come around and I was always missing an ingredient or did not have the right cooking pans and utensils.
For all the other supplies in the valley we have Marcus who owns and manages “Lodgistics”. Our lovely Lydia who is in control of all the stock for the camp sends our Flatdogs Camp weekly order which includes anything from brake pads and oil for the workshop boys; pegs and washing powder for housekeeping; puff pastry, tinned food, long life milk, cheeses, baking utensils and anything you could imagine a commercial kitchen requires.
The first few months due to exhaustion from the long hours and not really understanding how to work the system to cook at home we would order off the Flatdogs restaurant menu and struggle through a little bit of cooking though after a 4 months I worked it out with the support of Lydia and Ade.
The most incredible lesson we have learnt since living in Mfuwe is back home in our first world countries we waste so much food and here in Mfuwe we freeze almost everything imaginable and it works so well.
As all the goods arrive frozen from Lodgistics we soon learnt that literally 100’s of items can be frozen and successfully thawed to eat. For example back home in Sydney I would buy a camembert cheese or hummus with a use by date. I would forget it was there and after expiry we would throw it away. The list goes on and on for what foods we would have thrown away though we have now learnt to freeze everything possible and defrost it as you need.
This sounds a simple concept and I am sure people who live in remote areas of the world including farmers have been doing this for years though this silly first world city slicker has now learnt how much money can be saved and how it reduces waste.
We also have two local farm co-operatives the KK Centre and Chikowa. They supply the lodges with all our freshly grown fruit and vegetables and again thanks to lour lovely Lydia we are able to cook the famous Wendy spinach pie and the famous Flatdogs Aubergine bake. I now love our nights off from working, enjoy inviting friends over for dinner and manage cooking at home really well.
As long as you order in advance and go seasonal!