Kenya: The most biting shortage during a dry spell, like the one we experienced recently, is scarcity of vegetables. Yet it does not have to be like that; it shows how unprepared we are even for short time crises. Every year, Kenya experiences drought in the first two months of the year.
Our reasoning is that it will rain soon and there will be plenty of sukuma wiki, managu, saga and terere. However, this year the drought extended beyond the expected period and that created a vegetable crisis. Three leaves of sukuma wiki were retailing at Sh5 and you were lucky to get the veggies.
In Nakuru, people were scrambling for greens in one of the supermarkets, which own large scale green houses. They made good profits by simply cashing in on the vegetable crisis.
There is an easier way of getting a constant supply of vegetables even during drought; dry vegetables.
However, many people do not know about dry vegetables or where to buy them. Timothy Murega, a food scientist at Njoro Canning Company, says dried vegetables are as good as green ones besides being convenient.
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But kiosks and supermarkets in smaller towns do not stock them due to lack of customer demand.
"Dry vegetables are popular with people from semi-arid areas like Isiolo, Turkana and Wajir who even stock them in their kiosks due to popular demand but the other parts of Kenya do not seem to appreciate them,'' says Murega.
When cooking, dried sukuma wiki turns green just like the fresh ones. ''Vegetables are the backbones of most diets; whether green or dried and they are vital in providing not only vitamins and minerals but also fibre and carbohydrates,'' he says.
The only difference between fresh and dried vegetables is the reduction of water content during the drying processes.
Compared to other foods, vegetables contain the greatest percentage of water; cucumbers, 96 per cent; tomatoes 93 per cent; carrots, broccoli and spinach contain 89 per cent.
Before the next dry spell prepare well and stock up on dried vegetables. With the drastic weather changes nobody knows how long the drought may last next year.
The drying and storage of vegetables is a science, which was copied from cave men that dried their meat for preservative purposes. All armies in the world consume dried vegetables whenever they are at war.
