River Cottage, Kenya

In the UK, we are plagued by "celebrity chefs", on the TV in particular.

For those of you who do not receive UK TV, the programmes started many years ago with Fanny Craddock, with her husband Johnny, knocking up braised pheasant with truffles and the like.

These days, the programmes are far more diverse, with a couple of chefs advocating healthy food, "back to basics", fair trade, etc. I have no problem with this. In fact, I passively support the ideals, if only they didn't cost so much more than factory-produced plastic food.

One celebrity in particular, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, started living at his weekend cottage, growing his own fruit and veg, and with the addition of animals, soon became self-sufficient.

He expanded and now has a farm in Devon, River Cottage HQ, as well as a city farm in Bristol.

So where is this blog going? Well, I reckon that what I want to do on my (as yet theoretical) model shamba is pretty much what HF-W is doing in England. So I am pinching the name River Cottage and calling my shamba "River Cottage, Kenya". There is a cottage on the plot, there is a river running past it and it is in Kenya, so why not?

Before HF-W became a celebrity chef, he worked in conservation in Africa, although I cannot find out more details. Maybe he will hear about River Cottage, Kenya. Then he can either ignore it, sue me, or help out. I would prefer the last - but any publicity is good publicity - so they say.