It's in The Genes

Once a Zimbo always a Zimbo. We have bought the delicious yellow sweetcorn in the shops many time for HeeHoo, but he still insists that the good old White Mealie is the best. And so the hunt begins for the young fresh tender mealies that HeeHoo must have, always at this time of the year, one cannot escape the great annual mealie saga.

It's in the genes! Since time immemorial in October and November the great mealie lust begins. Zimbos will somehow find themselves a patch of free ground on which to plant their mealies. A sunny patch in the garden, a vacant plot, along the Matsheumhlope River, bordering golf courses, green spaces, anywhere at all.
There's a secret farmer in each and every one of us, the small plot is cleared, tilled and ridged, precious maize seed is hand planted and hopefully watered by Mother Nature. The tiny space is weeded, cosseted and spoken to, and lo and behold, after a few months (But only during good rain years,) glorious maize abounds.

At one stage the City Council would sanctimoniously destroy the illegal mealie fields but sanity prevailed eventually, the populace is hungry, and the populace, year after year, still tills, plants and grows!

We have grown accustomed to bad rains, and it has been heartbreaking to see year after year, field after field of dry, stunted crops, wilting and unable to tassel. But this year has been special, every spare nook and cranny in the suburbs boasts beautiful mealies, with magnificent tassels, and all are 'as high as an elephants eye'!

Now although HeeHoo likes young mealies smothered in butter and salt, he still has a secret craving for the traditional method of cooking our staple food.

We stopped off at a roadside 'store' run by a charming gentleman by the name of Praise. He has a small brazier on the side of the road, fashioned from a drum with holes in it and a grill on the top. Roasting away gently, with much tender turning by Praise, were his mealies cooked the traditional way. Almost every street in Zimbabwe at this time of the year - 'Green Mealie Season' has a makeshift kitchen serving this delicate fare.
Our Green Mealie Season rivals famous rituals like the Green Asparagus season in France, The Chestnut Season in Germany, and the Beaujolais Season in the Alsace!!
They were not nice soft ,mealies, but mature firm ones, flame grilled to perfection, lightly salted and served mouth wateringly on the green husks in which they were grown!

We had a grand old time, conversing with the hungry passers by, juice dripping down chins, with friendly banter and camaraderie, as only Zimbos know how.