Reflecting on Farm-to-table with Chef Tuti and Farmer Mike
- Amutuhaire Tusiime Tutu Bororana
- Apr 20
- 14 min read
Prologue
The calls to farmer and chef
Immy of Iraa makes the call. Its to the farmer. We must get our GPS pin.
Destination Location: Awari esengenge nemewari, Bulutwe B, Buwooya, Buikwe District, Uganda.
Immy then makes another call. This time to the chef to align with her arrival at the farm. Off the call she exclaims,
“Tuti keeps time”. Immy notes that indeed when the rain stopped at 6a.m sharp, Chef Tuti rode from Jinja to Buwooya. The farm is awake, the chef is enroute, the Granary must make haste!
The Journey from Granary to Farm
It’s 7a.m
Morning has come, Immy’s baby called it. Orange hues lighten up the morning sky.
We are now on the road to the farm. It is raining. This is auspicious for the farmers
The agriculture is getting a visit indeed.
A farm-to-table visit. This arena in which two artists will commune together to target pallets of tongue and fortifications of stomachs_
_The two will battle it out, hush it out. The farmer will provide the produce from earth at the farm and the chef will prepare the harvest into cuisines savouring delicacy.
Farm-to-table is on the runway_ all roads leading to Bulutwe B,Somewhere to the east of Uganda, where golden sunrises cast the horizon with visions of hope.
Part One
Arrived at the farm
At the farm, a little (quarter) to 9a.m. the day breathes awake now.
The lake is in the far distance, the farm animals are putting on a welcome show_ the turkey with its twirl, the pigs with their nose puffs. And Chef Tuti asks-
“who shall handle for me my animal?”
It is time to get busy, the arena is open and excited. The animal of choice today is a Pig_ we are to harvest it from its farm and dine it on the table fours ways.
Call it Pork Four Way. There is a Tower of Ribs to come, a Flying Dutchman, Buttery Burnt Ends, a Pawpaw salad and more.
The Iraa team carries tables from the store, a set up is ongoing, the slow cook drum is building, the fiery clay stove is churning, time will pace and pace. Soon, a feast is abound_and it’s time to get into rhythm.
“What are you doing?” Chef is asked as she answers “I am lighting a fire, a bigger fire”.
In the meantime, the sous chefs will align her space, say feng-shui it. She asks for the big dishes saying,
“let that which is for the kitchen fall back to the kitchen side and those of…” Chef trails off into this arena space of farm-to-table.
The farm, has given a platform, a space to host and dine with a tree shade to cook and serve. It’s perfect. The space will function for its arena. A pawpaw tree lays background to the dining set up where a chalk board beams:-
“Iraa the Granary”
The farm-to-table arena is now in session.
Around us is the sight of greened rural Uganda. A beautiful hilly landscape showcases flourishing agriculture where mornings in rural Uganda come with a healing freshness. Life is flourishing here. Earth is flourishing here. Later, as we feast, one of the Enoch’s will call it a moment of “clean air” while the
other Enoch devours a pork rib.
Immy: “Tuti what do I do now”
Chef Tuti: “Separate the things for the kitchen and the ones for set up”The city behind us, we are now here. It’s time for Farm-to-table at Bulutwe B
Prep for a feast of freshness
Iraa institutes a long table (just like Camelot’s roundtable). This though comes with it’s own trouble; bringing a Kampala kitchen to Bulutwe may require a few hacks, as king Arthur in Camelot hacked his roundtable means.
The mash up though will function and find its rhythm. The chef will need her space sorted out. There is dishes to set up, there is roughages to soak and grate. It’s full gear on the arena.
The farmer arrives, it’s a little past 10a.m. His job with nature is done and we are ready to roll into the clean air plantations.
We must walk the farm for our harvests; our first stop_the chef harvesting ‘her animal’. The slaughter for Pork Four Ways is under way
“Ivan nga onyiliza akantu”- someone praises the slaughters.
‘Butcher’, chef clarifies as she commends his skill saying “you are a very clean butcher, because others would leave blood”.
The harvesters march on,
“We are matching in the light of God” – Sandra Suubi sings. Today she doubles as a sous-chef and the chef’s music.
We go past the banana plantation trees, on our way to track down cassava and Immy’s Mama says
“The cassava can not get tired of this soil” the soil is good. But before we harvest the cassava, we grind into the potato hills:- hands and hoes go in, red sweet potatoes are released from the earth into the hands of the Granary team to fill up sacks for our bounty. Harvest is upon us.
Food folk snack
1. Name: Matooke (Bananas)
1 Naming in Africa usually comes at the position of sharing the foods as this is when they would be named. Such that, as opposed to a single thought of naming, it is a communal instance that produces the name.
Once upon a time, two boys were in the wild looking for something to eat and they see ripe fingers but they were not named at this point and even so the way of harvesting was not decided yet. One of the boys implores them to try reaching for them. The boy tries to climb but could not reach as the banana stem is slippery. He then requests for support that the friend hoist him up. Whilst supported,
he reaches the bunch of ripe fingers and starts to enjoy without coming down the stem.
Then he says,“this plant is sweet, very ripe”as he was enjoying, the friend asks if he won't come down as he too is tired of carrying.
“Owaye tooke!” The hoisted boy assumes his friend was calling the plant ‘Tooke’ and from there it took either etooke, amatooke and more.
2. Lumonde (Red sweet potato)
Special usage
In the African traditional society, when a couple marries and consummates forth to align for future love making, after a woman completed her menstrual periods seeking to alert the man, the woman didn’t just state it to her husband.
She prepared the red sweet potato with it's peeling and indeed cooked only one along the other foods prepared for Supper. At serving, only the man then takes the red potato as it is an alert symbol from the woman saying,
"I am now done with my menstrual period” and so anytime from that serving, the couple can enjoy making love.
Naming Lumonde
As the story goes, two kids go looking for something to eat but as they were in the fields, they saw ekiwala or the plant of sweet potato. As they eat and enjoy, one of the kids tells the friend "this plant is really sweet".
And as he enjoyed, without sharing, the friend asks
"luma ondekelewo" which translates to ‘eat and leave some’.
The one who was busy enjoying missed the friend's request and replied,
“Lumonde Lumonde Lumonde…” so as to ascertain what the friend had said.
From there on the sweet potato is named Lumonde.
3. Name: Muwogo (Cassava)
The folk of the naming comes after a family harvests and has to honor their community’s culture of sharing what one harvests. One day, when from the garden the family came, and because of how they'd suffered to grow the cassava, the woman didn't want to share. Her husband asks
“why do you do that?” and implores that “whenever our neighbors grow they share with us” The woman responds that, knowing it was a hard shiny season, “we can't just share what we have” Moments later, as the man insists, the wife agrees and compromises to share the small produce from the harvest. The husband implores that she shares the big harvest saying,
"Muwe ogwo omunene" The wife instead hears "Muwogo" and beyond there that Cassava produce was called Muwogo.
Cut to Farm-to-Table Arena
Montage of Harvest at the garden arena
Find the cabbages
Get some sugar canes
Harvest your roughages
Cut some banana leaves
Cut some banana bunches
Back at the Kitchen arena
The harvesters feel the dip as the morning sun blazes upon the arena Chef slices through potions of pork from the butchered pig laying on the arena’s alter.
In her rear view is a few enjoying tea with mujaja, others mounding some eggs, others snack on sugar canes, a souschef peels the garlic…
The feast is on and these starter moments are simply just a breather
Another pig must be slaughtered. The pork measuring machine fell a few kilos shy
Chef peels the membrane off the pig’s rib flesh, to marinate, she will need to allow it the ease to be perforated.
She has her parts:- Ribs, legs, plain meats, burnt ends so, she sorts them and readies their movement
forth.The farmer did his breeding. The pig now rests, the pork is on slate, chef lines it on the chopping
platform built here into the earth of the farm.
“The turkey Is called kurukuru”, the farmer’s sons introduce me. It guards the farm
And as chef waits for her new pig, she rests a little bit.
Suubi’s smooth playlist comes on, its country-side dancey vibe exciting the wind to move with those in different spaces of the arena.
Under a shade, Mama peels sweet potatoes, and Baby asks where the peelings are going. Mama explains that they are food for the pigs but Baby argues that “pigs eat apples”.
Mama wonders about this for indeed she can’t fathom where Baby learnt this since they do not grow apples at home.
It is funny though, nature should agree with the baby. These peelings are an apple of sort_to the pigs from which the cycle of life has offered chef her menu of Pork Four Way. Farmer harvests another matooke and carries it to the arena with his sons.
They are the hosts. Their guests may need some bunches to carry on home after the feast
Let the kitchen come alive
As a Suubi selected playlist enthralls the arena in a sweet cadence, the fire churns with in the grills. The open air high temperature grill is cleaned.
Chef’s Insight: Whilst cleaning with a skin from the pig, chef notes “it’s necessary to clean the dirt. The new fat from the fresh pig will consume the dirt and the fat it leaves in its wake melts into the fire, leaving the grill clean and glistened. Every part has it’s use.” Chef reiterates.
The pig is marinated. And hang on hooking pegs.
Swiftly Suubi deposits the first rib into the oven drum ready to furnace. The Granary knows how to harvest heat as and how it needs it. This is the creativity at the arena_ for a slow cooking furnace experience_
_Instead of smoked, the chef will improvise and slow cook the pork ribs to finesse and fineness. The pallet ought to prepare.
The marinated pigs carry with them to the furnace some nature ornaments in rosemary, soul food seasoning, black paper excuses, garlic auras, ginger uplifts, garnish embellishments all etched into the flesh ready to Pork Four Ways.
Meanwhile the sweet potatoes stall onto the fire_all of it in banana wrapping. Theirs is a steaming sensation while the noon tropical sun blazes through the arena in a helter-skelter force.
Up ahead the kitchen arena, Pork skewers are mounted, flipped and rolled into the frill of the grill. They will burn and churn the fat through as the garnishes find refugee in their grease.There are spices gritted in, kneaded into the flesh in fact with tact. This practice of handling meat, chef Tuti attends to personally as she welcomes the pig into her kitchen.
To her side, sous chef Sunday follows on. Shreds of pork are sorted, with all bones removed. This allows for a mix into a star fried broth of pork under high temperature. Later, Karisa would rightfully call this dish “The Flying Dutchman”
Interlude
Farmer Mike takes the mic at arena
Farmer Mike is happy to see the output as it makes its way to the table. His is a job that is now down. For years he has tilled. Since 2017. Today in 2025, a matooke flowered in the rains of November 2024 awaits to go on the fire as chef screams_
“Is my matooke on the fire”
It is all hands on deck here. Sous-chefs line up in aprons to take on some job or the other. A cutting of the garnishes, chopping boards lined with red papers and large velvet rings of onions ready to uplift the essence of some dish or the other. Most cuisines will need their attendance. The garnish is always present in a chef’s kitchen, some meat or sauce may require some merriment of taste.
When in Uganda, remember to enjoy your farm-to-table blessings.
The garden is lash, the output is radiant, the fire blazes on, the table is set, pallets are expectant. It’s a feast.
Farmer Mike doesn’t do this alone though. He engages farm-manager Rashid as caretaker of the farm. Like a child, such produce takes present care. Take for example as Farmer Mike notes_ “for coffee gestation, you wait four years, to then harvest when the tree ripens twice a year during rainy seasons.”
For bananas, gestation takes on three to four months. The rains of November 2024 are the blessings for February 2025 as a feast floats on the month of love. A farm takes passion after all, and here we relish in that commitment. The consistency. The patience with nature. The “clean air”
Before season rains, the farmer moving through his plantation has to swallow his breath. Remember nature takes its time. “In October the plantation lay bare and empty, void of flowered produce. In November when the rains fell, oh what a glory indeed.”
The banana blooms started to sprout and three months down the road, chef now harvests the output to her table.
Farmer insight: - The farm gives 40 to 60 bunches every two weeks, and when the rains season for like three months, one can harvest about 200 to 300 bunches. It’s important to remember farming is a business; while many enjoy its subsistence, Matooke is also an export.This trade will be necessary. The farm requires input, constant input. He tells me after a while the garden sets and the soil starts to take care of itself with the plants that are recycled out of it. In any case, the farmer will not slack. Their passion must stay on and take care of their garden like one grows a child.
Part Two:
Pallets dance to dine at the long table
It’s a meticulous processes.
The chef has to care and tender the ribs. In the oven, they slow cook, then she hurries them on the grill for a quick burn. Later they will return to their furnace oven for final tenderness.
The skewers are marinated, pierced and foiled.
A brown sugar embellishes the burnt ends of the pork and on them a buttery smear spreads its care. The broth takes blazing fires into a flying Dutchman. Here, a flowered fire must keep blossoming till the pork threads brown to finesse. The broth is put in a pan without any water. It’s cooked as the water is drained from the meat, poured out and replaced with little oil to stay on the fire and yield to a glistened crown as it browns and the garnishes are invited in_
_Red Papers, orange carrots, purple onions, the rainbow sizzling broth on the pan atop the cooking clay cave makes its way to the Flying Dutchman
A tower of ribs is garnished with some coriander as chef announces,
“Okay, ribs done”
Let’s Eat
Fair warning,
The chef attends to her table.
The aesthetics at the long table, she insists must too relish in the farm-to-table arena
First, the table spread is harvested from the long drapes of the pumpkin as it roots a path in the garden.
Along with pine cone ornaments, this pumpkin plant spreads luscious heart shaped leaves on either end of Iraa’s long table. And as chef aligns her table, it’s clear a farm feast is upon us.
Yet, before the serving,
Fresh young banana leaves, are washed and lined on the table.Here, city dwellers will have to abandon their insistence on cutlery, and prepare to serve on banana
leaves as is the practice on the farm.
Well, let’s eat
And then it started.
One dish, another then another, then…
As the evening sun cast a magical spell yonder past the hill at the end of Mike’s farm
Chef serves us all around.
Each one must take their pick, yes, but she will make sure each one has their fill!
She serves me ‘The Flying Dutchman’ as Karisa names it. My taste buds excite at the name and the expectation.
Then chef serves me a pawpaw salad with a knack for sweet and spicy intentions.
Around the table dishes are moved from one end to the other at the feast arena. And light conversation passes in between mouth full “hhmmms” and “hhhmmmhhhhs”
“I don’t know what to say”
One of us exclaims as she carries a different type of serving in either hand, whilst she licks off the Flying Dutchman’s grease off her mouth and leans back in her chair.
Then, as if just to confirm, chef asks
“How is the food”
Dorothy: “If I don’t know what to say any more what do you mean”
Just as soon as this was announced, well, another farm-to-table guest, Sam, takes the runners up! He jogs a little up and down at the rear end of the feast set up. Later, he will have to remedy further and do some squats. The food must move to the legs and leave room in the stomach.
‘It’s tough.’ I hear myself exclaim.
The stomach is having a field day but Chei, it’s like Dorothy says.
What is there to say,
The hypothesis for Farm-to-Table becomes ‘eat from the source till you drop’
Here, Pork Four Ways is an ambitious allure to delicacy indeed.
So, of course, we go on.
Next to me, Enoch carries on separating a rib with the clench of hands and teeth. His is a teenager’s joy, he may eat till he drops! He cleans the meat till the skewer hole can be seen clear through the rib.Just as I hear on one end, Enoch say “more pork”
To my other end, as todays head at this long table, farmer Mike and Enoch’s father asks,
“you want to clean that bone also?”
“Clean it also” he prompts on.
And looking his way, I think ‘What a feast!’
I breathe in some more space into my stomach as the chalk board marking the dimensions between the luscious farm and the long table reads,
“Iraa The Granary”
Epilogue
Here observing as a writer archiving the practice in a space and the artists who cultivate that space, I realize this arena for community invites or casts food as the motif for convocation and means of learning and exchanging.
On a visit to Jinja, Suubi of Iraa finds chef Tuti and incites her into this artistic experiment. Chef Tuti takes the experiment with a vision to relate with food locally grown in Uganda and finding different ways to feed on the produce.
“So passionate about food and how people enjoy it.” She brings this openness of interaction with food to the Iraa Granary.
Indeed, the care for food is revered in its consumption. We all lie satisfied from the feast; as Enoch finally cleans out all his bones.
Prior to this feast, when Immy of Iraa approaches the farmer about a farm-to table artistic arena. Then farmer Mike knowing “life itself is art” asks Immy “how is art coming into the farm?” And as he opens up the farm to exposure of how a farm connects with art. “I told her you are most welcome”.
Here now, guests ready to set out of the arena, a passerby exclaims-
“Ekibuga okileese wano”
Here now, at the farm, A clean air replenishes the nostrils.
An evening sun goes to dusk.
The guests are full and one of the Enoch’s admits “tuwomedwa”.
Indeed, just as Dorothy, the art manager admitted wondering “bino ebintu bya art!” on her way to the farm, here now, on her way from the arena, she cautions against importing art, when there is much art here at home.
Besides, “these things connect with each other” concludes farmer Mike as he bids us all goodbye from Bulutwe B, Buikwe District, Eastern- Central Uganda.
The following 1Naming stories are shared by artist Karisa and edited by writer Tusiime whilst invited to chef Tuti’s and Farmer Mike’s farm-to-table art arena.
Composed by Amutuhaire Tusiime Tutu Bororana, writer and lover of food. Tutu stages the interaction between the artist Chef and artist farmer, to produce this observed ethnography above
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