A visit to Kakuzi Farm
Kakuzi is located about 75km from Nairobi, on the Thika Highway that winds its way north towards Ethiopia and beyond. The farm stretches away on both sides of the road for about twenty minutes of your drive north, and what lies behind the timber plantations is a well managed farm with many different activities.
We visited on a boiling hot day in February, slightly unprepared for the dust and heat, but excited to discover more about their operations.
After arriving at the butchery, we met up with Dennis Wedd, the Farm Manager. “Jump in and follow me – you can’t get lost, you’ll see the dust!”. So off we went along the red tinged roads of the farm, kicking up dust despite adhering to the strict 40kph rule. Either side of the road we saw the grasslands that help to fatten their cattle, dotted with acacia trees and other indigenous species. Arriving at the main office, we met Sammy, and Bernard, who was to take us around the livestock operation. First though, to the blueberries.
Laban manages the 10 hectare blueberry project on Kakuzi, and was well prepared for the weather with a cap and long sleeved shirt on. He walked us to one of the greenhouses which is home to many hundreds of blueberry bushes. The bushes are super healthy, with fresh green shoots, and healthy looking foliage. They are each planted in a large pot with coir (coconut fibre), and fed with drip irrigation. They’ll come into fruit between May and July, and we hope to return to see them at that stage. Between each warehouse there are small platforms for bee hives, and a delicious range of flowers for them to choose from including lavender and aloe.
Next, we were back in the car and driving through the macadamia groves where we stopped to look at one of the mature trees that had fruit. Beautiful yellow feathery flowers hang down from the trees, and little clusters of brown macadamia fruits blow gently in the wind. We picked a few and looked at how the husk comes off; under that we find the shell, which has to be cracked with something a bit stronger than human hands!!, and finally we find the kernel of macadamia within. It’s no wonder they are quite expensive nuts to buy – a lot of work goes into extracting them! From seeing the fruit on their trees, we moved to look at the enormous factory that Kakuzi has on site, where the dehusking, sorting, cracking and packing takes place. It’s an absolutely awesome site, and I mean that literally – Amos and I were quite awestruck by it! Machinery, belts, sorting lines, packing, metal detectors, cold rooms and more make up this huge processing plant that serves large quantities of nuts to the US and Japanese markets amongst others. We’re so proud to see something like this in Kenya, and imagine how many jobs are created when it’s high season! Hundreds of workers from the local villages come in to harvest and process the macadamia nuts. And what’s wonderful about the process is the lack of waste – the husks are all turned into fuel to be used during processing.
Finally, it was off to see the livestock! We met Mbau, the herder, and Rogers who is in charge of selecting the right steers for slaughter. We met them in a field near one of the roads, where Rogers had parked his boda in the deep shade of an Acacia Tortillis. Mbau stood leading on his herding stick, as his herd of steers moved peacefully around munching on grass. As we approached, they became wary; the confident ones moving towards us to have a good look, and the cautious ones moving away from us… Mbau explained that unless you’re wearing the grey overalls of the herder, they know you are new and naturally they are suspicious. We kept a respectful distance and watched the cows as Bernard told us more about how they are raised. There’s no AI on Kakuzi, so they know which steers or heifers belong to which sire. This group of steers had been castrated early on so that they lack testosterone and therefore become less muscly and more tender as they grow. These cows are 100% grass fed, with no inputs apart from tick control and worming, which is given when they are still young. Their glossy coats and healthy faces told a story of cows that live a happy, carefree life, out in the open grasslands of Kakuzi.
We left the farm feeling as confident as ever that the beef, blueberries and macadamias we source from Kakuzi are some of the best quality Kenya has to offer!
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