My colleague, Benjamin, and I travelled to Kenya to learn about finger millet and check up on some projects the Crop Trust is supporting. Neither of us had ever eaten finger millet so our hosts made sure we’d change that.

Our hosts brought us to a small village called Ekero in Kakamega County which was supposedly famous for its barbecued goat. They ordered some goat and chicken as well as finger millet ugali.

Ugali is a very stiff porridge which can be made of maize, sorghum or finger millet. You eat it by pinching a piece off the mound and rolling it in your fingers before eating it. Ben and I had tried sorghum and maize ugali the night before. I can’t say that I took a liking to it, it was quite bland but you eat if for sustenance and nutrition. The finger millet ugali is the most nutritious and contains an important amino acid not found in other starchy foods.

I didn’t get a whole lot of nutrition from the chicken or goat which was served as it had to be about the toughest meat I’ve ever eaten. But there was plenty of nutrition in the cowpea leaves which were served as well.