In Executive Chef Ziyaad Brown’s kitchen, the geography of flavour can be traced to the sands of the Kalahari Desert – where a season’s treasure lies in wait.
The truffles arrive, still carrying the dust of the Kalahari Desert. They are known as “Mahupu” in Tswana or “n’xaba” among San communities.
In Xigera’s kitchen, Executive Chef Ziyaad Brown carefully unwraps the package, inspecting each one before the work begins. There is little time to waste. Their season is measured in weeks, and their freshness in days.
There is no rush in the kitchen. Only purpose.
Some truffles are sliced paper-thin and slowly dehydrated. Others become powders, purées and preserves. Each method is chosen to hold onto something of the ingredient itself – its earthiness, its fragrance, the memory of the season that birthed it deep underground. Months from now, a guest may encounter Kalahari truffle on the menu, unaware that it first arrived here in the depths of winter.
These fungi are the fruit of ancestral folklore, known to the San as the “eggs of the lightning bird”. They begin as tiny spores buried beneath the red sands of the Kalahari. They appear only after good rains, hidden below the surface until experienced eyes know where to look. San and Tswana women leave home for days at a time, sleeping in the bush as they follow signs that have been read and remembered for generations. Knowledge passed quietly from mother to daughter. From grandmother to granddaughter. From one season to the next.
Once harvested, the truffles travel north to the Delta, in their protective coats of sand. Their journey to Xigera speaks of sustenance and livelihood for the women who gather them, but it also honours something less tangible – a tradition that cannot be cultivated, hurried or replaced.
Months later, a shaving of truffle or a dusting of powder arrives on a guest’s plate. The flavours are unmistakable: earthy, delicate, touched with vanilla and anise. Yet they carry something beyond taste. The memory of rain on desert sand. The hands that searched for them. A season held carefully, then shared.
Kalahari truffles differ from their southern European relatives by favouring arid soil, giving them a unique flavour profile. Found in dry and semi-desert areas in Southern Africa, they grow close to the surface and are only visible to the trained eye via cracks in the red soil. They are not farmed, but wild harvested for only five weeks of the year.
Whereas in Europe, dogs and pigs are trained to sniff out truffles, in Africa, foragers sometimes watch the activities of meerkats, baboons and jackals for clues to the whereabouts of these truffles. In local culture, they are traditionally associated with fertility and a high birth rate because they appear in years of plentiful rain.
Xigera’s truffles are harvested by women-led communities from the Mabuasehube area in the Kgalagadi District of Botswana, where Kalahari truffles naturally occur. They are one of a group of villages in the region, for whom truffle harvesting brings in much-needed additional income.
The foragers travel long distances into the remote bush, foraging on foot in areas with sandy soils and vegetation. They seek out natural signs on the ground such as small cracks, raised soil, or changes in the surface that indicate truffles below.
The truffles are then carefully dug out by hand or with simple tools such as forked sticks to avoid damage.
Because they only appear after heavy downpours, their yields can be low during periods of drought. Their unpredictability has inspired innovative approaches to preserving them – such as the creation of limited-release aperitif and vodka by local artisanal spirit producer Kalahari Truffles.
Kalahari Truffles works directly with about 15 villages and remote settlements across the Ghanzi, Kgalagadi and Kweneng regions of Botswana. Many of the harvesters are from Basarwa communities, whose roots stretch back to Southern Africa’s earliest hunter-gatherer societies. There are no middlemen and no industrial harvesting – only what nature provides.
For the foragers, truffle harvesting is more than a source of food or income. It is a wellspring of wisdom embedded in their traditional culture, maintaining a strong connection to their environment and ancestral practices.
Credit: Xigera Safari Lodge
