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My First Mumu

Ever since I can remember, I have enjoyed working with food. I believe this has to do with the amount of involvement I had with fresh local food, growing up in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. The Mount Hagen market was filled with fantastic fruits and vegetables and the gardens around our home were full of sweet potatoes, coffee, sugar cane and peanuts. The vibrant community gatherings that surrounded a special ceremony such as a bride price always included a pig kill. It is wonderful to have a whole community working together, each in their various capacities to make a huge feast. One of my first memories is of a large pig-kill in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, where my father was a missionary. At the end of this article there is a cute video of a traditional pig kill in PNG, which will give you a good idea of what my first mumu (ground oven) was like.