Spinach seedlings, cos growing your own is as green as it gets.

Mark Berger put into words a couple of weeks ago something that I’ve been thinking since being back in South Africa, and that is that South African’s appear to be suffering under “a massive countrywide inferiority complex.” One particular area that I’ve noticed this, and one that Mark didn’t include in his blog post, is in South African products vs. imported products. There is a conception here that imported equals better than local.

Inclined as I am to buy local (I like to keep my carbon footprint as small and neat as possible), this idea that buying imported goods (including food) is somehow better (and a whole lot more expensive too, usually) is just preposterous.

If we want to buy local and eat local, it’s super easy here compared to trying to do the same in England, for example. We are spoilt for choice in Cape Town, a veritable locavore’s paradise. So why are we still buying Kerrygold cheese and butter from Ireland, strawberry juice and calamari from China, New Zealand lamb, prawns from India and Woolies snoek from, wait for it, New Zealand??? There’s no rhyme or reason to this silliness when we have beautiful local (and in many cases free range or organic) meat, fish, vegetables, fruit and dairy products right on our doorsteps.

One way to take charge of the food that you eat is to grow your own, but the truth is that not everyone has the spare time or inclination to do that. There are alternatives. If you live in Cape Town you could join the Slow Food Cape Town CSA (before 30th June 2009). Or order an organic veg box from Abalimi Bezekhaya.

Wondering what a CSA is?

Slow Food Cape Town CSA Winter ‘09 – in a nutshell

A weekly bag containing six vegetables supplied by organic small farmers Erick and Eric
Two jars of surprise preserves made by a community project will be included over the course of the CSA
Farm visits organised to meet the farmers and see the farms
Additional resources include weekly email updates and recipes, and a blog
Collect your bag after 1pm on Tuesdays at: Jaqui Daya Good Food Store in Newlands, Millstone Farm Stall in Pinelands or Deer Park Café in Vredehoek
Runs for eight weeks, from 30 June through 18 August
Costs R462 in total: this must be paid in advance

Some local supermarkets stock a wealth of really local South African produce. This morning at the SuperSpar in Rosmead Avenue, Kenilworth I bought cheese from George, cream from Durbanville and stone ground flour from Heidelberg. It’s worth frequenting supermarkets who bother stocking really local stuff, and you will need to make the effort to look at labels and seek out the food from closest by. It’s an effort worth making in my opinion, not only to lower your carbon footprint, but also to support local producers and ensure food security in your neck of the woods.

Other ways to reduce your consumer carbon footprint is to buy South African household appliances (DEFY), South African made clothing (Woolies stocks some or Mnandi Textiles in Station Road, Observatory to name just two), locally made furniture (one example I can think of is Right (the bloke’s name) at the Montebello Design Centre in Newlands Avenue), and for gifts and treats there’s Montebello again, Neighbourhood Goods Market (at the Biscuit Mill in Woodstock) and the Craft Markets at Kirstenbosch and Rondebosch.

We are truly spoilt for choice, so these are just a few options. If you feel there’s something that should be mentioned here that isn’t, please leave a comment.

I’ve just signed up for the Winter CSA, thanks to Pia’s regular prompting.

Our vegetable garden is coming along nicely, we should have Swiss chard and spinach to eat in about a month or so.

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Down here in the Southern Hemisphere the shortest day of the year less than a week away, and we’re counting down to planting season. Just this past weekend in the rain, my lovely husband was chopping a great chunk out of the lawn so that I can start planting fruit and vegetables in our new garden (I’m starting planting now because winter crops rock and I have Swiss chard and spinach germinated and almost ready to be planted out). I have sowed peas that will be ready for harvesting in around 3 months time, and will be sowing carrots and onions over the next week.

But enough about my garden for now, I want to tell you about this this countdown.

It turns out that Jason Hartman (you know, the one who won South African Idol) is a bit of a gardening fundi (who knew?), and he and a couple of other guys called Scott Colin Cundill and Brendan Greene (they’re the admins of the Facebook group for Countdown to Planting Season so I’m assuming here) have got this project going where they are asking South Africans (both in their capacities as businesses and individuals) to plant at least one organic vegetable on the 22nd of September 2009 (Spring Equinox).

At the time of blogging this, they already have over 7000 individual and 131 businesses who have signed up to plant something on the day. Some of the businesses have committed to pretty big planting projects (some of those with land will be planting big food gardens), and others are providing seeds or seedlings to their employees for them to plant at home.

Here’s a bit of blurb about it from their Facebook page:

If ever the people of this country needed something to unite us all, this is it.

We are in a period of darkness. Economic darkness, emotional darkness, social darkness. Water systems are failing, we are running out of power, the food we eat is shocking and there is never enough money. As Phil Collins wrote: “There’s too many people, making too many problems. And not much love to go round.” And all the decision makers do is fight about what the next step should be.

Well, there is one solution that they ALL agree on. In fact, this is probably the only solution that:

• All doctors agree is good for your health
• All psychologists agree brings relief to anxiety
• All politicians agree is a boost for the economy
• All teachers is agree is enlightening for our children
• All religions agree will help you feel closer to God
• All environmentalists agree is the first step to saving the planet

The 22nd of September is the Spring Equinox. On this day, we request that a million South Africans plant an organic vegetable. Just one, that’s all. If you’re a veteran, then it should be easy for you. If you know nothing about how to do this, then we’ll teach you when you register on the website.

Okay, I’m not so sure about the doom and gloom “time of darkness” stuff, but I do think it’s a project worth jumping into with both gumboots. So sign up here and here and get something planted on the 22nd September, you may even find (if you haven’t done this before) that food gardening is your new favourite hobby.

Thanks to Pia for the heads up!

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One Tuesday a few weeks ago I accompanied Duncan Drennan (The Art of Engineering), Duncan’s beautifully pregnant wife Donne, Pia Taylor (Mother City Living), Stefan (a lecturer in applied mathematics at Stellenbosch) and Ruan (a helicopter pilot in training) on a tour of the Fezeka community garden in Gugulethu and the Harvest of Hope packing shed in Phillipi. Both the Fezeka garden (one of many community gardens) and Harvest of Hope form part of the Abalimi Bezekhaya organisation that assists urban farmers to produce food for themselves, their families and communities and to sell their surplus crops.

We started the tour at the BP service station on Rosmead Avenue where we were met by Rob Small, a friendly and enthusiastic man who works tirelessly to bring in funds for Abalimi, as well as running regular Tuesday morning tours of the gardens in a bid to win over more supporters to the project. Rob overflows with passion for the Abalimi project and what it is doing for people in Cape Town’s townships. His enthusiasm is infectious and seeps into everything he says.

Fezeka community garden stands at the foot of a huge pylon

Rob lead the way into Gugulethu and Fezeka, where he explained how 40% of the residents of Cape Town’s informal settlements are unemployed, and where there’s poverty, there is also hunger. The core business of Abalimi is to combat poverty by growing food sustainably (and organically) both at home and in community gardens, and to further green the township areas by planting water wise indigenous trees in the schools and streets of the area. Rob explained that when the Abalimi project started 15 years ago, their aim was to help people achieve subsistence from their growing activities. These days they have surpassed that and are aiming at providing a livelihood for those who before had a hard time even feeding themselves.

We were shown around Fezeka Garden and met some of the mama’s who run the place. There are very few men involved in growing community gardens on the Cape Flats, the majority of the farmers are women.

Mama Maggie transporting manure to her crops with a wheelbarrow

We were able to take photographs of the gardens and ask Rob questions about how Abalimi facilitates the creation of these food gardens. He explained that Abalimi “subsidises” the farmers to the tune of R150 per farmer per month (that’s around US $15 a month) by providing training, manure and set-up and maintenance of an irrigation system for each garden. This figure is much, much lower than the subsidies provided by government to commercial farmers. Abalimi also helps the farmers gain access to council land and negotiates on their behalf to obtain access to water, for example.

From Fezeka we moved on to the Harvest of Hope packing shed in Phillipi. Harvest of Hope is the marketing and selling arm of Abalimi. They collect the vegetables from the farmers once a week and take them back to the packing shed to wash and prepare for delivery. The vegetables make up weekly organic vegetable boxes that are distributed via some of Cape Town’s southern suburbs schools. (It is possible to buy a Harvest of Hope veg box even if you don’t have children at one of the selected schools, see below for more details).

I was blown away by the amazing fresh smell as we walked into the packing shed. It was a beautiful experience.
Click here to read more…

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