I really do like this initiative – a virtual wall of seedlings that will soon become actual seedlings, planted in food gardens around the country…

The Virtual Living Wall has been created by the Woolworths Trust in honour of World Food Day, happening this coming Sunday, 16th October 2011.

For every virtual seedling planted, the Woolworths Trust will donate an actual plant to a South African school with an EduPlant permaculture food garden. Just choose your plant  and add your name. It’s fun, it’s free, and it makes a difference in the real world.

Go to www.woolworthslivingwall.co.za to plant your virtual seedling for free.

It is, in usual Woolworths style, very well presented, and it’s fun to see your own name appended to the plant you’ve chosen (plus the feel-good factor of knowing that your seedling will find its way into a food garden somewhere out there).

PS you can opt out of receiving additional info from Woolworths if you prefer (in fact, it’s the default setting).

Ed’s note: I’ve always enjoyed growing at least a few of my own vegetables (within the confines of pots, mostly), but I’ve recently discovered the joys of ‘heirloom’ seeds – and they really are too cool for school.  Once you’ve given heirloom seeds a try, it’s no longer just about producing food – a world of cool names, delicious flavours and vibrant colours awaits you… Sean Freeman tells us more:

A guest post by Sean Freeman.

The humble vegetable garden is back in fashion! A fresh, home-grown garden salad placed in front of your guests is a source of pride and a thing of exceptional beauty. The effort that went into that salad was months in the making, not just the half hour spent in the kitchen preparing it.  And, once that salad is on the table, talk normally turns to what each person is growing in their gardens and how they use the various ingredients.

What I would like to talk about is the source of those vegetables… the seeds.

Since gardening began the vegetable gardener would collect seed from the best of each year’s crop. They would share a few precious seeds in the mail to a friend or, when a fellow gardener dropped past, a few seeds were pressed into their hands as a parting gift. Very often these varieties developed a history or even ‘cult following’ amongst those in the know.

If you can remember your Ouma’s giant red tomatoes that burst with flavour, or sweet snap beans that you used to sneak out of her garden you have tasted an heirloom vegetable. Her canned chutneys and beetroot salad and even the tasty carrots or beans that she froze for over-winter came from heirloom or open pollinated seed stock. If she was so inclined she was even able to save seed from her crops every year.  Sadly, though, most of that seed-saving knowledge and even many seed varieties have been lost in our fast-paced, glossy, barcode-driven lifestyle.

When immigrants moved to a new country they would bring in a few precious seeds folded in a grubby envelope, or carefully sown into a hem or jacket lining to get past nosy customs officials. These seeds, once planted in the new country, were tended with loving care and often allowed these cash-strapped immigrants to get by in the first few years – with fresh tomatoes, a few pumpkins or some beans to stretch out their meagre earnings.

Over time these seeds became a part of their legacy – to their families and to fellow food gardeners in general. Around 1970 a new movement slowly gathered momentum in the US, focusing on heritage or heirloom seeds. Food gardeners started to seek out actively and trade these unique varieties and the seed-saving movement was born.

The core feature amongst heirloom seed varieties is the ability to produce fruit and seed that is ‘true-to-type’, otherwise known as open pollinated. This seed, with a bit of knowledge, can easily be saved by the home or market gardener from year to year without the need for buying in new seed every year. In fact dedicated seed savers have enough to be able to share or trade their seed with other like-minded gardeners every year.

Going back to that garden salad – we love to ‘build’ a salad out of unusual ingredients from our veggie garden.

One of our favourite salads goes something like this. A mix of raw spiralled Romanesco Broccoli, raw Sicilian Violet Cauliflower, slices of surprisingly sweet candy striped Chioggia Beetroot, sliced Purple Dragon carrots and then a few unusual black or striped tomatoes and perhaps a handful of melody lettuce. To finish off, our salads are never complete without some fresh dill leaves, baby spinach, any one of a few cucumber varieties and some fresh peas, if in season.

This spring season, look at opening up some of your flower beds to plant some veggies.  Or if you are already a vegetable gardener investigate some of the heirloom vegetables that are available and try a few out. Once you have tasted a real tomato or sampled a few beans fresh out of your garden you will understand why heirloom vegetables have the world-wide cult following that they do.

Additional heirloom seed sources:

• The Gravel Garden (available at Hathersage Market and Stellenbosch Waldorf Organic Market)
• Mahlathini Organics
• Sought After Seedlings

This weekend (10-11 July 2010), Robina McCurdy will be hosting a workshop on ‘Local Food Reliance‘:

This dynamic workshop is an in-depth sharing of Robina’s participatory tools for creating sustainable community food systems, applied to Cape Town and surrounds.  Robina will also share a range of successful international models of local food production and distribution.

The intended outcome of the workshop is that participants leave with a sound integrated strategy for community scale food self reliance, with immediate action steps toward achieving this individually and collectively, starting at their own back doors, within their own neighbourhoods and building on existing networks.

More about Robina McCurdy:

Robina is a co-founder of Tui Land Trust & Community in Aotearoa, New Zealand, and founder/trustee of the Institute for Earthcare Education Aotearoa.  She is also the pioneer-developer of the international programme, S.E.E.D. Schools Environmental Education & Development, and of PLANET Organic in New Zealand (vocational training in bio-regional & community-scale sustainable landuse design, management and facilitation.

Dates: 10, 11 July 2010.

Venue: WESSA Barn in Kirstenhof, Cape Town.

Cost: R475-R950 for weekend | R300 – R600 for Saturday only  (cost is on income-based sliding scale)

For more details, and to register, contact Inna Alex: earthcarenz@gmail.com

This article is written by Michelle Matthews, and was originally published on Slow Food Mother City.

Remember that old Farmer Brown ad: ‘They taste so good, ’cause they eat so good’? It turns out that a diet of grubs, grass, grain, fresh air and sunshine makes the tastiest chickens of all.

On 6 March 2010 a group of Slow Fooders visited Spier to learn more about their biodynamic farming methods. In particular, we wanted to know about their egg-laying and broiler chickens – we’d heard they lead happy lives, by chicken standards.

Spier farm manager, Christo, led us out into the pastures to meet the chickens and cows, who live in a fascinating symbiosis on the pastures.

Into the yonder... to the chicken coop! - Pia Taylor

This piece of land was almost destroyed by conventional farming methods, but is now being rehabilitated using biodynamic principles: the cows graze the grass, trampling some of it flat and churning the earth. They leave behind pats, where larvae grow. A few days’ later the chickens are moved onto the same piece of land, where they disperse the pats by scratching for grubs and further fertilise the soil with their own droppings. After a few rounds of this, the srubby pasture starts to look green and lush – it’s revitalised.

Cows doing their good work on the Spier pastures - Liz Metcalfe

Spier’s egg-laying chickens are completely free to run around at will (though Christo has specifically chosen ones that don’t like to range TOO far) and spend their evenings roosting a large coop (decorated by local kids), where they’re free to lay their eggs as and when they feel like it.

Egg-layers' mobile coop painted by local children - Liz Metcalfe

They’re also free to indulge in all sorts of poultry peccadillos, including chickens’ absolute favourite past-time: a feather-fluffing dust bath. These chickens will be good layers for up to five years (compared to less than two years for exhausted commercial hens).

Spier chickens taking a very enjoyable dust bath - Liz Metcalfe

The broiler chickens – the one omnivorous humans eat – are moved through the pastures in large cages, partly covered in shade-cloth. While they don’t run free – predators are too much of a danger – they’re still chirpy, as The Littlest Slow Fooder found out when she was introduced.

Toddler meeting her first real-life happy chicken - Pia Taylor

These broiler chicks come from the same place that commercial chickens are bred, and are ‘saved’ at one day old. “I see the crates of chicks being loaded onto the big trucks, and look at our couple of hundred chicks, and I think ‘this is your lucky day, guys’,” says Christo.

The chicks spend their first three weeks in this roomy shed, before going ‘out to pasture’ for another three weeks. During this time, they grow up to twice as big as conventional chickens – as much as 2.6kgs – eating bugs, seeds, some special feed, and getting strong scratching around in the dirt. Right now, the chickens are slaughtered at a site about 90 minutes away that has the requisite humane approach, but Spier has nearly finished their own slaughterhouse on the farm, which will mean chickens will be far less stressed at the end.

Reverent poem on the wall of the in-progress slaughter house - Liz Metcalfe

The poem on the wall, by Kahlil Gibran, reads in part:
By the same power that slays you, I too am slain; and I too shall be consumed.
For the law that delivered you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand.
Your blood and my blood is naught but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven.

In the biodynamic tradition of ‘closing the circle’ on a farm, all inedible by-products of the slaughter will go into the Spier organic veggie garden compost heap. It will feed the soil that fed the chickens that fed us.

Strains of Mozart waft out over Spier's organic veggie garden... - Pia Taylor

Ed’s note: Spier’s wonderful chickens are available at a growing number of locations:

• Kwalapa – 31 Newlands Avenue, Montebello Design Estate. Tel 021 687 9314.
• The Earth Fair Market – South Palms (same location as Builder’s Warehouse and Reader’s Warehouse in Tokai Main Rd).  Available Saturday mornings only.

(Please leave a comment below if you’ve spotted them elsewhere around Cape Town, and I’ll add them to the list)

One thing one generally doesn’t expect to see when entering a shopping mall is a vegetable patch, full of green, leafy edible plants.  Now picture them being grown vertically – a “Living Wall”… a vertical food garden.

That’s the fabulous sight that greeted me as I wandered in to Constantia Village yesterday morning to attend the launch of the new-look Woolworths food store (more about that another time) and of course I very quickly jumped in and planted my very own tomato seedling.

I think it’s an awesome idea… passing shoppers get to plant their own vegetable seedlings in recycled plastic cold drink bottles which are then fixed to a fence, gradually forming a living wall of green.

And, most importantly, it’s not just about the show – according to the press release I received today, all the vegetable and herb seedlings planted by the Constantia Village shoppers will be donated by the Woolworths Trust to Constantia Primary School, an under-resourced school near the centre.

Constantia Primary has a permaculture food garden and this seedling donation will be used to start their own nursery – to boost the sustainability of their food garden.

In a world where consumerism is king (especially at this time of year), it’s sometimes good to be reminded about the source of things, and I think this very simple but effective display does just that.

The Woolworths Trust “Living Wall” will be up until Saturday the 28th of November – so go ahead and get planting!

I love being part of the Cape Town CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) project. One of the joys of eating seasonally is the anticipation of the new crops that each season brings, and being part of a CSA you’re right in the thick of it – what was growing, that morning, is now in your hands. I’ve never had such amazing broccoli as I had during the winter CSA, and I am looking forward to seeing what the springtime will bring.

In case you have no idea what I’m on about, here’s what a CSA is:

WHAT IS A CSA?

A CSA is a partnership between an agricultural or artisan producer and a group of consumers. The consumers sponsor the production of a specific crop or product at the beginning of the CSA, and during the season, the producer responds with frequent reports on that crop’s development and growth, and the consumers can visit the producer to learn more about how crop is grown, and even help with the harvest. The harvest is divided between all the members during the course of the season. Possible CSA products could include vegetables, fruit trees or grassfed beef from an entire steer.

The point of running a CSA (and a cornerstone of the Slow Food ethos) is to reconnect consumers with agricultural producers, and make urban dwellers aware of the lifecycles implicit in growing and producing the food we eat.

This spring, we are running a mixed organic vegetable CSA, grown just outside of Kraaifontein by small, organic farmer Erick Zenzele, that will be divided among all participants every week (i.e. every week during the season you receive a bag of mixed vegetables).

And here’s the scoop on this Spring’s CSA:

We are delighted to announce the launch of another Slow Food Cape Town Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) vegetable project this spring, serving Durbanville, N1 commuters and Cape Town.

With a vegetable CSA, you pay at the beginning and get a share of a small, emerging farmer’s organic harvest, to be picked up at a convenient collection point once a week for the period of the CSA.

The Spring 2009 CSA includes:

• One small, organic farmer, Erick Zenzele
• A weekly veggie bag containing a constantly changing selection of SIX vegetables
• Four collection points for you to choose from, at Home Baked @ Red Cherry, Klein Joostenberg Deli, Jaqui Daya Food Store and Millstone Farmstall
• A weekly email newsletter
• An online blog with information, links, recipes and a chance to interact with other CSA members
• Farm outings to Erick’s farms, to meet your farmer, see the crops and learn about how they are grown
• A total of EIGHT weeks of vegetable delights, running from Tuesday 8 September through Tuesday 27 October 2009
• Total cost is R399, which translates to R49.88 for each week

Reconnect with where, how and when your food is grown!

To book your membership, email kate@slowfoodcsa.co.za

I’ll definitely be signing up again, and look forward to visiting the farm on which my weekly vegetables have been grown!  The best part is – the more we support these initiatives, the more likely the range of produce available for future CSAs will increase.  Imagine crisp organic autumn apples, or berries, or a share in some of the fruit that usually gets sent straight overseas?  That’s what I’m hoping for.

Hope to see you on the next farm visit!

One misty morning, about a month ago, I joined a specially organised tour of Soil For Life‘s ”Little patches of salvation” – home food gardens and the bigger ’Food Garden Enterprises’ that this hard-working Cape Town NGO has coached into being.

To quote their website:  ”Soil for Life is a Cape Town-based NGO which teaches people to grow their own food and it works with the premise –healthy soil, healthy plants, and healthy people.

Home and community food gardens are designed to maximise production in small spaces, to conserve water and to make use of all available resources that would otherwise end up in already over-burdened land-fill sites, and to avoid, at all costs, the need for artificial fertilisers and poisonous sprays.”

And this tour was specially organised to show interested parties just how far they have come:

“Soil for Life made the decision last year to focus its energies on a home gardening program centred on local Food Gardening Enterprises in communities. The pilot program, run from May-December 2008 was so successful that 2009 saw the launch of a new wave of home gardens. By April, a total of 130 individuals have food gardens outside their back doors.

“They’re eating from them, selling from them. They’re healthier, happier, saving money, making friends, learning skills, sharing what they have and moving ahead with their lives. They’re proud of what they’re doing, and they’re making a worthwhile contribution to their neighbourhoods, especially because they have turned barren wasteland into little green oases.”

It was an incredible voyage, and the striking contrast between the areas of dire poverty through which we drove, and the verdant oases of green we encountered within them made me feel that even in the face of great odds, anything is possible.  Through their dedication and hard work, Soil For Life is creating hope amongst communities – and perhaps one day these small oases will become one big sea of green…

These are the gardens we visited that day:

1. Michael Valentine’s garden at the Haven Night Shelter, Wynberg

Michael Valentine is a worm farmer of note. A row of bath tubs, full of hungry red wrigglers, is testament to his vermiculture skills. The Haven receives regular donations of food from retail chains around the city and anything that’s left over, or deemed unfit for human consumption goes straight to the wrigglers. Very little wastage, and thanks to the industrious worms, it very quickly turns into life-giving food for plants. What a great system!

A small food garden has been set up in the otherwise rather barren grounds of the Haven, fed by Michael’s prolific tubs. And produce from the garden goes into soups and salads, which help supplement the diet of the residents.

2. The Old-Aged Home at Ryberg Terrace, Hanover Park

It’s incredible what you can grow in containers! This small old-aged home has a number of small gardens, some of them primarily container-based.

The height of the containers make them easier for older people to reach (rather than having to bend right down all the time), and the size is manageable.

I was blown away by what they’d managed to create, in such small spaces… and it all looks so vibrant! Not only does growing their own food lower their overall food costs, it’s fresh and packed with goodness, making them healthier as well.

3. Sinebhonga Community Garden in Langa

In the middle of run-down houses, ramshackle fencing and obvious signs of poverty and neglect, the Sinebhonga Community Garden shines like a bright green beacon of hope.

I know that sounds cliched, but it really is incredible to see something so verdant in stark contrast to its surroundings (especially when one takes into account the generally abysmal soil with which they would have had to start).

The women who run the garden beamed with pride as we stepped off the bus to wander through their rows of gleaming vegetables. Spinach, lettuces, enormous turnips, shiny peppers, cabbages – all in beautiful neat rows, and all looks so ridiculously healthy it made my own home-grown attempts look completely silly.

These ladies are switched on, and supply the community around them. They’ve even started their own soup kitchen, in an old shipping container on the garden grounds.

4. Nicola’s garden in Langa

Then it was off to small backyard garden in Langa. It looked like just another house among many, until we saw what was behind the protecting grey walls…

Once again I was gobsmacked by the quantity of food grown in a small space. And, again I was struck by just how healthy it all looked (who says organic means imperfect?)

Every possible nook and cranny was growing something… lettuces, eggplants, broccoli, sweet potatoes, cabbages, peppers and chillies, spinach. What a feast one could have from a garden like that!

5. Rose Nongogo’s garden in Gugulethu

Another example of using every possible space for the production of immune-boosting food. Rose’s home borders on a busy urban roadside, and you wouldn’t know it was there, unless you were sitting rather high up (as we were, in our big bus).

Look over the wall, though, and there are rows and rows of fantastic vegetables and herbs.

Whilst we were there, Rose probed her sweet potato patch and proudly hoisted out one of the largest sweet potatoes I have ever seen!

6. Two Samora gardens in Philippi

Even more dramatic than gardens in the backyards of brick homes are the ones you encounter outside township shacks. Wandering around the maze of dwellings in Samora, Philippi, and trying not to get lost, we suddenly came upon some of the small gardens being created there.

The challenges here are enormous, with not too much shelter from the Cape winds, and limited water supplies, these guys have to work a bit harder.

Using materials they find, they create makeshift windbreaks, home-made watering cans (an old tin, with holes in the bottom, with a handle made of string) and manage to grow a surprising amount of vegetables.

7. Sibanye Garden Centre in Vrygrond, Capricorn Park

This incredible garden near Muizenberg is jam-packed with fresh vegetables and herbs, and even has a nursery for seedling creation, which brings in much needed cash.

There’s spinach and eggplants bursting out of old car tyres, herbs growing in old sinks and cisterns, great bushes of lavender and rosemary and beautiful seedlings, waiting to be deployed.

Members of the community come here to learn about gardening, and if they’re enrolled in Soil for Life’s gardening program, can cash in special vouchers for compost, seedlings and so on.

8. Charles’s garden in Military Heights

Last, but definitely not least, was a visit to Charles’s garden, just around the corner from Sibanye. A small but incredibly abundant garden in Charles’s front yard yields enormous cabbages, pak choi (or tatsoi?), leafy swiss chard varieties, healthy lettuces, bush beans, soup celery, chinese cabbage, tomatoes, leeks… the list goes on!

Charles loves to talk about his vegetables, and even sold a few items to some of the visitors. After seeing so many people descend from a bus to view the garden, a curious crowd of onlookers gathered, and Charles was in his element at the centre of all the commotion!

View the entire gallery here.

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Soil For Life‘s resource centre is located Stables Lane, off Brounger Way in Constantia (behind Peddlars on the Bend).  The centre runs a series of fantastic practical workshops on food gardening, vermiculture, natural pest control and more.  Plus, they sell pickles and preserves made from community produce, and you can even go and pick your own uber-fresh vegetables from the resource centre and pay in either Talents or hard cash.  Visit www.soilforlife.co.za for more info, or phone them on +27 (0)21 794 4982.