From seedling to soil to kitchen to the signature dishes of the Londolozi camp decks.
Those who have been following our sustainable living journey will know that our experiments in guerilla gardening began a number of years ago. In the Londolozi village, pop-up gardens started to appear, each one tended to and shared by pockets of the community. A handful of those gardens became particularly productive and, in September 2014, we had our first “Spring harvest” – we were all truly proud that a small amount of produce went directly to the kitchen, providing fresh, organic produce to our visitors.
We have taken another momentous step forward. A newly formed Londolozi microbusiness, the Londolozi Women’s Cooperative (click here to read the full story of Londolozi’s inspiring women social entrepreneurs), has prepared a much larger area of land and are spearheading our most ambitious project yet. Thousands of heads of special lettuce, rocket (arugula), celery and dill have been planted, with red basil, coriander, swiss chard and green bean seeds being sown this week.
At the end of May, Londolozi’s kitchen will receive from the co-op its biggest order of organic and of course, homegrown, fresh produce to date. That means that the ingredients in many of our signature dishes will have been grown on property by members of the local community and sold back to the kitchen as part of this microenterprise project. It also means we will be another step closer to reducing our carbon footprint and building on our vision of a future model that is based more and more on our self-reliance as a community of proud bush-dwellers.
The planting of our new seedlings took place on Sunday, and – in the true community spirit of “green pioneers” – the Londolozi family turned out in full force to assist the gardeners of the co-op. Enjoy the photos.
Photos by James Tyrrell.
Gogo Mo Groch, centre, has been a driver of the Londolozi Women’s Cooperative, as well as the initiative for the co-op to grow produce to sell back to the kitchen. As you can see, all of the Londolozi gardens need to be caged to protect the seedlings from animals and birds.
Kate Collins from the Londolozi Creative Hub is a regular on our Sunday service walks. This past Sunday, instead of our normal walk, the team were out in force supporting the Londolozi Women’s Cooperative in our biggest planting yet.
Londolozi Rangers Daniel Buys, Greg Pingo and Nick Kleer.
As the summer temperatures start to cool off, we are positive that the different varieties of lettuce, as well as the dill and celery, will make it to Anna Ridgewell and her team in the kitchen by late May.
There are many pop-up gardens located in the Londolozi village, but these are by far the biggest and most productive. In the next two weeks the team will be adding green beans, coriander and red basil.
Two of the Londolozi Women’s Cooperative gardeners are assisted by Service Nkuna (left) and Amy Attenborough (right).
Written by: Ryan James
Awesome blog Ryan. There is nothing as nice and rewarding as picking fresh veggies from your garden.
Completely agree Marinda. Now we just need to think about a vineyard or two 😉
Fantastic! Red Basil? It’s all a superb effort and the way forward.
Hi Jenny. Thank you so much. Red basil is delicious – it has a stronger flavour than regular basil, and this makes it perfect in salads. Whether or not it’s easier to grow – we’ll let you know 🙂
Building a vegetable garden in the heart of the African bush is quite an achievement , I have pigeons and cabbage white butterflies to deal with ( not all butterflies are welcome) I can’t imagine all the creatures great and small that you have to deal with. If I can ever afford another trip to Londolozi I look forward to seeing it.
Hi Ian – it just makes our challenge that much more exciting! Monkeys and baboons were our toughest “neighbours” to contend with, but the cages set up around the gardens settled that dispute. Let me know when you are back and I will be happy to show you around.
Fantastic Ryan! It’s great seeing everyone working together – such great teamwork and everyone enjoying themselves as well. I love gardening — it’s so relaxing and rewarding.
Hi Jill – love your positive and supportive comments. Thank you so much and please keep them coming 🙂
Ryan,
This sounds fantastic – congratulations to all involved! Looking forward to tasting some of the “fruits of your labor” this coming July!
Thanks Michael and Terri – I know that Anna has got some surprises in store. Watch this space!
Oh as you know, this is a passion of mine & there is nothing more rewarding than picking lunch or dinner vegies straight from the garden is just the most amazing for me. I also planted red onion, swiss chard, parsley & beetroot, so now I wait to watch if they grow 🙂 I now have 4 composting bins so keep my garden well composted. Keep up the good work & enjoy eating the results 🙂
Hi Wendy – same to you! Thanks for following our gardening story. As we move into May, any tips for winter planting? Which crops work best for you?
this is such great news and so wonderful of Londolozi to support such local community work. we look forward to tasting all those fresh delicious morsels when we get there in July!
Hi Kit. Thanks so much for your kind words. We look forward to having you!