After so many months of planning and preparation there is finally action! The grass is being removed and the transformation from bowling green to Farm is underway.
Starting last week on Wednesday, our farmer, Mario, and the team from Straatwerk began the hard, hard labour. It will take another couple of weeks to remove all the grass, then we need to lay the irrigation piping and get the levels right, lay out the paths and pond, dig in the compost and >gasp!< get planting. We may get some extra help from professional landscaping companies who are willing to donate some of their time, labour and equipment to the cause, so things just may move a bit quicker; hopefully that can happen soon.
We’re aiming for the planting to start in early December, and will plan an event to commemorate and celebrate, so stay tuned for more information about that, including how you can get involved putting the very first seeds and seedlings into the soil of our community’s first urban farm. Exciting!
In the meantime, you can get involved in many ways:
Come down to the Farm and say hello, meet Mario the farmer, and Ernest, Johannes and the rest of the Straatwerk team. They are around from before 8am to roughly 3pm Monday through Saturday, but best to e-mail Mario (farmer@ozcf.co.za) if you want to be sure to catch him on site.
Put on your boots, grab your hat and some heavy gloves, and come down to the Farm where a lovely spade, wheelbarrow and fork are waiting for you to put them to good use. Break a sweat and get some good Oranjezicht dirt rubbed into your skin while you help the cause. Dig for an hour or all day. Well suited for teenagers needing a better outlet for all that energy.
Put together a lunch for our team of five and bring it down to the Farm as a special way of saying ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’. A few sandwiches and some fruit will go a long, long way. If you’d like to be more adventurous and prepare a full-on spread for the guys, we are sure they would love it.
Join the Bokashi Brigade! Get your starter kit and an extra bucket or two and turn your kitchen waste into compost for the Farm. We need 20 000 buckets full of bokashi compost to go into the soil just for starters, then another 1 000 at least every month thereafter, so we need everyone in the neighbourhood to stop putting their kitchen waste into the rubbish bin and start bringing it to the Farm.
Buy a T-shirt to help raise funds for the Farm, spread the word, and look stunning.
Donate to the cause. There are many, many costs involved in getting the Farm up and running, and whatever you might be able to contribute to help would be greatly appreciated.
Find us on Facebook and ‘like’ the OZCF Page. Get to know other supporters of the Farm in our neighbourhood and around the globe, and be the first to hear about events, see photos, and links to interesting tidbits elsewhere on the web.
If you have questions about any of the above, please e-mail volunteer@ozcf.co.za for more information.
Also, an alert that we’re going to start locking the Farm gate when nobody is on site, because it can be dangerous for people to walk around on their own and we don’t want anyone falling into a hole or getting hurt. There will be a new set of posters and signs put on the fence near the gate to explain about the OZCF and providing contact details in case there are questions or if problems arise. We appreciate your support during this period of transition!
Exciting days are ahead as our sleeves are rolled up, the dirt is under our nails and we are hard at work making the Oranjezicht City Farm a reality. We hope you are able to take an active role, working side by side with your neighbours to make our community an even better place to live, work and visit.
As always, we want to hear from you with any comments, suggestions, constructive criticism or praise – drop us a line at cityfarm@ozcf.co.za.
All the best,
The Oranjezicht City Farm Team
Join us: OZCF visit to Babylonstoren!
This Saturday, 10 Nov! An insider’s tour of the amazing gardens atBabylonstoren, led by their gardener, and exclusive to OZCF. See how the formal garden traditions of the Cape are maintained in the present, learn about farming as gardening and gardening as farming, and enjoy a behind-the-scenes view of one of the most beautiful food gardens anywhere. It will be an informative, fun and truly inspiring day! Meet at Homestead Park to depart at 9am sharp.
Cost: R50
Includes: entrance fee, tour fee, coffee/tea and cupcake
Capacity limited, so please RSVP.
Bokashi Brigade Update at Last!
For all those who have signed up to join the Bokashi Brigade, your moment has come at last! We have buckets, bokashi and the instruction stickers are arriving from the printer tomorrow. All will be ready for you by Thursday!
You will need to pay via EFT, send proof of payment to Lizza, our Bokashi Wrangler, at bokashi@ozcf.co.za, and she’ll send you an e-mail with all the details on where and how to collect. All the detailed instructions are posted onthe bokashi page of the OZCF website, so be sure to check it out.
Less waste to landfill + happy veggies + beautiful neighbourhood = WIN!
