The Oranjezicht City Farm is the perfect platform to teach our community that we can be instantly satisfied by a meal that does not come pre prepared. To demonstrate that fresh food wrapped in plastic, waiting on a shelf in a supermarket is not they way we should be acquiring food. We are so disconnected from the process that puts food on the table that many people, myself included, have never seen asparagus spearing out of the soil or know that cashews grow on trees attached to a cashew apple (I just googled cashew to find that out!).
OZCF is going to teach many people many things. And the first will be patience. It takes time to prepare land to grow food. The foreign objects need to be removed, sand sifted and the soil nourished. We have been fortunate enough to have volunteers and donors help to hasten the process but it will be some time until food is produced and sold. Within this lengthy process however there are moments of instant gratification. In 5 minutes you can transplant a tree and it looks like it has been there for years. The lemon and lime trees are already bearing fruit and we have turned a pile of ‘rubbish’ into beautiful ‘upcycled’ paving in just one week.
As a new gardener I was tempted to buy seedlings, as you simply need to plant and water them. Growing plants from seeds is a much more intensive, and at times, laborious process. I was however, surprised at how fast the seeds germinated. I planted heritage tomato seeds a few days ago and they are already about 5 cm tall, everyday a new seed sprouts! It may take a while before I get to eat my black, red, orange and yellow tomato’s, but in the mean time I am greatly satisfied with swift and instant growth of the seedlings.
Below is a photo of the tomatoes I planted less than a week ago. We would love to see photos of your home gardens, whether you are just starting or your plants are bearing fruit! You can email them to catherine_nicks@live.co.uk
