Grow to Eat

It’s the middle of winter when I write this: brown, dusty and cold. For the most part the veggie garden has hit pause, although the kale is looking good and the cauliflowers that haven’t been ravaged by caterpillars are almost ready to be turned into

In the Autumn/Winter issue of Grow to Eat we introduced you to Mauritzfontein, an incredible stud farm outside Kimberley where they have somehow managed to establish a flourishing veggie farm despite the hot, arid climate. The vegetable garden has be

Bush and runner beans, beetroot, brinjals, cabbage, capsicums (chillies and sweet peppers), carrots, celery, cucumbers, lettuce, marrows, mealies, melons, parsnips, peas, pumpkins, radishes, rhubarb, spinach and Swiss chard, squashes, tomatoes, turni

We all know how important a diverse diet is for our health. However, scientists believe that our current diets are not diverse enough. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 75% of the global food supply comes from twelve plan

A celebration of everything that is light and fresh about spring, this ‘Italian’ dish is not really Italian but comes from the restaurants of America and Canada. Fresh pasta is paired with Italy’s finest spring bounty – asparagus, peas and zucchini –

Roasted with olive oil, pan-fried in butter, wrapped with bacon or just blanched and used in a salad with ricotta – however you use asparagus, it is a decadent treat that can’t help but impress guests. And when you’re walking friends around your vegg

Harvesting your own vegetables is satisfying at the best of times, but nothing beats harvesting your own crop of potatoes! There is a certain mystery involved in unearthing fresh, glorious tubers from the warm earth as you never quite know what lies

Sugar-snap peas are the ultimate garden fast food – there are few things more delicious than a sugar-snap pea fresh from the plant, and there are few things more difficult than not eating them all before you get to the kitchen. (If a few do make it a

Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) is a vegetable with historical roots firmly planted on the African continent. Historians believe it was first cultivated along the Nile in Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) in the 12th century BCE, later spreading to Egypt and th

Do groundcover herbs have a role to play in the food garden? The answer is yes to the power of three (or more)! They are pest repellents, attract pollinators with their flowers and transform ordinary pathways into an aromatic delight, as the leaves r

Vietnamese coriander has all the flavour of coriander and then some, with a refreshing lemony note followed by a hot, biting, peppery aftertaste. Another very important point in its favour is that it thrives in the heat. Unlike normal coriander that

Simply put, fertiliser is required for soils that are lacking in nutrients that a plant needs to perform at its best. You can tell if a plant needs feeding by some of the deficiency symptoms they display, such as yellow leaves (lack of nitrogen), no

Have you noticed how well tomatoes and basil grow together? Or how bees are constant visitors to the veggie garden when flowers are planted among the veggies? This buddy system is known as companion planting, an age-old practice that has recorded how

Your mental image of horseradish (Armoracia rusticana) is probably that strange jar containing a mysterious white substance that lived at the back of your fridge as a child, or perhaps as the substitute for true wasabi that is masked by luminous gree

It’s known as a vegetable, produces stalks that are considered a fruit, and it has been known for centuries as a medicinal herb – the interesting rhubarb has it all. That said, it’s not a very popular edible to grow in South Africa, and the leaves ar

While growing fruit trees is a hobby even a novice gardener can succeed at, it’s important to know which trees you can plant individually that will fruit, and which require a mate for cross-pollination. There’s no ’one-size-fits-all’ scenario when it

If you have a small garden, no garden, or a nice garden but tend to move a lot, you might have always avoided growing fruit. Well, if you think outside the box, you can grow fruit in one. Here are some of our favourites for growing in containers, and

The concept of intermingling vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers is as old as yonks, as you will see if you read up about potager gardens or cottage gardens – the French potagers are more formal, while English cottage gardens have a more informal e

They feed primarily on wood but have also been known to destroy paper, books, insulation, swimming pool lines and filtration systems. Termites can harm living trees and shrubs but are more infamous for infesting woody plants in decline, or woodwork i

With the current crop of scientific research coming out pointing towards a massive decline in the numbers of some insect species (by as much as 40%!), we should all be very worried. The decline in insects’ numbers has been directly linked to several

Nikki Brighton is a writer, activist and forager well known in the KZN Midlands for her enthusiasm for lighter living. She loves nothing better than foraging for wild greens on walks along the river with her dog, and delighting friends with entirely

When you wander through the Strandveld you will notice that it is unique, different to any other ecosystem on the South African coastline. This landscape features large succulent species including restios, geophytes, broad-leaf trees and shrubs, incl

1. Sand the pieces of wood and the dowels. 2. Starting at 100mm from one end, make marks every 200mm up on both of the uprights, in the centre. 3. Drill a 25mm hole at each of the marks. Don’t drill all the way through! 4. Apply glue to one end of a