From growing first herbs in 2019 at the Garden Route in South Africa to adding more plants every month and shopping for edible vegetation during lockdownSA myself at the nurseries close to the lodge my passion for gardening grew throughout the pandemic.
After long days of baking I found myself resting on the couch or bed :) watching YouTube videos from James Prigioni and Geoff Lawton about permaculture food forests from September 2019. Every day.
We are raising our children in Germany.
Gardening - What was a hobby already became a passion.
we were growing food before the pandemic in our rented garden in Germany but not at scale.
Research has shown that when children grow some of their own food they develop what we call "food empathy," a deeper connection with the subject. This leads to better diets, more fruit and vegetables eaten in general as well as an understanding on nutrition which will help prevent obesity down the line!
It is such a wonderful activity to do in the first half of the year when our seasonal bakery is mainly quiet and we finally got time to care for plants and have time for our children again!
Children who grow their own food have better diets and are more likely to understand the importance of eating healthy.
Rainbow Chard was growing really well.
A bowl of fresh homegrown garden greens.
It didn’t take long until neighbours were donating plants as they saw how much I enjoyed growing food. Our heirloom tomatoes were plants we got from our neighbours. They did fantastic in 2021
We took seeds from kumquats on our holiday in Croatia in 2021. And what a surprise they are still growing (I brought them indoors). As of early 2022 we don’t have Kumquats at the Food Forest in South Africa among 104 different edible crops yet :)
see you in Plettenberg Bay or in the Bakery :)
Hannes was proud of our own potato harvest.
“that’s better than TV”
he said :)
He kept watching TV thereafter but knows a lot about how to grow food already.
Our Raised Beds were enjoyed by our kids.
Growing grapes - living in a wine region.
Eva is harvesting some beetroot from our raised beds