GrowBox Urban Farm

World Food Day 2023

Water is life, Water is food.
Leave no one behind.

Water is essential to life on Earth. It covers the majority of the Earth's surface, makes up over 50% of our bodies, produces our food, and supports our livelihoods.

But this precious resource is not infinite and we need to stop taking it for granted. What we eat, and how that food is produced all affect water.

It's harvest time ✨

Brocoli - 2 for R15

Find us on the premises of Mountview High School, Athwood Road in Hanover Park.

Whatsapp 0763033205 for more info or location 📍 😉

Operating from 9am to 3pm Mon to Thursday and 9am to 1pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

It's harvest time.

🌱 R10 PER BUNCH OF FRESH CORIANDER / DHANIA💚

Find us on the premises of Mountview High School, Athwood Road in Hanover Park.

Whatsapp 0763033205 for more info or location 📍 😉

Watering at sunset.
Absolutely beautiful to watch 😍💚🌱

Harvesting in the rain🌧️today.
Just love the crop.

Looking forward to what winter will have in store for us.💚🌱😀

Freshly harvested carrot 🥕 😍

Currently available at our Urban Farm:

🌱 Green Peppers
🌱 Tomatoes
🌱 Spring onion
🌱 Yellow cherry tomatoes
🌱 Eggplant
🌱 Swiss chard
🌱 Green beans
🌱 Bishops crown pepper

Saturday fresh harvest for a client consisted of:
🌱 Butternut
🌱 Carrots
🌱 Squash
🌱 Bush beans
🌱 Jalapeños
🌱 Bishops crown pepper
🌱 Green Pepper
🌱 Spring onions
🌱 Eggplants

This monstrous eggplant would have be classified as a ugly food and would have ended up on a landfill in the commercial food sector.

Globally 20 to 40 percent of all produce goes uneaten and ends up in landfills, mostly because it does not meet strict grocer cosmetic standards for size, shape, or color. At the same time, one in two people on the planet are malnourished—and certainly in need of more affordable, nutritious produce.

The solution is simple.
There is nothing wrong with "ugly food". It might look a bit odd but has the exact nutritional value as his other cousins.
Buy ugly food and reduce food wastages.👍🏼💚🌱

We are urgently looking for wooden poles /beams or wooden planks to make trellises for our Urban Farm.
We need them for our 🍅, 🥒

We are situated in Hanover Park, on the premises of Mountview High School but we are willing to collect too.

Please Whatsapp 0763033205 if you are able to assist us. 🌱💚✨

Harvesting some veggies for Sunday lunch.
🌱 Zucchini
🌱 Cabbage
🌱 Fennel
🌱 Peas

💚💚👌

Sharing the harvest with the team that has worked so hard the past couple of weeks to get the urban farm up and running.

Beetroot, turnips, radish, swiss chard and fennel shared equally amongst the team.

World Food Day is observed annually on 16 October to highlight the millions of people worldwide who cannot afford a healthy diet and the need for regular access to nutritious food. The theme for 2022 is Leave NO ONE behind.

World Food Day 2022 is being marked in a year with multiple global challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, conflict, climate change, rising prices and international tensions. All of this is affecting global food security.

At a national level, South Africa remains food secure, Stats SA has said. However, at a household level, food insecurity is prevalent, with almost 20% of households being affected. About 17.28% (10.1 million) of South Africans experienced moderate food insecurity, while 7% (4.1 million) were classified as severely food insecure in 2019.

In South Africa one in ten South Africans go hungry every day. As a result malnutrition levels are high.

The national government is working on a National Food and Nutrition Security Plan, which includes:

🌱 Establishing a multisectoral food and nutrition security council;
🌱 Establishing an inclusive local food value chain to support access to nutritious and affordable food;
🌱 Expanding targeted social protection measures and livelihood programmes;
🌱 Scaling up high-impact nutrition interventions targeted at women and children;
🌱 Influencing people to make better and informed food choices; and
🌱 Developing a monitoring and evaluation system for the plan.

- the question being: is this enough and will it filter down to the masses that needs it the most?

Fresh organic turnips available at our Urban Farm.

R10 for 2 super large turnips.

Try out these awesome recipes to boost your culinary skills.

Roasted: https://www.thespruceeats.com/roasted-turnips-2217054

Pickled: https://taste.co.za/recipes/pickled-beetroot-and-turnips/

Soup: https://m.recipes.timesofindia.com/recipes/turnip-soup/rs62364094.cms

It's going to be a bumper harvest.

Fresh vegetables available daily.

🌱 💚

Blessed with an this awesome team.

This week I had to leave for training in JHB but when I rerurned on Friday I saw that they had cleared half the urban farm.

On Friday I decided to give them a break from heavy duties and let them do some transplanting.

We took it step by step:
1. How to mix the medium.
2. How to unplug the seedlings
3. How to safely transplant
4. And How to safely pack the 6packs in the shade house
5. Marking the 6packs

Everyday is different and everyday is a opportunity to learn.

Many thanks to the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning for the support in providing stipends to 6 EWP workers to assist us with our urban farm this Spring and Summer season.

We wish we could have had more opportunities available for more community members to get temporary employment but at this stage it's all the capacity we have.

The need for employment is dire within our communities but it's a great feeling knowing that we are able to impact 6 households with much needed income.

We look forward to transferring the agricultural skills and knowledge to these energetic and eager community members, who are now our colleagues 🥰.

Welcome to our Urban Farm 💚 🌱

Yesterday at our Urban Farm 💚 🥬

Mr and Mrs Campbell planting in their own beds.

Mr Campbell opted for a winter stew inspired vegetable garden and Mrs Campbell planted a Asian cuisine inspired vegetable garden.

On their way home Mrs Campbell harvested some fresh lettuce and coriander for dinner.

Just found some Zucchini growing in our veggie garden beds 😍😃1

Will leave them for another week or 2 to plump up 😋

🌱 💚

Thank you to for trusting us with your farm fresh veggies.

Teach them to grow food from an early age 🌱💚

From farm to table - cooking Korean dishes with our fresh produce.
Thank you to Diabetic Life Foods, Jo-anne Dewet Campbell and family for a great experience. I'm sure the girls (and their mums) learned a lot today. 🌱💚

... And the lessons continue with the young ladies.

Our host Jo-anne Dewet Campbell giving us lessons on authentic Korean cooking using our fresh produce harvested this morning.