Urban Homesteading // Browsing posts in Urban Homesteading
Cooking Compost
The easiest way to think about composting is to pretend you’re cooking a meal for your garden. Let’s pretend you’re making a potjie. As with the real thing, you need to prepare your raw ingredients, put them in the correct container and then let it cook and stew. Before we look at the ingredients and...
Urban Homesteading in Cape Town
The day was somewhere in early winter 2008 when I had a light bulb moment that has changed the course of our lives. But to tell my story I need to take you back a little further – 12 years ago. That year, long ago, we made an offer on a farm where we hoped...
Keeping Bee-zy
A year before we moved to African Bliss, our farm in the Kouga mountains, I decided to do a course in bee-keeping. I knew that after the move to the farm, I would finally be able to explore my interest in the little creatures. I travelled to Cape Town for the course run by Dom...
The Freeman Family’s Sustainable Journey
Many times we have had people come over for a visit or a braai, and they gush with amazement at how we live our lives; they express wonder at our vegetable gardens, our fruit orchard, free-range chickens, pasture finished turkeys, and grass-finished lamb. Often we are able to put a meal before our guests that...
In search of good food #2
There is something so enticing about fresh food markets. Maybe it’s the mouth-watering aroma of just-baked breads, or the immensely satisfying vision of gleaming fruit and vegetables, piled high. Or perhaps it’s simply the sheer novelty of not knowing exactly what you’re going to find each time (and secretly hoping for surprises). Whatever it is,...
What is an heirloom vegetable?
Some authorities say that heirloom vegetables are those introduced before 1951...
Heirloom Vegetables
Vegetables don’t taste like they used to! My Ouma used to grow giant tomatos, almost all flesh with an amazing flavour! What happened to watermelons that tasted like real watermelons and not like mildly flavoured water? You know, green beans never used to taste this bland! How often have you heard these statements? What happened...
Preserving summer’s bounty
If you want to become more self-sufficient in your kitchen, it makes sense to extend this self-reliance beyond the kitchen door and into the garden. Over the last year, there has been a revival, both locally and overseas, in vegetable gardening. Encouraged by the food and energy crises, and a growing awareness of the environmental...
Drying Foods at Home
Since antiquity, the art of dehydrating food has saved more than a few civilizations: to the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Chinese, drying foods during times of plenty was a lifesaving hedge again times of famine. Today, it’s an easy way to preserve garden goodness. Dried food is both convenient and nutritious. In fact, dehydrated foods...
Home Baked Bread
Since time immemorial, humans have made, eaten and celebrated bread, in its many forms and flavours. Convenient and filling in a modern, busy world, bread has unfortunately become a victim of industrialisation and mass-processing. For an independent household, it can be incredibly satisfying and delicious to make your own bread. But, while I love the...
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