- Info
March Newsletter
| |  | | Kwalapa
Organic Wholefoods Deli, store and eco-pod
In this week's newsletter:
- Opening times over this weekend
- Makwerhu now joining us on Saturdays
- RAW recipe of the week
- Project 90x2030 and the Carbon Calculator
- Featured Farmer: Skye Fehlmann
Opening times this weekend
It’s a very important time of the year for some and for others it’s a space to take a break and spend it with family & friends. At Kwalapa you’ll be able to join us on the following days this weekend:
Friday 2nd April: closed
Saturday 3rd April : Open 8:30 – 5:00pm
Sunday 4th April : closed
Monday 5th April : Open 8:30am – 5:00pm
Makwerhu on Saturday’s
We’d also like to spread the word that Makwerhu will now be joining us to play LIVE on SATURDAYS from 1:00pm – 3:00pm.
Makwerhu serves up laid-back traditional African style grooves with
influences of jazz, funk, kwela, mbaqanga and maskandi
12.30pm - 3.30pm (iish)
Mike Makhbele- Vocals and guitar
Devin Howell- Bass guitar
Byron Howell - Drums
RAW Wednesday’s 12pm - 2pm
Ever popular and just the thing to keep your body in balance. But for those who can’t always make it for the mid-day lunch feast break under the trees, we’ll be giving you a weekly raw recipe to try out.
Emily's Sweet beet soup
1 beetroot
3 strawberries
1 tomato
2 cups of water
5 spring onions
Chop all solid ingredients and blend with the water. If you like, you can strain it and add some of the pulp back in to get the consistency you like. Swirl in a generous helping of Macadamia cream.
Macadamia cream
Add this to soups, dressings or smoothies as and when desired. It also is good served on top of your mid-day fruit. Make enough for 2 days and stir if needed before use.
10 macadamia nuts
1 orange, juiced
4 normal or 2 medjool dates, stoned
Add all ingredients to a high power blender and blend until totally smooth. This might take several goes depending on the power of your blender.
Project 90x2030 - Changing the ways of the world
At Kwalapa we believe in the power of community – it’s the best way to drive change and quite simply, a party just ain’t much fun if you’re on your own.
So – enter stage left, Project 90x2030. The buzz in the banking world is all on ‘crowd financing’, micro-lending through group schemes and in our own back yard, ‘stokvels’ have been happening for years. Project 90x2030 works in a similar way, create a club and change the world.
If you’re wanting to ‘go green’ in your life and make small changes to make a big difference, then Project 90x2030 is the way to go. It’s simple
1.get a bunch of friends/neighbours/colleagues together
2.commit to reducing your carbon footprint by xx% each year
3.Meet regularily to compare notes on what you’ve done and how
4.Feel great about yourself, and Make a big difference.
Project 90x2030 is based on George Monbiots' analysis of the world as we know it, and what we need to do to stop the whole place going loopy – deserts, hurricanes, droughts…. basically nature getting into a really bad mood for a couple o 1000 years or so. If you’d like to know more about how to do it, visit the project 90x2030 website.
http://www.90x2030.org.za
A great new feature on the Project 90x2030 website is the
FREE 'Carbon Footprint Calculator'
Use it to figure out your impact on the world - for once, 'lightweight' wins out.
Featured farmer – Skye Fehlmann
Naturally Organic @
Gumtree Farm, Philipi
“My heroes are the devout organic people who really have a passion for good food and for living life caring for others and the world we live in, rather than spending all their energy on making themselves better off.”
Many Capetonians living and working in the built up suburbs surrounding Table Mountain would be surprised to discover that only 20 minutes away, on the flat plains that are Philippi, more than 35% of greater Cape Town’s fresh food is grown. Here on the Cape Flats, where ground-water is too abundant, the first farmers over a hundred years ago planted gum trees to suck up excess water in order for crops to flourish. The planting of gum trees thus represents a natural, beneficial way of encouraging the right conditions for nature to be bountiful in food farming.
Gumtree is therefore a fitting name for Skye Fehlmann’s farm. The only organic farm in the 1100 hectares of Philippi farmlands, this is a place where only beneficial methods are used towards production. Gumtree farm is the base of Naturally Organic – Skye’s brand of top quality, home-grown, organic seasonal vegetables.
Spreading out from around the farmhouses (most of which Skye has built himself) are 1,5 hectares of vegetables. Standing still for a moment amongst the variety, the colours and all the different stages of growth in the thriving beds, with traffic noises close by enough to remind that the city surrounds, one feels that Skye has created a place of integrity and harmony. He believes that poison-free food must be available to all, and that organic farming needs to be seen as a viable option.
Running ducks control the snails, compost heaps steam in one corner, and lifting a sod or two Skye reveals the growing population of earthworms that his farming has attracted to the area. The Philippi climate is accommodating, and Skye grows a wide variety of food plants: roots, stems, leaves of all shapes and colours – and now also flowers and fruit: his first artichoke harvest is almost ready, and an impressive crop of strawberries is beginning to ripen.
Skye’s motto is: “if you don’t try something, you don’t know”. Two years ago, as a 23-year-old psychology student, he began to grow his own herbs in an attempt to find a more affordable way of eating healthily. To Skye, eating sprayed products is like smoking: the results are not seen immediately, but in time it takes its toll on the body. Toxic foods and fumes are the norm in the developed world, and Skye points out how it seems that those responsible for these are also those who turn a blind eye to the negative effects of such practices, as long as financial, material success is assured. He wants to know where his food comes from, and more than that, to know that it has been treated with care and love. This is the immediate feeling on arriving at Gumtree – that the land and the plants are cared for and loved.
Trial and error, observation, plenty of reading matter, patience, a green thumb or two, and his innate ingenuity helped Skye to where he is now, a mere two years later: certified organic-in-conversion, employing eight people, and supplying various organic markets around Cape Town - not to mention almost finished with his psychology degree! He is entirely “local”: welders, mechanics, manure suppliers, labour – all come from in and around Philippi.
Fresh from the gardens, the food travels through a simple, ingenious, and effective washing and packing process: “die boer maak ’n plan!” Sterilised bathtubs are used for washing, laundry baskets for carrying. And for drying? Instead of cost and energy inefficient commercial salad dryers, two minutes in the spin cycle of a repurposed washing machine does the trick!
These days, the ideals that Skye upholds are close to the hearts of many. He wants healthy, organic food to be available for all; he wants organic farming to be proved a viable option; he wants to sell locally only – export defeats the purpose for him; he acknowledges the importance of reducing not only his own carbon footprint, but enabling others to do the same, by producing quality food on our doorstep. He is a person who holds the fine balance between dreaming and doing. His ideals are high, but they do not remain castles in the clouds. Where many people speak of what could or should be done, Skye DOES, and being at Gumtree gives one a sense of commitment despite adversity, and of health, balance and forward motion.
Having accomplished so much at such a young age, the impression is that Skye’s biggest dreams will be fulfilled yet. He dreams of opening a “huge organic outlet” where he can supply people with great food at reasonable prices, and also educate many on the importance of a healthy lifestyle. The health-giving properties of working on the land and thereby feeling our connection with the natural world form the basis of a further intention of his: to open a rehabilitation centre for young people, situated on an organic farm, and incorporating working in nature as part of the healing process.
The health of organic farming is double sided: it nurtures the grower and it nurtures the consumer. This is the feeling at Gumtree farm: the goodness of the input is reflected in the beautiful quality of the growing produce. | 
Meet our Farmers:
Skye Fehlmann of
Naturally Organic @
Gumtree Farm - Phillipi
“My heroes are the devout organic people who really have a passion for good food and for living life caring for others and the world we live in, rather than spending all their energy on making themselves better off.
The snail patrol on Gumtree Farm
Put your lifestyle to the test with the
CARBON CALCULATOR
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Kwalapa Organic Wholefoods Centre:
We look forward to welcoming you and your friends.
Venue: Kwalapa Organic Wholefoods Centre,
Montebello Estate, 31 Newlands Avenue,
Newlands, Cape Town.
Tel: 021 87 9314 Email: emily@kwalapa.com
www.kwalapa.com
Be inspired; come taste, sample, simper, swirl in the one part Delicatessen, two parts store, mixed up with a whole bunch of
green living info, books & DVD’s in the Eco Pod,
all sheltered under a rather large tree.
Kwalapa. A place we’ve created for people to meet, share ideas,
experience delicious organic foods and dip in / become part of a
fantastic way of life.
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| “We exist to make a change. In the way we interact with our world.
In the way we feed and are fed by our world.
In the way we grow the food that sustains us.
In the way we give back to a world that gives us life.” |
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