Aspiring gardeners and supporters are invited to join the JCH food garden and composting projects. We have moved from baby steps to wheelbarrow loads of spinach and crates of gem squashes for our kitchen. These are humble beginnings have led to systematizing our planting and professionalizing our service to you, our customers and to better account to our generous donors.
Covid-19 Lockdown, sparked the start of our project in July 2020, where six of our teenage boys immersed themselves in transforming an overgrown garden of weeds to 31 perfectly laid out veggie beds.
This year we aim to work smarter to increase our production and income to get additional support for the garden with help of volunteers. Please contact se@jch.org.za for volunteering opportunities.
Successful growers who purchased our combo pack which includes a 6 seedling tray plus food waste compost, have their own stories to share on finding joy in creating their own food sustainability food gardens.
Growing spaces have been identified for planting and are shared between our teams and grow seasonal vegetables and maintain the gardens. The harvests yielded are aimed at minimizing costs of the kitchen’s vegetable purchases.
The gardens have yielded: beetroot, carrots, celery, gem squashes, kale, lettuce, marrows, onions, spinach, spring onions…with mealies and butternut and fresh vegetables can be purchased from our harvest table on a Fridays from 09:30 to 11:00 at the JCH.
Years from today we envisage the JCH being part of a fully-fledged urban food forest in Observatory supporting families and individuals with a sustainable and sovereign source of nutritious naturally grown seasonal vegetables, fruits, nuts and honey. The aim is to build skills and knowledge through knowledge sharing enabling income generating to supplement our current funding and household incomes. If you would like to be part of this vision please contact se@jch.org.za
Winter crops are in the planning and we will be preparing to plant for our autumn season and ask that you think of us when you have any excess seeds or seedlings of beetroot, broad beans, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, peas and spinach or if you would like us to include you as a customer.
Hours a day is what most of us dedicate to co-creating in order to earn a living in some form or the other and if we dedicate just one of those precious hours to mindful and purposeful food gardening, we may just spark a food forest alight!
For more information regarding our Food Gardens Project please contact se@jch.org.za