Vele “Christopher” Neluvhalani believes that on a fundamental level that people have always been connected to the earth, visible by the traces they leave behind, like the ancient rock art on the sandstone outcrops in Mapungubwe

Neluvhalani feels a deep connection to this ancient place, because his ancestors lived there thousands of years before him. He is bound to the area not only by tradition, but when he visits there and climbs to the top of Mapungubwe hill, he feels he has returned home

Mapungubwe is one of South Africa’s most sacred places. It is a World Heritage Site, the site of the earliest Southern African kingdom, a National Park and a Transfrontier Conservation Area. But by July 2011 the South African Government had granted Australian-owned mining company Limpopo Coal a series of permits to construct a large opencast coal mine in this ancient cultural landscape.

Many people, including Neluvhalani, do not agree with this;

This is because the recent announcement that authorisation has been given to Australian-owned company Limpopo Coal to construct an open-cast mine just outside of the boundaries of the park will irreparably alter the landscape. It is for this reason that Neluvhalani believes that “it would be an offence to our ancestors to start mining in the area.”

Neluvhalani was involved in the reburying of his ancestors’ remains at Mapungubwe, after they were recently reclaimed back from a museum collection and restored to their rightful place- a place that will be disturbed if mining is to go ahead

“Once we tamper with Mapungubwe we will be tampering with the past,” says Neluvhalani, who feels that the ties we have to our ancient places like Mapungubwe compel us to prevent them from being compromised, and that “everyone in South Africa should be united to help preserve Mapungubwe”

Submitted and written by: Green Renaissance

The Principle of the Stacked Bin Worm Farm
Today’s suburban worm farmer wants a composting system that takes up minimal space, looks good and is clean and convenient to use. The home worm farmer, or amateur vermiculturalist can use suitable modern products and a better understanding of the habits and requirements of the compost worms in the worm bins to design a system that is both convenient to handle and efficient in the usage of materials and manpower.

The principle of the stacked bin worm composter is that, unlike the drab earthworms, who dig deep, our red compost worms always migrate upwards, towards the food, leaving their castings to fall below them. We use this information about red worms to our advantage. Generally the idea is to build up a multiple stacking system of connected worm bins or trays that are slightly tapered to allow the bins to nest, one within the other. Worm castings (the compost) are collected in the lower bins and worm food (kitchen or garden scraps) is consumed in the upper levels. When a lower bin is nearly full of castings it is emptied and rotated to the top and so on.

Choosing Your Bins
The size and number of the nesting bins is variable, depending on the desired scale of the operation. Common plastic storage bins, sold for general household use at hardware stores, supermarkets and camping goods outlets are quite suitable for making your worm farm. Usually the sides are not vertical, but slightly tapered for convenient stacking on the retailer’s shelves – this suits us, as it allows for partial nesting of bins . A lid would be required for the top bin. Worms hate light – so don’t get opaque bins. Heavy black bins are good. The plastic storage containers are not expensive and come in a variety of sizes. For a small scale composting set-up, for processing kitchen waste, three containers of about 45 litre each would be adequate. For processing a greater amount of waste such as from large gardens or stables, bigger bins with more tiers can be set up, just as easily.

The Sump
The lower sump bin is configured differently from the upper bins and would be prepared first. Its function is to collect excess fluid leakage, called worm tea or compost tea.

• The sump may be fitted with a 15mm barrel tap, through a small hole drilled in the base for conveniently draining out the excess fluid (the worm tea) that will accumulate there. This tap is not essential, but would avoid the otherwise potentially messy job of having to tip the worm tea out by rotating the bin
• If you do decide to put in the tap, make sure it seals well in the hole, by providing good washers and lock nuts

The Composting Bins
The two upper bins will actually hold the worms. They are to be identical and are prepared as follows:

• Drill a pattern of 6mm holes across the entire base of each container for drainage and to allow for ventilation and the upward migration of the compost worms, these holes should be regularly spaced at approx 50mm apart in either direction.
• For further aeration, drill a row of 6mm holes at 50mm, in a continuous line around the walls of each of the bins. This line of holes would be about four 100mm below the top rim of the bin.
• It is not essential to drill holes in the lid, which is closed tightly over the upper bin. as you should get enough air through the sides.

Setting It Up
After preparing your bins, you first set up the lower (sump) bin on bricks or blocks, allowing enough space to tap off the fluid from beneath it. Choose a shady location for the worm farm (in a shed or garage, if you are subject to frosts).

• The second and third bins are “nested” within each other and dropped into the sump bin. To maintain a working space for the worms, and for accumulation of compost, you need a few spacers or packers of about six to eight inches height, between the two upper bins and some smaller packers of about 10cm in the lower (sump) bin. You can use wood blocks or sealed food jars for packers.
• The packers also prevent the tapered worm bins from jamming together and cause a gap between the bins, which improves ventilation.
• To prevent “nasty bugs” from squeezing in between the bins, you should close (caulk) the small gap between them with strips of shade cloth, or mosquito netting.

Starting Production
Now you are ready to go into production : -

• Set up your worms in the top bin with a good (damp) fibrous bedding such as coconut coir, (or just shredded newspaper), put in a little compost and a handful or two of damp soil with the worms and after a few days you will be ready to start feeding in your kitchen scraps. Cover the food with more bedding material to discourage pests and keep the lid closed.
• Make sure the worm farm is never allowed to dry out, by sprinkling water over the bedding periodically, if there is not already enough moisture coming from the food scraps.
• When the top bin has been fully productive for a while, the worms will multiply and compost will be start accumulating from the worm castings. When the quantity of compost is meaningful, stop putting feed into this bin and swap over the upper two bins by putting bin No 2 to the top of the stack, with bin No 1 now in the middle.
• Set up this new top bin with clean bedding, a small amount of the old castings and immediately start feeding your kitchen scraps into it. Over a few days, the worms will naturally migrate upwards towards the new food source, leaving the lower bin with only a few stragglers and it should be ready for the harvesting of your compost within about three weeks after the swap.
• To get at any specific layer, to add food, bedding or to remove the vermicompost, just lift off all the overlying worm bins, one by one until the desired level is exposed for examination and then replace them in the same order. They will not be too heavy – but don’t try lifting more than one layer at a time, unless you have a good chiropractor!

All you need to do is to keep repeating the process of alternating the top two bins on a regular basis, taking out the compost, whenever it accumulates, and tapping off the worm tea from time to time. This vermitea, is a very valuable product as it is a highly concentrated liquid fertilizer that can be diluted for immediate use on your garden.

Bedding
To set up the composting in a new worm bin, a fairly damp, but not saturated worm bedding layer, preferably of fibrous material such as coir, wood shavings (untreated) or carpet under felt, would be laid over the perforated base of the bin. Shredded newspaper can also be used. A thin layer of damp garden compost or well rotted manure would give the optimum temporary home for the worms, until the process is underway. Depending on the size of the bin, a couple of hundred red worms should be enough. Cover the worms with some more of the bedding material, to keep out flying pests and after a few days start adding food scraps under the top layer.

The Feeding
It is always better to mash up the kitchen scraps before feeding the worms, but an even better idea is to first place the scraps in a plastic bag in your freezer as freezing will greatly speed up the feeding process as it breaks up the cell structure of the worm food, making it easier for the worms to digest the material. Avoid citrus, pineapples and onions as these make the material too acid and too much meat and fat is not good, especially as these may attract rats – which can gnaw right through plastic. Every so often, replace the worm bedding with new material. Some soil or sand is also needed in the worm’s diet, as they use this in their gullet to act as a grinding/ calcifying medium. Crushed eggshells or a little agricultural lime will raise the PH, if the composting environment becomes too acidic. A PH neutral environment is optimal.

Your Worms Need Air!
Your worm farm, should always smell good, and have a slight earthy odor. If you notice a sour/ rank smell developing and the bedding and compost is beginning to look over damp and slimy, with possibly some fungus present, it probably means that the environment is becoming anaerobic and primarily needs better ventilation to bring in more oxygen. This condition may be caused by excessive feeding, too much greasy food, such as meat and dairy, acidic conditions or not enough air circulating. Firstly, make sure the ventilation holes are not blocked and that the drainage is effective, then fluff up the bedding and rake up the vermicompost, to allow the air in. If there is too much unprocessed food lying around, stop feeding for a few days and thereafter put in less food, or get more worms. A we have said, it is also important to avoid putting in too much greasy food and acidic fruits such as citrus and pineapple.

Acceptable Temperature Range
Temperature is important and compost worms generally prosper best at temperatures that we would be comfortable with ourselves. Although different species have their preferences, as a generalization, they will breed at temperatures as low as 12º to 18ºC but stop all activity under 8ºC and as the temperature increases to around 25ºC they will become more active and productive, but above this the performance will drop off. As the temperatures rise or fall much outside this range they become more and more at risk and steps need to be provided to protect them from extremes, by having the worm farm set up in a shed or garage, where the temperature can be controlled. We need to be careful of not putting too much organic waste (especially fresh manure) into our worm farm at any point as the natural rotting process gives off heat and a bed of compost can easily get too hot for the compost worms to exist in it. The solution is to heap up this sort of material away from the worm composter for a few days to allow the heat to be generated and then dissipate naturally. Once it has finally cooled down it will be safe to use.

Handling Vermiculture Pests and Other Problems
Ok – you’ve started your worm farm for vermicompost, worm tea, worm castings, to do your part against global warming, to provide bait for fishing – or whatever. But suddenly things start going wrong! Pests can be a big problem. So lets roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty as we look at some ways to prevent pests from ruining your worm bed.

Protecting Your Worm Bed (prevention is better than cure)
The best way to handle worm farm pests is to ensure that they don’t establish themselves in the first place. Therefore it is best to keep your worm beds well maintained by ensuring that:

• Your bin lid or farm enclosure is secure.
• The worms and bedding are covered with either a sheet of plastic or a damp sheet of burlap (Hessian).
• Food scraps are covered with bedding to prevent them becoming mouldy and attracting pests.
• No meat, greasy food, or pet faeces is included in the feed as these attract flies – therefore maggots – and possibly even rats, which can literally gnaw their way into plastic bins.

For continuous worm farming, it is recommended that you house your worm bin, or other worm farming medium, in enclosed places such as: garages, sheds, basements or out-buildings; therefore making them less accessible to pests. It would also be helpful to screen the buildings as will help limit your losses to rodents, birds, mammals, snakes and most of the larger earthworm pests. Of course, screens and gratings placed at the top and bottom of the beds can also be effective, but you can never have too many lines of defence. A sheet of Mosquito netting draped over your bins would eliminate most flying pests and is little hassle to use.

How to Deal with Worm Composting Pests
All of the following creatures pose a threat to earthworms: ants, mites, slugs, raccoons, springtails, rats, moles, amphibians, reptiles, gophers, certain beetle larvae, maggots, and a variety of other insects. Fortunately, most of these villains can be neutralised by properly constructed bins, screening, or – most importantly – good worm bed management. Nonetheless, we’ll take a closer look at some our beloved worm’s greatest enemies and what can be done about them.

Ants
Watch out for ants as they can wreck your beds in a matter of days and therefore require immediate action. Ants are attracted to the feed, so don’t spill any near your bins and clear away any old spillage as soon as it is spotted. If your bin isn’t too big and has legs, another way to keep ants out is to put each of your bin’s legs in a dish of water – alternatively, most of the garden centres sell ant goo – a sticky substance that is painted around the stems of rose bushes to trap ants. It is eco friendly as it doesn’t contain any insectide poisons.

If all else fails and the ant invasion has already become serious, you can dust the area around your beds with pyrethrum dust or douse the ant nest and the trails leading to your bin with a granular insecticide, or use commercially available ant traps, which contain slow release poisons that the ants take with them back into their nests. Please be sure not to use any insecticide on the actual worm bed soil or you will kill your worms. If ants are already established inside the beds soak the section they are in and they will usually go away.

Mites
Most worm beds usually contain several species of mites (the most important for, our purposes, being the earthworm mite), which pose no real threat to the worms unless their population spirals too high – this usually happens as a result of poor bed management. Earthworm mites are small and are usually brown, reddish or somewhere in-between. They tend to concentrate near the edges and surfaces of the worm beds and around clusters of feed. They are not known for attacking the earthworms but do eat the earthworms feed. When the mite population is too high the worms will burrow deep into the beds and not come to the surface to feed, which hampers worm reproduction and growth. High mite populations usually result from:

• Over-feeding. Maintaining a proper feeding schedule (for example: one that ensures the feed is eaten in a few days) will prevent the feed from going off in the beds.
• Feeding the earthworms meaty or wet feed. Large mite populations are often the result of using over moist garbage and vegetable refuse as feed. Adding the occasional soggy vegetable leftover probably won’t cause a problem but don’t make a habit of it.
• Over-watering. A rule of thumb when watering is to keep the beds damp but not wet. Poor bed drainage can also facilitate a mite problem and make the beds less hospitable to worms. Ensure that there are adequate drainage holes at the bottom of your worm bin or housing.

Remember the same conditions that ensure high worm production will be less favourable to mites. If you find your worm farm overrun by mites, expose the beds to the sun for a few hours. Cut back on water and feed and then, every 1 to 3 days, add calcium carbonate. Another method is to over water the bed forcing the mites to the surface and then burning them with a blowtorch. Both of these methods though are only short-term remedies and eventually you will have to improve the conditions in your worm farm if you want to keep the mite population low.

Fruit Flies
These insects will be attracted by over ripe fruit and certain vegetable scraps. They lay their eggs in the decaying fruit, but are not really a major problem. Just make sure that you cover any fruit with some of the bedding. A jam jar that has a residue of sticky jam/ jello or marmalade smeared around its sides can be half filled with water and left beside the worm bin. The fruitflies are pretty stupid and get stuck to the jam or drowned in the water. I personally don’t like to use commercial insectides, but fruit farmers often use ripe fruit bait that has been poisoned to attract and kill the fruitflies – I suppose its one step better than spraying the actual fruit that we are going to eat.

Blow Flies and House Flies
Excess flies buzzing around your worm bins or worm farms are usually the result of having used meat, greasy food waste, or pet faeces as feed. They spread disease and make life miserable for the worm farmer and his family. They can also result in maggots if the beds aren’t properly sealed. If your farm is kept indoors or under some sort of shading – as it should be – then you can hang up some fly strips, which will draw them away from the farms. Again, a properly maintained worm farm will normally not stink and therefore not attract flies.

Black Soldier Fly
Latin Name: Hermetia illucens. It is a moot point as to whether this fly should actually be called a pest. It is a tropical fly, originally from the Americas, that has now spread around the world. The larvae of the fly are a type of small maggots, that feed exclusively on putrescent material. They are often found in worm farm bins, but although unsightly are not a real threat to the worms, as they do not attack them and may in fact complement the compost worm’s activities, rather than compete with them for food. Like the vermiculture worms their faeces make excellent compost and the maggots are also useful as a high protein fish or poultry feed and may be used either live or dried, as a processed meal. They may also be used by the less squeamish for fish bait. They can best be kept out of the worm farm bins, by not using meat and fatty waste and by keeping the moisture on the dry side, and making sure that there is a good cover of bedding material over the feeding area.

These remarkable creatures, unlike the common housefly, do not spread bacteria or disease – in fact the larvae ingest potentially pathogenic material and disease-causing organisms and thus render them harmless. Moreover black soldier flies exude an odour, which positively discourages houseflies and certain other flying pests. When the larvae reach maturity they leave the feeding area to pupate, preferably in a shady bush or tree. After turning into an adult fly, the female lives a further 5-8 days and produces almost 1000 eggs. The adult fly is nocturnal and characterised by very fast and rather clumsy flight. It has no mouth and cannot bite or sting.

There is a growing interest in using Black Soldier Fly for commercial processing of sewage and agricultural waste. Some hobbyists have been experimenting with the Black Soldier Fly, as an alternative to vermiculture, for for private composting/ waste disposal. For the same size of container it is said that a well stocked colony of Black Soldier Fly would be able to process waste material very much faster than a comparable sized worm farm.

Springtails
These wingless oblong insects live on decaying and sometimes living plant matter and are a sub-class Apterygota. You can recognise them because they jump when disturbed and can turn a worm bed surface white if the population is large enough. Although they have on occasion been observed to eat dead or weak worms, they are primarily a nuisance because they eat the worm’s food and can, when the populations are big enough, drive the worms deep into the beds and keep them from coming to the surface to feed. One deals with them the same way one deals with mites.

Article prepared and written by: www.working-worms.com

Organic eating is becoming easier and easier with markets all over the country. The produce is often cheaper, the food is pure, there is no packaging to throw away and you will be happier and healthier!

:::Look out for our Organic Eating survey at the bottom of the page!:::

FREE STATE

Die Boeremark,

Where: Bankovs Boulevard, Langenhovenpark
When: Saturdays 6am-12pm
Contact: 082 381 7546 or 084 919 1676

GAUTENG & TSHWANE

The Wholefood Market,

Where: Bluebird Shopping Centre, Athol Oaklands Road, off Corlett Drive, Birnam
When:  9am-2pm
Contact: 083 311 4768
Email: wholefoodmarket@gmail.com

Bryanston Organic Market,

Where: Culross Road
When: Thursdays and Saturdays 9am-2pm
Contact: 011 706 3671

Parkview Eco Market,

Where: Parkview
When: Saturdays 9am-1pm
Contact: 011 686 3038 or 076 022 7937

Pretoria Farmers’ Market,

Where: Silverton
When: 5:30am-9:30am
Contact: 082 416 3900

Jozi Food Market,

Where: Parktown Quarter,Parktown
When: saturdays 8:30-1:30pm
Email: info@jozifoodmarket.co.za

KWAZULU-NATAL

Amphimarket,

Where: North Beach
When: Sundays 7:30-4pm
Conact: 082 487 2276

Karkloof Farmers’ Market,

Where: Karkloof Road (2km from Howick)
When: Saturdays 7am-11am
Conact: 082 820 8986

Pietermaritzburg Farmers’ Market,

Where: Alexander Park
When: 6am-10am
Contact: 033 345 4656

Shongweni Farmers’ and Craft Market

Where: Corner/ Alverston and Kassia Roads, Assagay
When: Saturdays 6:30-10am
Contact: 031 777 1554
Email: hazyview@netactive.co.za

MPUMALANGA

The Casterbridge Village Market,

Where: White River
When: 8:30-2pm
Contact: 013 751 1540

Nelspruit Boeremark,

Where: Lowveld Show Ground
When: Every second Saturday of the month 7am-11am
Contact: 013 752 2801
Email: agri@lowveldshow.co.za

WESTERN CAPE

Camphill Village Monthly Market

Where: Camphill Village,West Coast
When: First Sunday of the month
Contact: 021 571 8600

Constantia Valley Farmers Market,

Where: The Three Arts, Plumstead
When: 8:30am-2:30pm
Contact: 021 797 1067
Email:3artsfarmersmarketl@telkomsa.net

Greyton Morning Market,

Where: Market Square
When: 10am-12pm
Contact: 028 254 9564

Harvest When Farmers’ Market,

Where: N2 Harkerville
When: Saturdays 8am-12pm
Contact: 084 510 9939/ 044 533 9094
Email: info@plettenbergbay.co.za

Hermanuspietersfontein Food & Wine Market,

Where: Hermuspitersfontein Cellar,Hemel-en-Aarde Village
When: Satursday 9am-2pm
Contact: 083 388 8239

Imhoff Farmers’ Market

Where: Imhoff Farm Kommetjie
When: First Sunday of the month
Contact: 10am-2pm

Natural and Organic Farmers’ Market,

Where: Waldorf School,Stellenbosch
When: saturdays 8am-12pm
Contact: 021 880 1039
Email: mlaubser@eartheart.co.za

Nitida Farmers’ Market,

Where: Nitida Wine Farm
When: last Saturday of the month 7:30-12pm(summer) 9am-1:30pm(winter)
Contact: 021 976 1467

The Willow Bridge Slow Market,

Where: Willowbridge Lifestyle Centre(directly opposite the Tygervalley Centre)
When: Saturdays 9am-2pm
Contact: 072 922 9311

Prince Albert Saturday Market,

Where: Next to the museum, Church Street
When: Saturdays 8am-12pm
Contact: 023 541 1366

Porter Estate Produce Market,

Where: Chrysalis Academy, Tokai
When: Saturdays 9am-1pm
Contact: 082 823 4121

Riebeek West Morning Market,

Where: Kasteelberg Trading Centre
When: First Saturday of the month 9am-1pm
Contact: 022 448 1584

Robertson Farmers’ Market,

Where: Robertson Tourism Office
When: Second and last Saturday of the month
Contact: 076 149 3663

Stellenbosch Fresh Goods Market,

Where: Bosman’s Crossing Trading Village
When: Saturday 9am-2pm
Contact: 072 922 9311

Wild Oats Market,

Where: Lakes District
When: Saturdays 7:30-11:30(summer) 8am-11:30am(winter)
Contact: 044 883 1177

Obs Night Market,

Where: Obs Community Centre, cnr Lower Main Road/ Collingwood rd
When: Thursdays 5pm-9pm
Contact: 072 189 7437
Email: organiser@obsnightmarket.co.za

Neighbourhood goods Market,

Where: Old Biscuit Mill, 373-375 Albert Road, Woodstock
When: Saturdays 9am-4pm
Contact: 021 448 1438
Email: info@whatiftheworld.com

Noordhoek Market,

Where: Noordhoek Farm Village, cnr Main Road/ Village Lane, Noordhoek
When: Saturday 8am until sold out
Contact: 082 469 7130

Rondebosch Market,

Where: next to Rondebosch Library, St Andrews Road,Rondebosch
When: Saturday 7:30am
Contact: Dee 021 696 5749/Pieter 072 222 6410

Gardens Market,

Where: Tafelberg Tavern, Hope Street,Gardens
When: Saturday 9am-3pm
Contact: 021 424 0408
Email: info@gardensmarket.co.za

EASTERN CAPE

Bedford Morning Market,

Where: Die Ou Waenhuis
When: last Saturday of the month, 9am-1pm
Contact: 046 685 0065

Lavender Blue Organic Farmers’ Market,

Where: Between Beacon Bay and Gonubie
When: Saturdays
Contact: 043 732 1172

Download the Good Food Guide courtesy of Animal Voice

Read about Organic and Free-Range farming and find Suppliers near you

In the Beginning…

Roughly 10,000 years ago, humankind had one of its biggest breakthroughs: the advent of farming. That may not sound glamorous, but agriculture changed everything. Freed from the constant search for food, humans could settle down and form communities. From there came the development of trade, then cities, then science, then technology, and then the world we know today. The first farmers used organic techniques. So did their children, and their children’s children. Generation after generation produced food in Earth-friendly ways. It’s not that they were early environmentalists. There just wasn’t any other way to farm. Traditional farmers used animal manure as a natural fertiliser. They rotated the types of crops grown on the same piece of land to avoid wearing out the soil. And they let fields life fallow, or unplanted, every few years to help the soil rejuvenate itself. Most of the time, these farmers’ methods did not do major environmental damage. (That was possible because the population was fairly small and land was cheap and plentiful)

Not so Long Ago…

Farmers were always at the mercy of the weather. Just a modest drought could wipe out an entire crop. Even if the weather cooperated, there was always the risk that insects or other pests might devour the harvest. Feeding everyone was often a daunting task. With each improvement of their relatively primitive farming technology, early civilizations may have begun to harm the land that gave them food. Irrigation ditches, canals and other changes to the land helped farmers water crops and run their farms—but could have also negatively affected the natural environment.

Our ‘Modern World’…

Then came the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century. Biologists and chemists created fertilizers that worked faster and better than manure. After WWII, most farmers began to rely on chemical pesticides, which wiped out weeds and insects. New plant varieties withstood weather fluctuations and yielded more produce per acre. High-tech irrigation methods literally turned deserts green. Monoculture replaced crop rotation. In the 1960s and 1970s, just when it looked like population growth might exceed our capacity to grow food, technology created the Green Revolution. Scientists developed combinations of irrigation, new seeds, and chemicals to dramatically increase farm yield, but led to other problems such as pesticide runoff. By 2000, humans grew more food than ever before. And the number of underfed people was reduced to half what it had been in 1970. Still, by 2050, the United Nations Population Report estimates there will be roughly 10 billion people in the world and more than 4 billion of them will suffer from malnutrition. As with most developments in human history, the Green Revolution solved certain problems but created new ones. We are just beginning to grasp how modern, commercial farming can harm the environment.

A Return to the Past…

Some farmers have responded by returning to old techniques. You probably recognize the word “organic” from supermarket labels and farmers markets. Some grocery stores and restaurants specialize in organic foods. If we are to protect our Planet from devastation then natural farming techniques have to be re-instated. But first there must be a demand and that means YOU the consumer must choose to buy Organic Produce from sustainable producers.

With thanks from EcoHealth

We’ve all heard about ‘Organic’ and ‘Free-range’ this and that. But what does it actually mean? Why should you choose these products? How do you know if they are legit? And the most common asked question… doesn’t it taste funny?

What is Organic?

This means that food that is grown without harmful synthetic pesticides, herbicides or fertilisers and is endorsed by recognised certification bodies and subject to strict rules for handling, processing, packaging, transport and storage

What is Organic Certification?

This is a certification process for producers of organic food and other organic agricultural products. In general, any business directly involved in food production can be certified, including seed suppliers, farmers, food processors, retailers and restaurants.

Requirements vary from country to country, and generally involve a set of production standards for growing, storage, processing, packaging and shipping that include:

• Avoidance of most synthetic chemical inputs (e.g. fertilizer, pesticides, antibiotics, food additives, etc), genetically modified organisms, irradiation, and the use of sewage sludge;

• Use of farmland that has been free from synthetic chemicals for a number of years (often, three or more);

• Keeping detailed written production and sales records (audit trail)

• Maintaining strict physical separation of organic products from non-certified products

• Undergoing periodic on-site inspections.

In some countries, the government oversees certification, and commercial use of the term organic is legally restricted. Certified organic producers are also subject to the same agricultural, food safety and other government regulations that apply to non-certified producers

Why should I buy Organic Food?

You’ve heard the term ‘ you are what you eat’ so here is a simple question… would you go to your kitchen cupboard and start drinking and eating all the cleaning materials you keep in your home? The Jik? The All-purpose cleaners, the window cleaners? No? Well eating non-organic food is pretty much the same thing. All the chemical sprays and highly toxic pesticides and fertilisers that are used in conventional farming goes directly into your body. And we wonder why we have cancer, and diabetes and other ‘modern’ diseases?

Does Organic Food taste funny?

If you prefer eating plastic then yes it would taste funny to you, if you prefer eating pure food the way nature intended it will taste great. Don’t confuse gluten-free, wheat-free, sugar-free etc with Organic, these are dietary preferences and have nothing to do with Organic farming, and yes glutton-free, sugar-free does taste bad, but your body will look great!

What is Free Range?

This is a term which denotes a method of farming husbandry where the animals are allowed to roam freely instead of being contained in any manner. The term is used in two senses that do not overlap completely: as a farmer-centric description of husbandry methods, and as a consumer-centric description of them. Farmers practice free range to achieve free-range or humane certification to reduce feed costs, to improve the happiness and liveliness of their animals, to produce a higher-quality product, and as a method of raising multiple crops on the same land.

Free range may apply to meat, eggs or dairy farming

Why should I buy Free-Range Products?

Just like all the chemicals that are used in conventional crop farming, the same is used in conventional meat-farming. Cows are not meant to eat grain, but are force-fed this food as farmers don’t want to use their money on pasture land that would provide them with their natural grass as a diet. Because of being grain-fed, the cows develop many physical problems and so have to be medicated with steroids and antibiotics, pretty much from the moment they are born.

Then they are kept shoulder to shoulder in pens, waiting for the day they are inhumanely killed, the constant stress that they are under causes adrenalin and cortisol in their bodies which in case you didn’t know is poisonous if released over any length of time. All of this you are eating.

If you care for your own health, if you care even a little bit about animals, you would only eat free-range and would reduce your meat consumption by half, we guarantee you that if you were to ever visit a conventional farm you become a vegetarian over night.  You don’t have to go that far – but you can make a difference

To learn more click here

Where can i purchase organic and free range produce?

Cape Town:

Pick n’ Pay
George Famer’s Market
Giovanni’s Deli
Noordhoek Farm Village
Woolworths
Creeds
Organic Alive
Organic Living
Sage Organic Café
Super Foods
Hout Bay Organic Market
Camphill Village Market
Imhoff Farmers Market
Neighbourgoods Market
Porter Estate Produce Market
Rondebosch Organic Market
Stellenbosch Fresh Goods Market
Century City Natural Goods Market

Durban:

Pick n’ Pay
Brentwood Nursery’s market
Woolworths

Johannesburg:

Pick n’ Pay
The Bryanston Organic Market
Woolworths
Fruits and Roots
Irene Village Market

With thanks from Wikipedia, Why Go South Africa, Living Food for Africa

Starting up your own hydroponic garden:

STEP 1

Place the reservoir bucket under a durable table. The reservoir can be a trash can, a Rubbermaid container, or any other container made of plastic. It must be non-metal since metal oxidizes can cause nutrient problems. Take an ebb and flow tray and place the fill and drain kit inside it. The ebb and flow tray must also be plastic and non-transparent. It must be strong enough to contain the plants, perlite, and water. Arrange the tray so the drain is located above the reservoir bucket. An ebb and flow hydroponics system can be located indoors, in a greenhouse or in the sun. Lighting must be controlled indoors. The system requires a convenient source of water.

STEP 2

Place the water pump inside the reservoir tank. This can be an aquarium power pump. Allow water to carry over into the ebb and flow tray. The timer on the pump should be set so water flows into the ebb and flow tray two to four times a day, depending on plant size.

STEP 3

Fill pots with perlite and include the plants. Position plants inside ebb and flow trays. Fill reservoir tank with sufficient water to fill ebb and flow tray. Never run flood cycles for more than half an hour each time as this may damage plant roots.

STEP 4

Add nutrients gradually. Nutrients and water should drench the perlite and overflow in each cycle to wash out salts that may build up. Monitor the pH level to suit the requirements of the plants.

STEP 5

Situate the growth lights above the hydroponics. Use timers to have the lights on for 12 hours, then off for 12 hours. Do this consistently until plants are in full bloom. Remember to change the nutrient solution every couple optimum growth.

ADVANTAGES

• No soil is needed
• The water stays in the system and can be reused- thus, lower water costs
• It is possible to control the nutrition levels in their entirety- thus, lower nutrition costs
• No nutrition pollution is released into the environment because of the controlled system
• Stable and high yields
• Pests and diseases are easier to get rid of than in soil because of the container’s mobility

DISADVANTAGES

• The hydroponic conditions (presence of fertilizer and high humidity) create an environment that stimulates salmonella growth.
• Another disadvantage is pathogens attacks including damp-off due to Verticillium wilt caused by the high moisture levels associated with hydroponics and overwatering of soil based plant

With thanks to Wikipedia and eHow