The sun is shining, the wind shaking the leaves slightly,
created moving dappled shade across green lawns and ancient white walls. There
are small children, lots of Instagram-ready cameras and every size of dog mixing in-between
the variety of shoppers, visitors and amblers at the City Farm Market.
Started in 2012, Oranjezicht City Farm (OZCF) is a
neighbourhood non-profit project celebrating local food, culture and community.
The Farm celebrated a year of sharing a unique type of beauty, information and
skills development this November -
highlighted by a large, decorative Charley’s Bakery cake made especially for
the occasion and cut by Helen Zille. The beautifully laid out farm offers plenty of
locations for relaxed picnics, scenic city and mountain views and chances to
meet new and old friends.
The Oranjezicht City
Farm is a community of adults and younger folk working together to engage in
small-scale food production in the City Bowl of Cape Town.
The Oranjezicht City
Farm is located on the central part of the original farm, ‘Oranje Zigt’,
established in Cape Town, South Africa in 1709, and which became the largest
farm in the Upper Table Valley in the 19th century. Fed by a cluster of springs
that provided perennial fresh water to Khoekhoen pastoralists as well as to
sailors and the Company’s Gardens from the 17th century, this farm grew vegetables
and fruit that fed the growing settlement and colony and supplied passing ships
with essential produce to the turn of the 20th century. Swallowed by urban
expansion, the productive farmlands were converted to a housing syndicate in
1901 and the original homestead standing on the site was demolished in 1957 to
construct a bowling green, which fell into disuse and neglect in recent
decades.
OZCF seeks to re-connect the Oranjezicht neighbourhood and the rest of Cape
Town to this neglected piece of heritage through design, gardening activity and
outreach, and to use it as a catalyst to build social cohesion across
communities, to develop skills among the unemployed, to educate residents and their
children and others about food, environmental and related issues, to beautify
public space and to champion unused or under-utilised green spaces in the City
Bowl.
Every Saturday in Homestead Park (adjacent to the Farm) in Upper
Orange Street, Oranjezicht, OZCF holds a community farmers-style market for
independent local farmers and artisanal food producers. You can alternate
between choosing delicious local foodstuffs, doing your weekly (healthier and
cheaper) veggie shopping or just being inspired by the setting and purchasing some
of your own gardening goodies (including seedlings).
It really is something to see, to experience and to get
involved in. There is so much beauty in the world, don’t let the opportunity to
engage in it, celebrate it and contribute to it slip past.
P.S. A Travelling Goldfish favourite? The delicious gelato
pops by Remo sold at the market (usually the corner near the coffee), the
interesting O’ways Bao Buns and the fact that you can utilise the CitiBus to
visit – saving on fuel and parking hassles!
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