Explore the growing seasons in Cape Town

Hi! I’m Jo, writing from Heart & Soil homestead, a 1-acre homestead in the Far South of Cape Town, South Africa. You can subscribe to our newsletter to learn about growing trees and vegetables in Cape Town, or browse all our past newsletters.

We are happiest when we are growing

And happiness… what is it? I say it is neither virtue nor pleasure not this thing or that, but simply growth.
We are happy when we are growing.

In temperate climates, there is often a clear growing calendar, and there’s even a language of rest and work (work hard! play hard!) that is shaped by the seasonal experiences of winter-spring-summer-autumn/fall.

In the absence of a good alternative language of the cycles we experience here in Cape Town, or in other parts of South Africa, we often echo the language of temperate cycles, or just invert them. Even though in many parts of South Africa we can grow year-round, we embrace the concept of intensive work and seasonal rest.

Yet we have the extraordinary possibilities of sun and warmth (though sometimes we lack water).

Intensive work followed by long rest periods is not a universal truth!

Malcolm Gladwell wrote about the impact that rice-growing had on culture in rice staple parts of the world. While there were harvest festivals everywhere in the world, in rice growing cultures there was less of a sense of intensive, rapid work followed by lengthy rest periods.

Instead, work was spread because rice was often grown twice a year, and was labour intensive throughout the growing season. This shaped how people felt about steady work throughout the year.

Taking over our environment…

In many parts of South Africa, there need not be a “hungry gap.” Even in our hottest and coldest months, we can still eat a lot of food from our gardens.

Slowly figuring out our growing preferences, and mapping those preferences to the flows of water, energy, pest/disease load, and warmth in our space can yield unexpected insights about how we grow and eat. Steady, continuous planting can mean less waste and fewer gaps.

Accidentally grew so.many.dipper.gourds. If only I knew how to use them after carving. Maybe having so many is the push I need to learn and use them this year…

If we have steady work, steady harvest, and steady growth, we can allow our body new ways to settle and be nourished. Our bodies can be rooted in our environment, which means we become part of our ecology.

Falling in love with carrot seeds all over again.

Collecting and drying fennel seed for the first time.

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