Food gardens
Images courtesy Babylonstoren
The farm has its own hives Beautiful clivias Chefs picking in early spring
Great diversity
Van der Walt says she thoroughly enjoys the diversity of the crops here. The different areas of the garden reflect many different themes in crops and styles. It is impossible to get bored here. There are indigenous areas paying homage to different growing areas in South Africa, for instance, the Little Karoo and the Eastern
Cape. Clusters are dedicated to citrus, berries and of course areas of veggies. Fragrant lawns( camomile lawns when we visited), with thoughtful signs in Afrikaans, English and Mandarin, encouraging barefoot camomile strolls and caution of the bees.
“ At the moment, we are harvesting persimmon and planting broad beans. Every season brings new fruits and vegetables to the fore,” says Van der Walt.
Urban farmer?
Want to plant a food garden?
The head gardener at Babylonstoren Liesl van der Walt has this advice for aspirant home food gardeners to get you started:
1. If you are thinking of starting a vegetable and fruit garden at home, big or small – just absolutely, do it!
2. Take time to plan your food garden and bring it to life lovingly. Plan, plan, plan.
3. Know what you want to grow and assess what you are going to do with the produce carefully – if you are going to sell it, ask yourself what will sell; if it is for your family’ s needs, be honest in planning according to your family’ s dietary likes( they are not going to overnight develop a love of broccoli because you have cultivated the most beautiful broccoli). Know your market, know your family.
4. Allow some vegetables to go to selfseed, such as Swiss chard and rocket. Collect seeds from the best and the strongest plants and share with friends.
5. Soil preparation is always vital.
Visit www. babylonstoren. com for more on the hotel, restaurants, spa or workshops.
The hanging gardens of Babylonstoren feature a fascinating“ calabash tunnel” – the pumpkins and calabashes grow onto a domed trellis structure( rather than on the ground), and the resultant walkway has many huge pumpkins hanging from it. It is a fun experience to swan through this sylvan structure, which is known as the snail.
On enjoying a meal at Babel – housed in an extremely stylish white and translucent old cow shed – persimmons were a theme throughout the meal. Harvested food and in-season fare is well-utilised. The produce from the garden is used in the restaurants at Babylonstoren, and guests and visitors are encouraged to pick the fruits and vegetables in the garden. People are impeccably behaved when it comes to the crops, and they never experience visitors taking more than what is polite. Hotel guests can harvest veggies with our chefs for their evening meal.
Besides the scrumptious food on offer at Babel and also at the Greenhouse tea garden, there are a variety of trees to feed the imagination. There are stories in these trees, that is for sure. A Newton’ s Flower of Kent apple tree, which originates from Sir Isaac Newton’ s apple tree in England, grows here. A medlar tree, the first tree brought into the country by Jan van Riebeeck, has been planted in this garden from a grafting. We were tickled to notice a mulberry of Shakespeare’ s, originating from a mulberry in the great bard’ s garden in England. The wild pepper tree, Schinus terebinthifolia, in the garden is the only tree that was not planted by the gardeners of Babylonstoren.
Liesl says they are happy to share at Babylonstoren, they offer a daily Garden Tour( 10am) and a large variety of workshops on offer throughout the year: topics range from Aloes to Mushroom growing and Veldkos.
Babylonstoren is a great place to feed the senses and gain inspiration for the very worthy and growing trend of of urban food farming.
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SABI | JUNE / JULY 2016