Abathethi Food Garden

“The word “Abathethi” is a Xhosa word, which means, “We’re not talking, we just do it” and what inspired us was the fact that most young and vulnerable people are not making a difference in our lifetime. We want to revive the spirit of planting vegetables in our home.”– Simphiwe Daniel, one of the founding members.

Abathethi Garden was started in January 2020 with the basic course from Abalimi Bezekhaya in Nyanga by Simphiwe Daniel, Banetsi Jacobs, Thando Bango and Siseko Bokoto. We acquired a lot of knowledge about growing organic vegetables through Abalimi and we were introduced to other farmers.

The garden was inspired by the great challenge that we have in our lifetime today of young and old with diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic diseases and we want to make a difference. Our aim is to encourage the youth, physically challenged people and women to participate in urban agricultural and environmental awareness programs so that they can plant their own veggies and be able to identify natural herbs as well as their use.

Abathethi Garden aims to protect and promote traditional indigenous food knowledge and preparations in order to promote moral values as a basis for a way of life. We want to encourage the youth to learn about the importance of urban agriculture and indigenous plants in our livelihoods. We grow organic vegetable and herbs for home consumption as well as for a wider market.

Our biggest challenge currently is infrastructure for instance the irrigation system, boreholes, tools and transport to get manure as well as to do deliveries around the Western Cape and surrounding areas.

Our dream is to become the best garden in the Western Cape with livestock and to supply organic vegetables to our communities, restaurants, old age homes, hospitals, schools and supermarkets.

Members:

• Simphiwe Daniel
• Banetsi Jacobs
• Thando Bango
• Siseko Bokoto

Contact details:

Simphiwe Daniel
Mobile / Whats App: 079 851 9519
Simphiwedaniel7@gmail.com 

We enjoy having visitors at our gardens, but we are usually there early in the morning, so if you coming later in the day please let us know.

Map to our garden: https://goo.gl/maps/f9s2eSJqRQceCFB39