Urban Farming in Cape Town, South Africa

Forget the humble veggie patch!

House and Leisure
July, 2011

Excerpt:

It’s a new dawn for farming in the city. Cape Town blogger and urban farmer Matt Allison has turned his garden into an all-out allotment, producing more than 40 varieties of herbs and vegetables. He chatted to HL’s assistant editor Leigh Robertson about his gardening passion…

Out in the suburbs the drone of lawnmowers is a common soundtrack to sunny weekends, with pottering around the garden something of a national sport. But while most people might be found doing normal suburban gardening pursuits like, say, pruning roses or trimming hedges, peer over the fence into the backyard of Capetonian Matt Allison and you’ll find things looking decidedly more rural.

Matt, a well-known music producer and sound engineer (with a penchant for Mid-Century Modern furniture), has reinvented himself as a serious foodie and eco-advocate – he started his fabulous blog, when he set himself (then a ‘bad’ eater) the challenge of cooking the entire offering of UK chef Jamie Oliver’s 20-minute meals (from an iPhone app), and documenting the whole affair. His journey into healthy, wholesome eating soon blossomed into a love affair with the provenance of produce and, ultimately, Matt producing his own food from his Claremont home. He keeps chickens too!

Matt has also developed a small food garden concept called 600×600, where he grows up artisanal gardens for clients in a custom planter of those measurements and then delivers ‘the living/breathing farm-in-a-box to their doorstep’.

Read the complete article here.

See Matt’s blog “I’m no Jamie Oliver” here.