A (Tomato) Thought Experiment

0.JPG

I often find myself in an uncanny position when I stand in a supermarket betwixt the abundance of food:

How have we naturalized the idea
that we can only buy food (from a supermarket)?


1.JPG

People usually look down upon those who either forage for or grow their own food. I know this because I experienced it firsthand in both cases. I usually get the response (in my home language Afrikaans):

"Eet jy bossies??"

This directly translated reads "Are you eating weeds?"

I grow so-called weeds and forage for them. I use them extensively in my cooking. I do research on lost foods in our modern society in old recipe books.

This has not always been the case, that is, people extensively used these so-called weeds in their cooking throughout the years of human existence. Only recently (I would argue) have we normalized the idea that food is grown in non-natural ways (think extreme monoculture crops) and sold in massive supermarkets for copious amounts of money (because the consumer carries the burden of paying for the cold chain and packaging costs).

And this is where I find myself: in the middle of the food section seeing the same crops every single day throughout the year. No matter in what store you find yourself you will find the same broccoli, the same green-yellow-red peppers, the same English cucumber, and so on.

You will, however, never see indigenous African spinach (e.g., amaranth/marogo leaves), you will never see African indigenous sage, or indigenous rosemary. (I find myself in South Africa, for context, and we usually buy our food from establishments similar to the rest of the world. there are, however, smaller shops where one might find more variety and local foods.)

And this is where my little (tomato) thought experiment begins:

Imagine a world where food abundantly grew
on the corners of our streets, where fruit and nut trees
decorated everything, and urban foragers harvested
and picked these food sources for us?


2.JPG

I am not thinking about going back to a time when capitalism/neo-liberalism was not a factor. Not at all. Going back is not an option. Plus, why would we want this? It is rather regressive and stagnant.

Instead, we should harbor what we have, that is, vast amounts of knowledge and people without jobs. We have so many streets lined with trees that throw their leaves off which we can use for composting, which will be the initial compost in which we can begin to grow new plants/trees.

3.JPG

There are these tomato plants growing in my partner's family's garden. Every night, we eat from these plants. They take about 1-meter by 1-meter space.

Imagine if we lined the streets with these tomatoes rather than concrete, grass, or tar.

Imagine if we grew these various tomatoes wild on the sides of the roads.

This is just tomatoes; think about all the other plant varieties and tree varieties.

Moreover, these are just the sides of the road, imagine if people started growing their own vegetables and fruits in their homes as well.

The food grown in these "community gardens" can be distributed or shared, and restaurants can use them. Menus can be broadened to incorporate fresh but also indigenous crops. And so on.

But this leads to a very interesting and fascinating idea for me who is obsessed with composting: All the scraps will be collected and turned into compost. This compost will be used to grow cuttings and sprout seeds. New plants will continually be made and planted. The idea of seasonal foods will return. No, you cannot get strawberries out of season.


4.JPG

I walk past a bunch of leaves and all I see is the potential compost I can make from it. I walk past a bunch of leaves and all I see is the potential jobs one can create in our country where jobs are scarce. I see the potential for jobs for those who can collect the scraps and leaves.

I see so much potential; yet nothing happens of this nature.

It is, therefore, up to a select few to make this happen, to create the space for this to flourish.

I live in a utopian world, in my head. But maybe we can do something like this on a small-ish scale at first; to turn the thought experiment into a reality.

I hope that this will inspire you to do something similar.

The musings in this post are my own. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300.



0
0
0.000
15 comments
avatar

Couple of years ago I read about a person who turned his lawn on the pavement of his home into rows of vegetables, when ready to use people could walk past and help themselves, a forward thinker, me thinks!

Growing up we grew most our produce in the garden, had a good working compost heap where nothing went to waste. Good idea to put thoughts into action perhaps it will stop in their tracks and think.

@tipu curate

0
0
0.000
avatar

Couple of years ago I read about a person who turned his lawn on the pavement of his home into rows of vegetables, when ready to use people could walk past and help themselves, a forward thinker, me thinks!

Growing up we grew most our produce in the garden, had a good working compost heap where nothing went to waste. Good idea to put thoughts into action perhaps it will stop some in their tracks and think.

@tipu curate

0
0
0.000
avatar

Same here. I have the compost heap where I put everything from food scraps to garden scraps. Everything that can be will be composted.

I really want to do that. I see so many properties with vacant space where you can easily grow fast-growing crops and people can either help themselves (which is not always an option because you know what happens in this situation - people are strange creatures) or one can easily distribute it where needed.

0
0
0.000
avatar

People hopefully realize what you trying to achieve, may even arrive to assist on open plots not in good use, food for everyone once educated enough. Many are willing, simply don't know how.

0
0
0.000
avatar

That is some food for thought. I have talked to many people and few understand or know how to make, for example, compost. Would be a wise thing to maybe hold workshops and so on to get people willing to help again.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Neighbourhoods will group together once they realize the value behind the idea, taking the weight off ones shoulders with the price of fresh produce becoming more evident after each trip to the shops.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I got the shock once when I bought onions. Normally, I buy them without even looking at the price. But recently they have become almost 2.5x the brice. I think I usually paid R10.00 or so per kilo, now it is more than R30.00! If that is not an incentive to grow one's own and share it in communities, I do not know.

0
0
0.000
avatar

My Dad grew onions in the Transvaal, had a shed with mesh sides, used the draft passing through to dry the onions before using.

0
0
0.000
avatar

It is good to know they grew here. I tried in the cape. I planted a couple of smaller ones that went bad (couldn’t eat them) and they grew into I think 7 or 8 new ones and two of the plants bolted - I harvested countless seeds. But I have never successfully sprouted any of those seeds. Maybe the climate is not good for onions? I have no idea.

0
0
0.000
avatar

If you can't grow onions try chives or smaller with similar flavour, good luck!

0
0
0.000
avatar

Yes, for sure. I grow garlic-chives. They grow like weeds at this stage. But I love to add them to salads, soups, or any dish!

0
0
0.000
avatar

Anything that grows well plant, my curry leaf tree is added flavour when leaves are fresh and young, yummy!

0
0
0.000
avatar

Oh that sounds lovely! It must be so much better than the dried versions? Fresh curry leaves sounds delightful.

0
0
0.000