African Marmalade is an indigenous, organic farm and seed bank located at Midrand, about an hour from the centre of Johannesburg, South Africa. Siphiwe Sithole is a farming pioneer that has embraced heritage indigenous farming and works with chefs and consumers interested in working with indigenous African ingredients.
It was October 2015 when Siphiwe had her self-described "perfect mid-life crisis" where she traded the wardrobe of hundreds of pairs of high heels and sitting in business class airline lounges to start her farm. Our visit to her farm is in Winter and it is not the ideal time for a visit to African Marmalade as the indigenous crops that she grows thrive in warmer climates.
Siphiwe explains the name African Marmalade, "Since the business's focus was going to be indigenous African crops the name African had to be there. Marmalade is my favourite jam and it was my mom's favourite too. I then drew a parallel to life that is made out of sometimes bitter or sweet moments but when you blend everything together it turns out beautiful and the same applies to business. I have always hoped we will celebrate all the moments as we rekindle fond memories of what food we ate, should be eating and take it with us to the future."
At African Marmalade they use dry farming techniques without any irrigation which are conditions that the indigenous ingredients thrive in. Dry farming offers a resilient solution against climate change. Siphiwe describes the process of dry farming, "It is all about working with nature, planting during the rainy season which is what many subsistence and smallholder farmers do as they farm in Spring and Summer or during the rainy or wet season. The grower is at the mercy of nature, hoping it will rain at the right time unlike when one irrigates as they decide when to give water to the plants and how much. Dry farming allows the farmer to harvest the rain water or conserve it to use later when there is no rain or it is less frequent."
The seed (no pun intended) for the idea came when Siphiwe was finding indigenous ingredients expensive and difficult to source. "At the time I was living in Cape Town and I found that I was travelling to find indigenous food." She also struggled to reconcile becoming a farmer that was just growing spinach along with existing spinach farmers and competing with them for the same deliveries. "Now everybody’s doing cabbage and spinach so for you to get to sell spinach you must kick out another farmer that’s already supplying". She knew that if she was growing something different and was the only supplier she would have a captive market.
"It was a nostalgic thing for me. As a South African you get educated to simply move away from your own food. We associate our food with poverty, we’ve got trauma food. But do Chinese get sick of eating rice? Do Italians get sick of eating pasta?" says Siphiwe, letting the question hang in the air.
"I needed to start looking at the common crops that are being consumed in South Africa and in more than 40 African countries because then I had a business case. I had a market. Also it just makes environmental sense that we grow these crops. They grow effortlessly and are resilient and adaptable to the environment. You don't have to teach workers how to grow indigenous crops. We just need to remind them how to. They have forgotten how to grow their own food," says Siphiwe. The traditional African diet is mostly plant based, meat only being consumed when there was a special occasion or celebration.
The problem then became that she couldn't source enough seeds to germinate and grow the crops. Hence her seed bank was born and she now works with chefs and the culinary industry to teach them how to use indigenous ingredients. For example, while South African chefs can turn out a perfect French sauce, they don't know how to cook sorghum.
We walk through her house to the seed library where she has jars and bottles of seeds and beans. She shows us a bottle of black peanuts. She tells us that when African slaves were shipped to the West they put peanuts in their hair so they could plant these when they arrived. The flavour of these changed when they were planted in different soils. She grows these here along with a colourful array of beans.
She is particularly fond of Bambara or jugo beans or African chickpeas that are a ground nut and a tasty alternative to chickpeas which she makes into dainty bean balls. The bamabara bean balls are divine, like tiny little felafel balls. She has created a spread of home grown vegetables from the candy-like sweet potato to cassava chips and red beans. You would swear the sweet potatoes were soaked in syrup they're that sweet.
And then she shows us a Calabash squash. "They took this away and gave us gem squash," she says. The problem also became that the Calabash squash was used also as a communication tool with ancestral spirits. A dried calabash was often filled with dried beans and then used a percussion instrument so that people could connect with their spirits. "We are now consumers, not producers of plant based products," says Siphiwe but she is determined to change that.
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever heard of dry farming? Do you grow anything in your garden or on your balcony?
African Marmalade
If you would like to book transport or a tour (which I recommend), we used Tshuku Tours (mpho@tshuku.co.za). If you want a specific food tour, you can also contact Anna Trapido @trapidoterritory or email her here.
Reader Comments
Loading comments...Add Comment