Blog Archives
Long Weekend Winter Plant Sale
LONG WEEKEND SALE! We are having a 10% sale on all plants this weekend… Friday the 16th of June – Sunday the 18th of June (Fathers Day!) from 10am-4pm 
🌿 Now that we are in-between some long awaited winter rain fall, it is finally the perfect time for planting hardy indigenous plants. Propagated and grown from seed right here at the nursery – if these plants have survived the elements here at Cape Point, they will thrive in your gardens. On Sunday the Gray family (Gael, Tom and Roushanna) will be pottering around in the retail – come share a cup of hot chocolate and chat about plants! For questions or directions please email us on gaelgray@gmail.com or roushanna@hotmail.com
Pop-Up Tea Garden, Plants + Clothing Sale
Saturday the 13th of Feb 10am – 4pm
Join us for a day of indigenous plants, second-hand clothing and delicious food.
Where:
Nestled amongst the Fynbos in Cape Point, the Good Hope Gardens Nursery is the perfect venue for family and friends to enjoy a home-made treat and a discount on plants and clothes at this unique pop-up event.
What:
FOOD – Fresh and Botanical is the theme of the day with floral foods, organic veg and wild edible ingredients harvested in and around the nursery. Veld+Sea will be creating a mouthwatering menu with sweet and savory seasonal delights, an array of Fynbos flavoured teas picked from the Veldkos garden as well as regular teas and fresh, strong coffee. Parusha Naidoo will be joining us with a selection of her super delicious vegan treats.
PLANTS – There will be a beautiful array of plants on sale in the retail and a crazy 20% sale off all plants! The nursery specializes in Indigenous plants and has a fantastic selection of Indigenous and Fynbos plants. They grow beautiful, hardy plants and trees specifically designed by nature to flourish in local climate conditions. Take advantage of the specials on offer at this even and green up your garden or balcony with these water wise plants
CLOTHES:
Aeren Fortune will have a rail of good quality, pre-loved ladies clothing from Ireland in a selection of gorgeous fabrics – silk, wool, etc. Treat yourself to some beautiful bargains!
Please note:
The tea garden will have outdoor seating, so we suggest bringing a wrap if the wind is up or get some tea time treats as a takeaway if it starts to rain.
BONUS:
There is a fun playground for kiddies to enjoy, a succulent koppie to meander up and a 30 min Fynbos walk for the adventurous. Dogs on leads please as there are free range animals around!
CONTACT:
Please contact roushanna@hotmail.com for any questions you might have or visit the Facebook event page for updates and info.
Forage Vegan Pop-up dinner
What happens when you put a vegan chef and a wild food innovator in the kitchen together? Something fresh, festive and fantastic…take a look at Parusha Naidoo and Roushanna Gray’s first collaborative dinner that happened in the Veld and Sea foraging classroom at Good Hope Gardens Nursery. Gorgeous photos taken by the talented Gabrielle Holmes.
A big thank you to all our wonderful guests who attended, to Mount Gay Rum for donating some of their delicious Black Barrel rum that worked so beautifully in our botanical cocktails and to Skermunkil for the use of her stunning ceramic bowls and spoons.
To join the next #foragevegan Food Art Feast happening in on the 16th of January 2016, take a look at the Food Art Feast Facebook event page for details and updates. To book and for more info, please contact roushanna@hotmail.com
Foraging for flavour
On our last Fynbos Forage – Forage Harvest Feast – we welcomed the winner of our last Facebook competition, Nic Leighton and his partner Gabby Holmes.
Luckily for us, it turned out that they are both highly talented photographers and arrived for the forage armed with cameras and a passion for foraging and food – a great combination!
A huge Thank You to Gabby was kind enough to share some of the beautiful shots she took on the day, capturing each moment so that you can almost smell the fragrance through her photos.
For those wanting to join us on one of these courses, we only have four left for the season with the first two upcoming forages already fully booked – so hurry and save yourself a spot soon by emailing roushanna@hotmail.com
We would love to have you join us in our Foraging and Feasting!
Wild Food on the West Coast
With dreams of long, sweet, left-handed rides down the point, we headed up the West Coast one weekend with a bakkie full of surfboards and a sparkle in our eyes.
But fate was not on our side and there was no swell to be found in Elands Bay. On our walks to the beach for the ever-hopeful surf report, we spotted many wild edibles growing along the road.
Ice Plant – Mesembryanthemum crystallinum
Veldkool – Trachyandra falcata
Dune spinach – Tetragonia decumbens
Inspired by the local wild food, we were delighted to secure a Sunday lunch booking at Oep ve Koep.
On our way to Paternoster, millions of bright yellow Oxalis flowers greeted us from both sides of the road as far as the eye could see.
Suring – Oxalis pes-caprae
Hungry, late and apologetic – we entered Die Winkel op Paternoster. For people who love farm products and wild food, we Had Arrived. We were served with the most amazing meal – the freshness, the detail, the involuntary roll of our eyes with each mouthful.
Wow.
Thank you Kobus van der Merwe – you are a wild food gastronomy alchemist.
Um….one of everything please.
Oysters with apple, wild sage flowers, wild fennel, ice plant and sea lettuce.
Imifino chapatis with pickled veldkool and yoghurt.
Shoreline soup.
Ice plant, white fish pickle, fennel and citrus.
Farm bread and fresh herbs.
Farm butter, fish pate and preserved orange.
Springbok, limpets, heerenboon, winter greens.
Carrot bobotie, pomegranate pilaf, peach mebos.
Come on, really now. Isn’t that just the best thing you have ever seen?
Seduced by the charm of the sleepy fishing village, we decided to stay the night and explore a bit. We went to the beach, for lots of walks and of course, to the Cape Columbine Nature Reserve.
Paternoster beach
Dimorphotheca pluvialis in white blossom.
The Cape Columbine lighthouse.
And all around us…winter greens. A veritable landscape of food.
Wild asparagus
Veldkool.
Chrysanthemoides incana.
Pretty Mallow.
Wild sage.
What beautiful and tasty biodiversity we have in our country. Hand in hand with sustainable harvesting, food security has a fragrant light at the end of South Africas wild food tunnel.
Rise up Indigenous food revival – you are delicious!
Forage Harvest Feast
A few weeks ago we had our first Forage Harvest Feast of the season.
It was cold, wet and delicious.
We had a very interesting crowd, including the talented Kate Higgs, who joined us with her magic photography skills.
Here is a little bit of what we got up to…
Pelargonium tomentosum
Tools
The Urban Hunter Gatherer digging up some wild garlic – Tulbaghia violacea.
Describing medicinal uses for sour fig – Carpobrotus edulis.
Veldkool season – Trachyandra.
A sensory experience.
Anna Shevel of The City of Eden with her basket of goods.
Good Hope honey and raw wild berry jam
Organic veg.
Washing and chatting.
A foraged herb basket.
Chefs from the Table Bay Hotel having fun and chopping up a storm
The Pesto Queen
From bush to table…
Feast!
Pelargonium and Honeybush cupcakes.
If you would like to join us for a Forage Harvest Feast, here are the upcoming course dates:
Saturday the 16th of August, 10am – 2pm FULLY BOOKED
Saturday the 30th of August, 10am – 2pm
Saturday the 4th of October, 10am – 2pm
To book or for more info email roushanna@hotmail.com
Photos in techincolour
Please enjoy these colour block photos taken in and around
Good Hope Gardens Nursery.
Plants, landscapes, food, landscaping, magic moments. It’s all here – different seasons and different years worth of rainbow hues.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words.
So here is 128000 words for you…..
RED
ORANGE
YELLOW
GREEN
BLUE
PINK
BROWN
WHITE
Looking forward to your comments!
Wild Food catering
This weekend I made local wild food tasters for some Japanese seaweed scientists.
No pressure.
Wild mint and buchu brandy cocktails
Buchu brandy is excellent for settling the stomach. So after a heavy meal a shot of this would do you good….nice excuse!
Crumbed black mussels on a bed of wild nori
She sells sea shells on the sea shore…
Limpet, periwinkle and “krimpvarkie” seaweed samoosas
Perfectly ripe, rainbow coloured sour figs
Ulva seaweed and wild sage chillibites
Brassicophycus and Chordariopsus seaweed coleslaw salad with edible wild flowers.
Never-fail wild garlic rolls
And for something sweet….
Agar-agar mini milk-tart “boats” with candied kelp and Carissa flowers.
Hope this keeps you inspired – Have a totally wild week!
Wild food supper
We recently had some friends in the field (pun intended) over for a wild food supper.
I thought I’d share with you some of the dishes we ate.
But first the prep. Gathering ingredients for wild foods is fun and adventurous and sometimes a little crazy.
Like surfing for our seaweed, or in this case, climbing up a ladder to collect the dried Strelitzia nicolai flowers towering overhead. You can eat the fresh seeds raw and the dried ones can be ground up and used as a flour. Just remember to leave more than you collect.
Strelitzia nicolia dried flowers heads
Then you have to brave the bugs and spiders to find the beautiful golden fynbos pirate treasure inside the very hard seed pods.
Strelitzia n. seeds
The seeds are like little hard black coffee beans with a white inside that can be ground up. The gorgeous orange fluff attached to them is the aril that is also edible. It’s a lot of work for a small amount of flour, but a labour of love is usually delicious!
Agar agar and strawberry brule w. Carissa macrocarpa flower and Strilitzia shortcake
Pictured above on the left you can see the final product…I used the flour to make a shortcake and included the aril for added edible decoration.
So now I will backtrack to the starters. Sorry. Its like reading one of those books that the beginning is in the middle and you start at the end and finish in the future. Confusing and edgy. Exciting and wonderful – like these sweet and salty seaweed nuts
This a super easy, highly tasty snack to make. Whether you are hosting a Rugby Watching Braai or a Canape and Cocktail Soiree, these will go down a treat.
Using freshly washed and rinsed sea lettuce or Ulva, chop up a cup full and toss with assorted nuts. season with sea salt and sugar and pop in the oven on a low heat until the nuts are golden brown and the seaweed is crispy.
Yum.
We also enjoyed oven baked periwinkle and seaweed samoosas
Periwinkle and seaweed samoosas
Seaweed couscous salad – get the recipe here.
Ulva couscous salad with wild garlic flowers
Never-fail-to-please ruby relish on Bree
Carissa macrocarpa berry and beetroot relish topped with Carissa bispinosa berries.
Wild garlic rolls and farm butter
Tulbaghia violacea rolls
These were used to mop up the exquisite juices of the mussels….
Mussels in a creamy white wine sauce with garlic, thyme, Salvia chamelaeagnea, Portulacaria afra and whole baby onions.
For dips we had Morogo, Wild garlic and King Protea seed pesto and a Wild sage sour cream
Morogo, Tulbaghia violacea and Protea cyneriodes seed pesto. Sheeps milk sour-cream flavoured with Salvia dentata.
We hope this inspires you to be creative and adventurous with your cooking this year –
Happy 2014!
Crazy Red Dot Summer Sale!
We are having a crazy red dot summer sale.
Yes we are!
Melinda from the retail with our two little crazies. And no, they are not for sale.
Come and join us anytime from now until the sale ends on the 22nd of January. The sooner you come, the better selection you will get to create a festive wonderland in your garden this season.
25% off all marked plants…
And what gorgeous plants to choose from!
Enjoy the shady seating while you dream up your new garden designs…
Or choose who you will gift this Christmas with some very affordable living leafy presents.
Enjoy the silly season outdoors this summer
You’d be crazy not to!
Crazy like this.
For more info contact us on 0217809299 or email fynbosplants@xsinet.co.za
