Dear food system changer,
- Your site is now opened: until Tues at 8am
- Market Day On: July 28th
- Address: 14 Ludlow Road
- Time: Timetable to be circulated once orders have closed on
Next club will be August.
New Clubs: Please, please share hello@foodhub.org.za with any of your friends all over Cape Town who you think might be interested in joining or starting a food club!
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Supplier Spotlights for July
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Supplier, Ryan from Green Fish gives us the lowdown in buying fish.
We have sustainably farmed West Coast Mussels and Oysters available. Going forwards, I will also update the fresh fish on a Monday prior to Food Club on a Wednesday, and you will have a short window to add what you would like before the Wednesday delivery.
We really enjoyed our first West Coast moules! What a way to middle out a week. Mussels are the unsung eco-heroes of our sea. They grow just about anywhere. They aren’t fed anything so there is no environmental effluent or imbalance caused. Better still, mussels actually serve to clean the water they are farmed in by removing excess nutrients and phytoplankton, so they are regenerative.....and these mussels are local (but not from False Bay where pollutants abound). Best enjoyed with some @dads_mayo.
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A2 DAIRY
 I promised a little more detail on A2 Dairy in Swellendam.
Range: They have a range of butter, fresh cheeses, kefir, raw milk and delicious yoghurts. They sell in a range of plastic and returnable glass jars. Their butter is sold in compostable paper in 500g pieces.
A2 protein. A2 Dairy makes their dairy products from a majority Fleckveigh mixed Jersey herd in Swellendam which means that the milk is A2 beta casein protein dominant. Growing evidence suggests that A2 protein milk may cause fewer symptoms of lactose intolerance and digestive issues than regular A2 protein milk. From Craig the owner of A2 Dairy: " There are 2 kinds of proteins in cow milk – A1 and A2, which differ by one single amino acid. Yet, this one difference can change the way the milk is digested in the human body"
Cow's health: The cows are rotated every day to fresh paddocks and are in operation for 10 years, which is much longer than a typical commercial operation. They do not use hormones, antibiotics. Cows are supplemented during milking only to keep them calm. The farmer grows his own oats in case he needs to feed the cows extra during winter months.
Farming. They are almost exclusively grass fed, and this grass is not ploughed, which means soil carbon can be retained. There is no glyphosate on their grass or their oats. They do use a selective herbicide to kill the broadleaf, but the cattle are not permitted thereafter to graze on the land for 30 days - and more often than for double that time because the cows return to a paddock after 52 days (there are 52 paddocks and they are rotated daily).
Predators: They do not have any predator issues / controls in place.
KOMATI FOODS
Komati will now be placing most of our produce in compostable bags at our request.
FARMER ANGUS - new charcuterie and ham range!
BOSCHOEK FARM
Deal this month, reducing its Avocado oil and macadamia nut oils by 10%, They are a delicious, nutritious way to diversify your salads and cooking. Avocado oil has very similar properties to olive oil, with a slightly higher smoke point to olive oil - meaning it can tolerate higher temperatures before breaking down and releasing free radicals - so is arguably better for cooking with. It has a very neutral flavour. Macadamia nut oil has higher levels of palmitoleic acid (something we produce on our own bodies) than any other botanical source - which makes it highly valued for stroke prevention. It also has a perfect ratio of omega-3 to omega 6 fatty acids. It has 4 times as much vitamin E than olive oil, and, like Avocado oil, it has a high smoke point, making it less likely to oxidize when heating. It's also got a delicious buttery flavour.
A blend of sprouted organic Red Winter Wheat, Rye, and Kalahari White. This wholemeal flour is an alternative to Lowerland’s heirloom Field Blend. It also brings together two hugely synergistic flours: Kalahari White and Red Hard Wheat. Red Hard Wheat ensures a rich nutty flavour and crunchy crust, while Kalahari White provides phenomenal strength and elasticity. A small percentage of rye is added for flavour. Note: this wholemeal flour can be sifted at home with a fine sieve (2-3 times) to create something like a ‘white’ wholemeal flour if you’re looking for a stronger, more pliant dough.
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Climate Corner
Focussing on a more decentralised, Regenerative future
I found these articles (Hakai magazine) and SA's Twyg helpful when navigating Seaspiracy documentary questions. “ Though Seaspiracy misleads viewers with oversimplified science, its real harm is that it ignores the history, culture, and systemic inequities that are entwined with ocean conservation.” Stopping fishing will make the world’s hungry 90 million tons of food short each year. Growing more crops to account for this, the world could need an area 22 times that of existing rainforests.
Consumer demand for popular seafood, like prawns and shrimp, means that certain species end up being overexploited while some abundant species are underappreciated. See the table above provided by the South African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (http://wwfsassi.co.za) showing (in blue) the more sustainable local alternatives to most consumers favourite fish dishes. However, if we really want to make a sound decision when buying our fish, we really need to focus *who* and *how* and *where* they are fished.
Who is fishing?
The most immediate challenges in the SA fishing community are social/economic. For generations, small-scale fishers provided food while maintaining balance in the water. These fishers are now at the mercy of opaque supply chains that trap them in a position of price taking, moving them into unsustainable practices and bearing the brunt of conservation discourse. We need to focus on strengthening community-based fisheries, rather than supporting the big fishers.
How and where are they fishing?
All fishing methods have their pros and cons. Trawling and Longline can involve enormous bycatch and ecosystem disruption. According to SASSI, many longline fish species are in dire straits ecologically, not to mention the sharks, turtles, marine mammals and birds that are killed in the bycatch. Purse seine may involve less bycatch, but, because the net takes whole schools of fish, natural reproductive cycles can be broken. Fish farming can also pollute coastal habitats with unregulated use of pesticides and antibiotics, as well as using fish feed made from wild unsustainable sources.
Pole and line (handline) are manned by humans, using rigid poles 2-3 metres long with a short strong line and a feathered lure and hook at the end. Bycatch tends to be very small and impact to the environment is low (except for transport). Handline is preferred by small scale fishermen, keeping money in the community, although is more labour intensive, expensive and time consuming, so not always possible. |
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