News24 | Barrydale’s ‘miracle community’ helps Karoo garden grow from one vegetable to 8 kitchens

What started as one garden on borrowed land in Barrydale now supplies fresh organic vegetables every week to eight food kitchens.

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• The Barrydale community has come out in numbers to support a local food garden project and raised R244 584 – nearly triple its goal – to expand its growing operation.
• The project has grown from one vegetable circle to supplying eight community kitchens reaching about 380 mouths, both young and old.
• Four new vegetable circles are being prepared for planting, with potatoes, pumpkins, and squash added to the mix, which will feed over 1 000.

A beloved Barrydale community food garden that supplies eight local kitchens has raised a quarter of a million rand to expand vegetable production across the Klein Karoo town – all from a garden project that started with one vegetable.

By 6 October, the campaign had drawn R244 584 from donors across the globe – far beyond the R86 000 needed to prepare new land, lay irrigation, buy tools, and plant thousands of seedings.

“The first reaction in seeing the response to our appeal was just pure, deep gratitude,” says Gordon Aeschliman, founder of the Love in a Bowl initiative behind the project.

Aeschliman launched the first full vegetable circle in Barrydale two years ago on land donated by a couple who shared his vision.

“It wasn’t a big strategy as much as it was just a heartfelt response: I guess we can do this; we can start to grow organic veggies that are very healthy and ensure they get to the most vulnerable members of our community,” he said.

What started as one garden on borrowed land now supplies fresh organic vegetables every week to eight food kitchens, each operated by women the campaign calls the Mamas.

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The campaign, called “Our Miracle Community Food Gardens”, launched on BackaBuddy in late September. And the response has been nothing short of generous.

Within days, it raised nearly a quarter of a million with R199 600 from offline donations and the rest from eight online donors.

From one circle to eight kitchens

The growth from one “circle” to eight kitchens happened because the work was visible and simple – others could find a way to help plant seeds, work out the compost, or deliver the harvest.

“Food is both a source of celebration and a source of suffering,” he said.

“When we have plenty of people gathered around, there’s a beautiful feeling of joy and abundance, and when we have people gathered together in a community who are very hungry or malnourished, they’re suffering.”

The project partners with the Mamas who live in the community and know each hungry person by name, ensuring the food goes to those most in need.

Aeschliman said:

When I first heard that phrase ‘no hunger under my watch,’ it was a strong message from the Mama that this was a dearly held feeling from her heart. It wasn’t a project; it wasn’t a duty; it was something held very central to who she was.

Breaking new grounds

With the funds secured, the team is preparing the land for four new vegetable circles, plus several patches for potatoes, pumpkins, and squash.

“In the week following the fundraiser, we have already been preparing the land,” he continued. “We will be able to start the actual planting over the next 19 days.”

The team is also planning a wash station for the vegetables, a delivery point for the food kitchens, and equipment for the Mamas to cook their meals.

Aeschliman’s two co-workers, Peter and Margaret, are from the Khoi lineage, the First Peoples of South Africa. They bring what he calls a deep regard for the land.

“It’s not as if we are just trying to extract all the bounty we can from the land, but rather they bring a sense of community with the land: we belong to the land, we live on the land, the land takes care of us,” he said.

Every time a new garden begins, the team gathers prayers of thanks. Seeds and seedlings are planted with love and prayers that they will feed the vulnerable.

‘No one is left behind’

Once a week, the project hosts children from local primary schools in the garden, where they learn to prepare soil, build compost, plant, and harvest.

“They literally eat them raw right from the garden and experience nutrition at its very finest,” Aeschliman said.

He says the vision remains as simple as it was on day one.

“When I say that we are one village, one garden, one table, I am simply communicating with the beautiful notion that we, as a community, take care of all of our members; no one is left behind.

“It’s just a beautiful vision of celebration of hope, of dignity, of compassion.”

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