Dear Friends of Golden Sunbeams
We’re glad that after this long, hot summer, we’re looking forward to more temperate days ahead of us. At least we’re now seeing some rain, so the soil isn’t quite as dry and hard.
This means we can finally start planting new seedlings in our vegetable gardens in Nomzamo and Sir Lowry’s Pass.
In the past, we bought our vegetable plants from the same farm – but this year, for the first time, it wasn’t possible. So we looked for a new partner, and after a long search, we finally found one.
The new farm is called “Rusthof” and is located in Firgrove, between Macassar and Stellenbosch. It offers all the vegetables our children and kindergarten teachers love. So we bought spinach, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, onions and many more.
We’re fortunate to have met such nice people like Kelly there, who love their plants and their work. The next batch of vegetable seedlings has already been ordered, and we hope they’ll be ready for collection in three weeks.
After the car was packed with trays of vegetable seedlings, we drove toEmfundiSweni Pre-school in the township of Nomzamo. Nomalizo, the principal was thrilled with the great variety of vegetables.
Before Nomalizo plants the seedlings in her large vegetable garden, the children receive a lesson about the different types of vegetables. She plants the seedlings together with the children and involves them in the subsequent gardening tasks: for example, the children water the plants when there is no rain.
Our second stop was the Kingdom Kids Edu-Care Centre in Sir Lowry’s Pass, which, along with its vegetable garden, was completely destroyed by the storms of September 2023.
At that time, we immediately replaced the washed-away fence with a large wall enclosing the entire school and vegetable garden to protect it from further flooding.
After that, we began to completely redesign the garden. We carried out the garden planning as a joint project with our partner organisation CHEAFRICA. Since almost all the shade trees were uprooted during the storm, Zelna, the principal planted fruit trees as her first step – after we had laid down fresh soil and compost in the whole garden.
While they’re growing beautifully, they’re still far too small to provide shade for the plants in the garden. That’s why, last year before summer, we installed wooden pillars and hung large nets to ensure the plants received sufficient shade and weren’t exposed to the blazing sun all day.
Zelna has had a new helper in her garden for some time now: Pit has been working hard in the garden for weeks, preparing the fields so that the seedlings can now be easily planted in the prepared soil. Pit loves gardening and helps Zelna with many handyman tasks. In return, she provides him with food and many other things that he currently lacks in his modest life.
Our Loflands Day-Care in the township at Rusthof may not have much space, but June, the principal, also loves gardening. We’re always amazed at what she manages to grow on this small piece of land. June can’t do much with the large trays of seedlings; as they’re far too many for her small garden plot. For this reason, we always order small, mixed trays of different vegetables for her.
June is always very grateful when we bring her our seedlings. It’s wonderful to see how she shares her love of gardening and plants with the children and involves them in the garden work.
We extend our heartfelt thanks to Rita and Peter Spilker, who donated the vegetable seedlings to Golden Sunbeams at the beginning of autumn.
We wish you a wonderful spring in Germany and warm, bright days with plenty of sunshine! We are grateful for the springtime feelings that always arise here in autumn thanks to the blooming vegetables.
Best regards
Britta and Claudia