Living in a vegetable patch

Fields of lettuce 

Twenty-seven years ago, when we bought in the valley, it was mostly farmed with vines, apricot orchards and yellow cling peaches. Driving through the valley today, one encounters vineyards, apricot, peach, olive, plum, pomegranate, orange, lemon, satsuma, nectarine, and persimmon orchards.

Fields of butternut

The sad part of the citrus orchards, is that they are grown under a white netting that stretches over vast tracks of land, mostly against hillsides. The vast expanses of white netting are highly intrusive in the natural landscape. One has sympathy with the farmers who have to produce fruit in a more competitive world market, but one feels that it can be achieved a bit more sensitively.

Citrus orchards under netting in the distance, near Ashton

Shade netting reduces water consumption and damage from wind and sun but apparently the control of red scale, mealybug, red mite and woolly whitefly is more challenging under nets. One has to wonder how the nets are also impacting on beneficial insects, bees for instance.

Citrus Orchards under netting near Swellendam

Apart from the larger variety of fruit being grown in the valley, we have also noticed that vegetables are now being grown on a larger scale. Mealie, lettuce, butternut, cabbage, melon and tomato fields are making their appearance between vineyards and orchards.

Red frilly lettuce

A bit surprising, given our current climate of water restrictions. One would think that vegetables would need more water. Growing vegetables on this scale is possibly more labour intensive as well. Surely a welcome change in a valley where work opportunities are becoming scarcer.

Tomato plants

Driving through the valley feels like walking through the Towerwater garden. The variety of crops grown in the valley resembles the crops growing in the Towerwater garden, but those in the valley are on a gigantic scale. I find the vegetable fields a welcome change in our valley. Sometimes I feel a bit envious when I see how healthy the plants look. But I am sure they are not organic like those in the Towerwater garden. That thought gives me a little bit of consolation.

Living in the valley feels like living in a giant’s vegetable patch. That is quite nice. I get a visual joy from the big stretches of orderly vegetables etched into the landscape against the backdrop of the beautiful mountains of the Breede Valley.

I wonder what Forrest Rigg would think of what his irrigation canal has achieved for this valley. One man’s vision of more than 100 years ago changed a semi Karoo landscape into a lush food producing valley. I have to wonder how many of us are aware of all those who went before with vision and big dreams that have made it possible for us to enjoy what we have and what sustains our lives today.