pic:: greenpopWell today is more of a spring day than yesterday was. I was not feeling a spring vibe at all yesterday. More like the middle of winter, today however is a totally different story. It's feeling fresh out there, but not icy. It's sunshine rather than a blanket of black cloud.

So now that it's official what are your green plans for springtime? Spring is the beginning of a new growth cycle, a time for getting your fingers in the soil again...

For me this time of year is mainly about getting the veggie garden all fired up once more. Its been ticking over during winter as, with no frost, we can still grow a lot of the staples, albeit

Grow to Live: By Pat FeatherstoneGrow to Live: A simple guide to growing your own good, clean food is a book that every South African food gardener, whether novice or not, needs to have on their bookshelf. I've become quite a collector of gardening books and there are some really informative books out there. Some were written in the 80's and 90's, or earlier, when it was fashionable to nuke your vegetables with every herbicide, pesticide, fungicide and other -icide known. You were advised to routinely spray with the likes of Malathion, Karbaspray, Metasystox and other chemical weapons of mass destruction. And you had to know all about applying the right proportion of NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium) ala 2:3:2, 2:3:4, 3:2:1 or whatever. Well, following this advice would lead to a 5:4:3:2:1 explosion and the death of life in your garden.

So now you know what the book is not about, enter Grow to Live. This is a book that will make your heart soar as an organic gardener. The book distills the considerable knowledge

I lifted the lid on the cardboard box containing my raw food pizza to take a peek.

The young woman behind the desk at Nourish, the health shop at Dean Street Arcade, joined me, and we silently stood looking at the array of avocado pear, caramelised onion, mushroom, sprouts and what looked like cream, but I had been assured was actually cashew nut cheese.

She pointed to my son and whispered 'Is he going to eat this?'. I shrugged. I couldn't get my four-year old to eat a normal pizza, nevermind this affair. I assured her, my mouth already watering at the prospect of tasting what was infront of me, that I hadn't sampled the fare yet either. 'I'm just helping out' she smiled, 'and I hadn't seen one of them before'...

You can't get high on industrial hemp, but you can create clothing, housing, food, fuel, natural plastics and other locally useful and globally marketable consumer products out of it. And oh yes, did we mention jobs, and lots of them. Hemp is already a multi $ billion a year industry and growing.

The new HEMP NOW website is live, and they're petitioning the government of SA to join those countries already growing hemp. Sign the petition here.

There are many reasons why we should be growing hemp in SA:

• hemp is grown organically
• it is naturally resistant to most pests, so doesn't need pesticides or herbicides (cotton does)
• an acre field of hemp can yield up to 8 dry tons of fibre (3 times more than cotton)
• the same crop will give 4 times more paper than an acre forest of trees...

Every school week a box of vegetables is dropped off at my son's school with my name on it. It sits, in amongst similar boxes, awaiting pick-up. It must be said that I often forget and my box finds its way into the school fridge until I remember the following day to collect it.

My pack is always brimming over with a variety of fresh vegetables, picked on the morning of delivery. This might sound pretty obvious, but I have used other box delivery schemes in Cape Town where, because of logistics and through no fault of their own, you only receive your vegetables a couple of days after picking. This can make a huge difference to the state of your vegetables (Harvest of Hope's are firm, crisp and FRESH – gorgeous!).

learning the permaculture way with SEEDSeed embodies what permaculture is all about. The Seed permaculture courses teach you how to design and grow your garden in a way that mimics the diverse biological systems in nature. The garden works as a whole system, providing ecological sustainability, whilst at the same time meeting human needs. Looking at a permaculture garden you may be forgiven for thinking that this is organised chaos! Yet as in nature, there is method in madness.

Plants are planted in a manner that conserves space and allows them to benefit each other. Seeds Saturday courses teach you the principles behind permaculture and how to go about adding permaculture to your own garden. The courses take place at

Second Edition Cape Town Green MapWe've been working on a project with the City of Cape Town's Environmental Resource Management Dept and A & C Maps for the last eighteen months and today we're launching the second print edition of the Cape Town Green Map, ahead of World Environment Day tomorrow. The online map was launched a year ago, and Open Green Map, the global green map system we are affiliated with, is also turning one tomorrow.

This weekend the Good Food and Wine festival is happening at the CTICC. I went along to discover how much sway the local and organic movement has over food in our country at festivals such as this one.

South Africa has many hidden food gems that are scattered throughout the country and you sometimes have to be in the know and other times you may just stumble across some great produce. Now let’s face it, festivals such as this one are aimed at the well heeled and if you can tear yourself away from the celebrity chefs, there are several stalls featuring organic or eco-friendly foodstuffs.

Green Home, which happens to be supplying the BBC Lifestyle

Lulama Jim of the Masicendani garden picks carrots for Harvest of HopeIf you are of a certain background, you are probably used to buying your vegetables cleaned, washed and chopped, pre-packaged and beautiful from Pick n’ Pay and Woolworths. Many of us want this kind of convenience. However this recent shift in consumer culture means that as a race, we have become lazier, especially in terms of our food production. This kind of production process is what is threatening our global food security. According to Abalimi Bezekhaya project facilitator Rob Small, the answer lies in community micro farming. Small believes that South Africa produces less than 25% of its food needs. He also said that “50% of the so called homelands are now vacant, as people are drawn to the cities and we have less and less people producing.”

Free range eggs by wikimediacommons

Towards the middle of last year it emerged that Woolworth's, who appeared to be committed to free range eggs in its stores, was using battery farmed eggs in many of its products.

Activist! ran a campaign for Woolworths customers to spell out to their favourite retailer, just what they felt about having the feathers pulled over their eyes.

Activist have now provided a feedback page so we can ensure Woolworth's live up to their commitment.

Meeting and commitment
At a meeting held on the 26th of October last year, Julien Novak Head of Woolworth Foods, was handed a petition and he apologised for