Before the word gets out, I thought I’d share my addiction to the latest restaurant to open on the Spier Wine Estate in Lyndedoch Road, Stellenbosch. Eight at Spier serves good wholesome breakfasts, brunches and lunches on the grounds of the popular weekend destination.

The restaurant is child-friendly, affordable, and one of very few restaurants with a green ethos where environmental consciousness and commitment to the Earth is a high priority. Most of all, the restaurant lacks pretentiousness, and easily ranks as one of the best places to get a decent, healthy breakfast over a weekend …

As far as food markets go, the Wild Oats Market in Sedgefield on the Garden Route probably comes up tops. Residents of Sedgefield and visitors to the town head out in their droves on a Saturday morning to the edge of town right next to the Swartvlei lake-lagoon, where the market has a permanent home under the trees.

The market's full name is the Wild Oats Community Farmers' Market and it has won numerous awards during its ten year life span. Whilst I'd heard only good things about the farmers' market, I hadn't yet had the opportunity to visit it, but our road trip up to Hogsback had been conveniently carved into a number of stopovers that included Sedgefield, and the market was one of the first to make its way onto the itinerary.

For those of you in search of something new that is not only set to be equally as good as the Biscuit Mill's Neighbourgoods Market, but also emphasises the local, artisan and sustainability aspect of food, head off to the Earth Fair market in Tokai.

Earth Fair is also an indoor market. It lies in the South Palms (for those of you to whom this means nothing, it's actually in the same area as Builders Warehouse in Main Road, although behind Bathroom Bizarre). There is plenty of parking, for a start, and there are activities for kids, which for many living in Tokai is something of a godsend on a Saturday morning.

Demo at UCT campus on Friday 9 OctIt was only a few hours after we posted this story yesterday that Woolworths sent out the following sms – I'm sure you received it too:

This morning we received a further press release from Compassion in World Farming SA (read on to sign their petitions), to let us know they are staging a demonstration this Friday, World Egg Day, at Jameson Plaza, UCT Main Campus between 12.30 -1.30pm.

“Women dressed in egg-yolk yellow swimsuits will spend their lunch hour inside cages, holding egg shaped placards, calling for an end to battery eggs in SA.

50% of eggs in the UK are currently free range, and in 2012 EU legislation will ban battery cages for egg laying hens, meanwhile....only 3% of eggs in South Africa are free range.  Why is this? 

This is an updated version of our 2007 green guide.

If you’re one of many in Cape Town who recognise the value of buying organic and thus supporting sustainable, environment friendly farming then this is the guide for you.

In the UK stats released in March 2009 show that despite GDP falling by 1.9%, unemployment increasing by 1.3% and retail sales dropping by 1.8%, sales of organic food has continued to increase by 1.7%. In other words, the organic market is alive and well, and resiliant. [soil association]

In Sweden, the sale of organic food reached a record high in 2008 and now accounts for 3.4% of total sales. [swedishwire]

And US sales of organic food and nonfood products grew 17.1% over 2007 sales, despite tough economic times. [environmentalleader]

There are no statistics available for SA on organic sales. Infact we don't even have a national body that regulates the industry...

The first thing that grabs you about kwaLapa at the Montebello Design Centre in Newlands, is their catchy byline – telling the stories of food.

Its meaning is lost on me, until I begin scanning the shelves and stumble across some of the initial 'stories' about where the store sources its foods that the team behind the store have begun placing on the walls. Then I begin to understand that kwalapa isn't just a store. It's a community of people in the business of telling and selling the stories of food.

The organic wholefoods delicatessen and store has only recently opened its doors, but you can plainly see that it's a matter of time before word of mouth and the green grapevine has the place fairly buzzing for morning coffee and lunches, particularly since Organic Living in Plumstead closed its restaurant (it remains a popular health store up at Constantia Village) and the southern suburbs have been itching for a replacement...

Waverley Hills is on the R46 between Tulbagh and Ceres and lies virtually at the foot of the Witzenberg Mountains.

But Waverley Hills benefits from lying right on a natural water shed area - you're made more than aware of this as you drive throught the gates, or perhaps because spring is imminent, because wild flowers and grasses were growing ramapantly on either side of the sand road that wound its way up to the prominent wine cellar and restaurant.

Waverley Hills has been on urban sprout's directory , as one of few organic wines in the country, for some time. We've even managed to sample their olive oil, for they have olive groves too, at a couple of Cape Town food exhibitions, but not the wine, for some inexplicable reason – perhaps we haven't tried hard enough?

But we recently spent a quiet week in Tulbagh, and Waverley Hills made it to the top of our 'organic must do's' list, even if we didn't get there until en route back to Cape Town. Tulbagh, for those of you who haven't been there yet, is an utterly gorgeous little town, not even two hours' from Cape Town, and obviously perfect for a weekend away...

You haven’t met before?
No, seriously, you haven’t?

Well, then… meet the Cape Town Green Map.
What’s that? You have no idea what it is? Well then, it seems a proper introduction is in order. May I formally introduce to you Africa’s first, very exciting, helpful, online, interactive Green Map.

A map, I hear you say? Well, as with all maps, it does provide direction – but with a difference.

No other map has attempted to chart and detail the city of Cape Town from a green angle before. This particular one is unique in that way. The map can be used to make greener lifestyle choices, and help people to make more informed decisions on how to live sustainably. It is also different because it is on-going, evolving and is constantly being updated.

Fast Food NationFast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser is a great book. I know it is now a documentary, but I find the book has a lot more information than a documentary generally does. I wouldn't mind watching the documentary as well, actually. My expectation of the book was very different from the reality, but I much preferred the reality (not that I wouldn't have enjoyed having my expectations met, otherwise I wouldn't have bought the book, obviously). I expected the book to focus on the usual anti-fast food themes, ie. damage to the environment, promoting unhealthy food, exploiting workers, etc. While the book does cover some of the usual issues, it spends more time addressing other issues and does a very good job of it.

The book is not an emotive tirade against the evils of fast food. It is more a well researched and factual representation of the effect of fast food on the country (America), its people and the World. The first section of the book looks at how fast food started. It's well researched and he seems to be trying to demonstrate that the intentions of the 'founding fathers' of fast food were good.

If you haven’t already visited the new Stellenbosch fresh goods market then do so! We had a ball there on Saturday morning. Located on the Dorpstreet square in Bosman’s Crossing trading village - the historical entrance into Stellenbosch under the slopes of the Onderpappegaaiberg on the Plankenberg river – we were unintentionally highjacked by a strategically placed, and rather enormous sign which led us to a wine estate breakfast market en route, a minor detour that, had we had the time, was apparently worth the diversion. But I digress…

The fresh goods market is an authentic slow food market...