I was born on a farm in Roossenekal and came here to Keerom when I got married. My parents were workers on that farm, but they also had a small food garden of their own. As a child I worked alongside my mother to grow our food. I did all the usual child jobs – watering, weeding, scaring birds away, helping to bring in the harvest. In one of our first SocioTech training sessions with Sizwe, we talked about the importance of good nutrition which is something that has been forgotten these days. It reminded me of my childhood, because in those days we grew healthy, traditional, African food. We ate a lot of mabele which I think tastes better than maize or bread. We made lerotse porridge that was so delicious. Sometimes we took the seeds, dried them and ground them up, sifted them and put that powder into the porridge. It was so rich and creamy. 

When you stay on a farm and you are far from the shops, you learn to create everything yourself. When I grew up, there was no getting on a taxi and going to the mall. Even today I think that is a foolish thing to do. It is so expensive to go to the mall just to buy ingredients that you can grow at home.

The younger people dismiss that way of life, but, even if they don’t like the taste of those traditional foods, they should realise that there are business opportunities in that old knowledge that we learnt on the farms. Someone told me that in Johannesburg they will pay a lot of money for marula nuts. They are difficult to get out of the pip – you need to hit them with a rock and carefully extract them – but I know how to do it and if there is a market for them, I can definitely do it. 

I joined the Mojoke Matsogo Cooperative last year. The name of our group means ‘food from our hands’ which tells you exactly what we do. We are trying to get back to those days of creating our own food with our own hands. We are creating our own income by selling our crops.

I like to sell door to door. I put a basket on my head or push a wheelbarrow full of vegetables. I find it is the best way to learn what the customers want. Sometimes I can make suggestions about how to cook an ingredient and advise people which things to buy together. That helps to make sales. For instance, if someone buys morogo from me, I always ask if they also want onion and tomato. In addition to selling fresh vegetables in season, we are also drying some of the leafy greens so that we can go on selling throughout the winter.

We have big plans for this cooperative and everyone in the group is determined to make it work. It hasn’t been easy. We had a few setbacks last year.