Eat from the Earth

Eat from the Earth took place in 2012 as a pavement banquet in the Maboneng Precint, Johannesburg. The table of soil and locally sourced organic food was a space for building relationships, hearing each other’s needs and aspirations for their precinct, and exploring next steps together. It evolved in collaboration with the JHB Culinary School and TEDx Soweto as part of our Re-naturing the City three-month residency with the Bag Factory, Johannesburg.

“People were offered an invitation to take time with food, to acknowledge its journey to our tables, and to revive food rituals so that even breaking bread together can remove the distance between people”.

Ufrieda Ho, The Star, Johannesburg

Eat from the Earth catalysed a sequence of interventions, forums, workshops and practical initiatives that unfolded over the following three months.

These included:

Weekly delivery of Organic Vegetable box scheme from Wensleydale Farm to Maboneng Precinct
OPEN Dining supported by Paul Keursten, Mark Seftel and JHB Culinary School to inspire healthy food in a collaborative city workspace
Cooking out of the Box hands-on workshops at JHB Culinary School to celebrate the seasons and the senses through cooking
What’s Cooking? forum of inspiration for urban planners, food growers and cooks as culture makers at JHB Culinary School
Preserving Food for Health hands-on fermentation workshop in Tlholego Ecovillage and Learning Centre
Hands in Soil encounter and exchange with Kofifi Youth Theatre at Sophiatown Heritage and Cultural Centre
(dis)locations|(trans)formations Bag Factory arts residency exhibition
Food of the Land Christmas celebration for Propertuity at Monaghan Farm
Slow Taste of Sky and Earth edible intervention with soil, sky and earth foods on a container roof, Maboneng Precinct

Two months after the first Eat from the Earth pavement banquet, residents and food traders in Maboneng joined forces to close the road and co-ordinate Tastes of Maboneng.

Tastes of Maboneng

HONEYCOMB CONVERSATIONS

FIRST KNOW FOOD