JNF, KDL visit eco-friendly food garden

ANT KATZ

Pictured Bev Bower and The King David Linksfield Green Committee with Benji Shulman of the Jewish National Fund SA, holding their lettuce at Siyakhana.

The garden was started by Professor Michael Rudolph as a research and food production outreach project for the inner city of Johannesburg.

The facility is highly innovative and boasts a number of eco-conscious technologies on display such as a waterless toilet and several rammed earth buildings. The group was met by environmental studies post-graduate and volunteer facilitator Ruth Singer, who showed the learners around.

The group had an opportunity to engage with concepts such as permaculture, an environmentally friendly form of agriculture, and learn about the different plants and herbs that grow in the garden.

A session was also held exploring how environmental concepts are viewed in Judaism and how they are applied in Israel on various kibbutzim.

As a special treat the learners were allowed to harvest some lettuce from the vegetable section and each received a JNF blue box enabling them to plant their own trees. The Green Committee was very excited about the project and the teacher in charge, Bev Bower, said they would like to consider coming back on a regular basis to assist with the work that Siyakhana does.