Spring is in the air and a floral feast awaits you at Veld & Sea. After starting a small, wild-flavoured tea garden in 2007, founder Roushanna Gray’s passion to learn more about the edible landscape continued to grow.
Also read: Discovering the edible landscape with Veld and Sea
She was inspired by her own children’s journeys and adventures with foraged food and she later started teaching kids to forage and harvest before developing foraging workshops for adults over a decade ago.
In 2017, Veld & Sea was officially launched as a full-time business, and today it offers intimate and bespoke events where small groups are given the opportunity to get their creative juices flowing, their hands dirty and their mouths watering.
Recently, Cape {town} Etc’s Murray Swart attended one of these events for a morning, surrounded by the natural floral beauty of the Cape Peninsula, to learn more about the indigenous flowers while savouring their scents, flavours and medicinal benefits in a tranquil and breathtaking setting.
Veld & Sea hopes to inspire reciprocal relationships with the land and ocean through immersive learning and nature as their classroom.
By working with the seasons and cycles of nature, Gray and her passionate staff have developed a deeper understanding of self, spirit and science, perceiving these spaces as home and habitat to more than just humans, with values that go beyond food.
The methodology of the workshops and experiences is very hands-on and multi-sensory.
Listening, immersing, looking, gathering, smelling, creating and tasting what you are learning in a nurturing space has a deep impact and offers knowledge one is less likely to forget if you can personally connect it back to a memory, a time, a place and a taste.
Veld & Sea offers an array of workshops to cater for any preference and palate, including seasonal offerings such as coastal foraging in summer, wildfood land foraging in winter and mushroom picking in autumn.
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However, with spring in full swing between September and November, flower workshops have been all the rage at Veld & Sea.
During the recent visit, guests were able to immerse themselves in the blooms and blossoms, the Fynbos and foliage, the delightful and delicious, bringing flower power and creativity together with flower crowns, floral creations, edible flower picking, botanical cocktails and the preparing and sharing of a floral food feast.
After a brief introduction and enjoying a cup of delicious fynbos chai tea, brewed from the bounty of freshly picked florals, guests had a chance to get creative by taking some time out to create headpieces, exquisitely decorated with roses, proteas and pin cushions, while learning more about the tastes, tones and health benefits of cornflowers, hibiscus, poppies and carnations, growing within metres of their classroom in Veld & Sea’s Glasshouse.
After sharing a few favourite floral stories and patiently accenting their carefully crafted crowns, it was time to get among the fynbos and flowers, where guests were able to apply their newly found knowledge and encouraged to take what they liked but only pick what they were planning to eat.
After the edible flower picking session in the gardens and wild, we headed back to the Glasshouse for floral food making, botanical drinks and a vibrant edible flower-inspired light lunch.
During this meal, guests were able to put their harvest to good use by decorating their edible delights and savouring the sensory wonders of their bounty.
Each guest first constructed their own starter, a rainbow springroll, served with a sweet chilli sauce and tahini miso, garnished with petals to provide a burst of colour and flavour.
This was followed by a main course of beetroot crepes with umami mushrooms, wild pesto and cashew cream, served with their own creation, a floral coconut bun with herb butter.
The meal culminated in an unusual but absolutely divine desert of confetti bush ice cream and berry and chocolate cookie sundae to round off an informative and delectable experience.
While the spring programme has come to an end for 2023, guests can still look forward to a bumper summer schedule at Veld & Sea, which will now be shifting their focus to coastal foraging.
The first of their summer sessions will take place on Wednesday, 8 November, with a kelp cooking class, while their first coastal foraging workshop is scheduled for the weekend of 11 and 12 November.
Another highlight for the season will be the ‘Underwater Love: A Wild Food Summer Dining Experience’ where guests will have a chance to dive into an ocean-inspired culinary adventure for a unique pop-up dining opportunity to celebrate wild flavours, showcasing the treasures of the sea and the bounty of the season.
This enchanting event is dedicated to sustainable cuisine, tantalising all your senses with an interactive 4-course menu crafted from fresh seasonal ingredients and locally produced products.
Details:
- Location: 7976 Plateau Rd, Cape Peninsula, Cape Town
- Contact: 072 234 4804
- Website: www.veldandsea.com
- Book: Visit Quicket.co.za
- Times: See the full schedule of upcoming events here
- Cost: From R700
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Picture: Murray Swart / Cape {town} Etc
