“The number of hungry people is set to reach over 1 billion by the end of this year. Rural women are a vital – yet seldom seen – part of the solution to this crisis.

Small scale farmers produce half the world’s food and most of them are women. With access to training, technology, financial services and markets – the number of people going hungry could be cut by 15%. With 7 billion people on the planet this year, their role is more important than ever.

Climate change could put an extra 50 million people at risk of hunger by 2020 and as we have seen with the drought in East Africa recently – the situation is only getting worse. The majority of those affected will be small-scale farmers.

It’s vital that we keep up the pressure on governments to deliver on their promise to halve world hunger by 2015. If you are in the US you can take action by asking Obama to stand with Africa and support women farmers.

We’re continuing to press for increased international support for small-scale women farmers and we’re are launching lots of exciting campaign activities around the world in the lead up to the UN Climate Conference in South Africa happening now.

You can help by using our video at the top of this page to tell your friends and networks about this campaign. Please share it on Facebook and Tweet about it. We’ve also got a whole bunch of multimedia goodies for you to play with and share here. The more noise we can generate about women farmers – the more visible this solution will become!”

See the Action Aid video here.

You can also follow Action Aid’s live coverage.

This is a picture of my mother’s rosemary bush. Coming from Durban, where I have always struggled to grow rosemary, seeing this kind of wonder fills me with the desire to cook and eat and dive headfirst into the bush. The other evening I made rosemary, sundried tomato, red onion and danish feta roast potatoes.

Here is another close up of the rosemary bush:

And even closer:

Still and nursery in Hogsback

As many of you know, I keep returning to Hogsback, and Essential Amathole is one of the reasons. This initiative follows an incredible approach to sustainable rural economic development in 4 ways. Firstly, it is based on a public-private-community partnership. Participation in this manner allows for equitable, responsible and sustainable development, and is a model that can (and should) be replicated as a priority for any development. Secondly, there are both direct and indirect beneficiaries. Not only is the project addressing severe unemployment in the region, but it has established a community trust that holds 24.8% of the profits, the proceeds of which go into a wide range of community-based organisations and initiatives. Thirdly, the business itself is based on environmentally sustainable methods. All farming is organic and focused primarily on indigenous plants endemic to the Eastern Cape. Finally, it is essential oils so it smells absolutely wonderful!

Here are some pictures I took of the nursery in Hogsback:

Nursery

Rose geranium nursery

Here are some close ups of the crops:

Rose geranium

Lavendar

Lemon balm

The project is still in its second phase of implementation so there are a lot more exciting possibilities emerging daily. I would highly recommend a visit if you are anywhere near those parts. It is a great example of an environmentally sustainable economic development model. And all the sites smell fantastic!

this is from a b&b in ficksburg. they have a whole lot of plants in vintage shoes.

more shoes

they also have a wild collection of old enamelware with plants.

this is a view of their enamelware collection.

keeping with the theme of hydrangeas… this was taken in someone’s garden.

i am not sure what this flower is but there was a pretty tree full of them.

hogsback has some beautiful indigenous and wild proteas. this was growing wild in the area being reclaimed for indigenous plants near ‘the edge’ (a very dramatic look out point overlooking both pine and indigenous forests. from there you can really see how the pines suck up all the water. nothing else grows anywhere near the pines. alternatively, the indigenous forest is lush and wild.

this is another protea seen at ‘the edge’. the timing was a little off and many of the proteas where on their way out. they still are deliciously beautiful though.

this is one of my favourite proteas. for some strange reason they are usually only used as fillers in bunches of more dramatic proteas. there was such beautiful bushes of these all over the garden where we were staying.