The picturesque village of Herbertsdale lies 40 kilometres inland from Mossel Bay, the official start of the Garden Route in South Africa. Cradled by the Langeberg Mountains, a drive into this region reveals vast swathes of land carpeted in bright yellow canola fields, occasionally broken by the softer hues of fynbos flowers. It is here, up on a mountain rather than in a valley, that Esmarie van Reemen decided to buy 1,200 acres to plant Tenderstem® broccoli and a variety of baby vegetables, including carrots and leeks.
“I could see that there’s huge potential here – the climate is good, the soil is fertile and there aren’t a lot of vegetable farms around. It’s mainly dairy, livestock and canola. I couldn’t give up on this opportunity,” says Esmarie. Established in 2024, her farm named Kus Tot Krein, meaning ‘from the shore to the summit’, supplies close to 50 per cent of the Tenderstem® broccoli that’s prepared and packaged at Southern Cape Veggies, a facility that’s part of the larger Fresh To Go business, which has been supplying Spinneys with a range of prepped vegetables for several years. When asked if she always wanted to be a farmer, she says farming is in her blood, but she studied computer science. “After I finished studying, I decided I can’t sit in an office all day, so in 2003 I joined the family business.”
Farming in the Southern Cape has involved a learning curve for Esmarie, who is currently moving her family’s farming operations from Gauteng province to this region. Crops were planted under tunnels in Gauteng to protect them from the cold, especially at night when the mercury could plummet to −4°C, but winter in the Southern Cape rarely sees temperatures below 10°C. However, wind chill wasn’t a factor Esmarie had been expecting to contend with, “it made the soil temperature drop below 10°C, so some of the crops stood still for two to three weeks. The only crops that were doing well and grew vigorously were the Tenderstem® broccoli and beetroot.”
Broccoli is a relatively easy crop to grow
Esmarie van Reemen has been farming since 2003
Apart from such teething problems, Esmarie admits farming in the area has brought her much satisfaction, as she stops to inspect a row of baby carrot plants growing alongside her hero crop. Carrot, onion and beetroot have proved to be ideal companion plants to Tenderstem® broccoli. “You’ll notice we have planted two rows of Tenderstem, then a row of another crop followed by two rows of Tenderstem and so on…they assist each other and we benefit from their synergetic relationship,” says Esmarie as she pulls up a few sweet baby carrots for us to taste.
To ensure a steady harvest all year round, her team carries out sap analysis every two weeks, especially on the Tenderstem®, a valuable tool to measure plant nutrient status to optimise crop management and additionally, they’re investing in beneficial soil microbes “because healthy soil means healthy plants, and if they’re healthy, you won’t have a problem with diseases,” adds Esmarie.
All these measures result in top quality fresh produce making its way to Southern Cape Veggies in Mossel Bay where the on-site team also receives daily harvests from other partner farms in the area. “We work with several farmers who plant under contract to us, supplying us with a range of brassicas such as cauliflower and broccoli as well as baby veggies like rainbow carrots, spring onions and salad onions. And crops such as Tenderstem® broccoli are carefully monitored. We manage the quantities of seeds farmers plant and the harvested product can only be supplied through our facility into the export market,” explains Stuart Wortly, general manager of Southern Cape Veggies.
Tenderstem® broccoli washed, prepped and ready for our packs
Expect plenty of flavour and texture from Discovery by Spinneys Aromatic Asian Stir-Fry
Another line of product Stuart is particularly proud of is the vegetable-based spaghetti and fettucine, which are estimated to hit Spinneys shelves within a couple of months. Made from offcuts of carrots and brassicas such as cauliflower and broccoli florets and stems – that can’t be put into retail packs – “these noodles contain only a couple of other ingredients, which get added to the recipe to stabilise the product and increase nutritional content”. Any remaining brassica and carrot waste is sent back into the farming community where it is used as animal feed, essentially circulating the product that couldn’t be packed for retailers.
Over in Fresh To Go’s Johannesburg facility, chief operations officer Craig Henry has been busy overseeing the upgrade of the stir-fry vegetable range, which Spinneys has been sourcing from the business for several years. Craig’s passion for being outdoors and working closely with farmers has kept him going in the business of fresh produce for 25 years. “There are a lot of moving parts in such a project, and it takes around three months from ideation
to sample submission for any new product to get thego-ahead,” explains Craig.
Meanwhile, Jaclyn Everson, new product development manager at Fresh To Go, has played a key role in elevating the existing stir-fry range to make it reflect the premium quality of South Africa’s bountiful harvests by adding “bright, flavourful and visually appealing ingredients” such as Tenderstem® broccoli, pak choi, baby corn and shimeji mushrooms to the mixes to inspire customers to create easy, nutritious meals. When asked which product is her favourite, she replies, “I mean how do you choose between your babies? But if I must, I’ll choose the Aromatic Asian because I love mushrooms and that for me is the perfect mix of earthy mushrooms with bright baby corn sweetness.”
The Fresh To Go pack house buzzes with activity seven days a week with fresh produce arriving daily from its partner farms in Gauteng province. “We harvest, procure and process every day because we’re dealing with huge quantities of fresh produce. It’s a high-pressure business and we’re committed to delivering on time to maintain shelf life,” says Craig.
And as always, the main factor that spearheaded this project was finding convenient solutions that add value to our customers’ lives. Spinneys vegetable buyer Angelique Du Toit says, “If mothers, families or anyone else walks into our supermarket and finds everything they need to create a flavourful, restaurant-quality meal at home that’s also quick to throw together then we’ve made their lives easier.”.
