Snap, plant, grow - veggie gardening made simple with Sow Delicious

What does your business do?

At Sow Delicious, we love to inspire and empower people to grow their own delicious food. Growing a vegetable patch is now as easy as snap, plant, grow! Our slabs are pot-friendly too so it does not matter if you live on a farm or in a flat; with the Slab of Seed, we make grow-your-own ‘sow’ simple.

What was your inspiration?

I used to be a seedling girl, but after doing some research on the healthiest alternatives, I discovered this whole unknown world of seed types and how the different strains can make a profound difference to the taste of your food and, more importantly, your health.

I concluded that Heirloom or Heritage seed was the way to go because it was the ancient seed that held the purest genetic strains and would grow the tastiest and healthiest food, and I could save the seed from these plants to grow next season.

An extra bonus, which appealed to my more creative foodie side, was that these vegetables were anything but boring and looked stunning on a dinner plate. Think candy cane beetroot, black peppers, lime green striped tomatoes... mmm delicious!

What were some of the challenges you faced?

The problem was that Heirloom seed was not only quite difficult to get in South Africa, at the time, but they also did not come in seedling form and so I had to grow it from seed. To be honest, I was scared of seed and planting with it.

My perfectionist side did not like the fact that it was difficult to get straight, perfectly spaced rows of beautiful vegetables with these tiny specs that stuck to your finger or poured out the packet like sand.

How did it go at first?

Mine seemed to come up in haphazard clumps and, as the instructions seemed inadequate, I made novice mistakes like not watering enough or planting in the wrong season.

One aspect of my character is that I am a pathfinder, and as I was sitting in my lounge busy contemplating how I was going to make this seed thing less intimidating and much more inspiring, this idea seemingly fell out of the heavens straight into my head like the proverbial Newton’s Apple, but instead of shouting “Eureka”, I shouted “chocolate”.

How is it going now?

I was thrilled when our secret formula worked because I thought that this was a product that would always have to remain local as we have many ingredients and the seed itself is a tricky thing to export.

The fact that our new addition to our innovative formula succeeded tells me that we must be ready for this new leap and hopefully, we will join the ranks of the many great South African companies that have gone before us and left their mark on distant shores.

For more information, visit Sow Delicious online.