Making KOS

Based in the Western Cape of South Africa, this body of work operates under two interconnected strands: Making KOS, established in 2010 as a sole proprietorship, and the Local WILD Food Hub (LWFH), founded around 2016. The LWFH bases many of its explorative activities at a long-established sustainability-focused institute in the Lynedoch Valley, which provides infrastructural support including finance, communications, monitoring and evaluation, and opportunities for practical wild foods exploration in their food garden supported by garden teams, and exploring wild food use through their cooking and feeding operation that serves two on-site Montessori schools and a café that serves staff, students and visitors. The work centres on the identification, cultivation, cooking, and broader reintegration of indigenous Cape foods into the Western Cape food system, including into local food traditions. The region has an estimated 1,700 edible indigenous species, of which only a negligible number — most notably rooibos and honeybush — appear in the current mainstream food system. The sole proprietor has focussed on 22 plants as a starting point, documenting them in two published books: one covering identification and cultivation for home gardeners and small-scale growers, and a second covering preparation and use. Field trials for growing indigenous Cape foods are conducted in partnership with a UK botanical garden and a local foundation. Nutritional analysis of selected plants has been undertaken to build an evidence base for health authorities and food system actors. Activities include partnering on farmer training workshops and support for small-scale growers with a local farmer organisation, educating chefs in training at a culinary school and community engagement in peri-urban and township settings. A community of practice, a partnership with a local university, brings together researchers, growers, cooks, and community and civil society representatives to coordinate strategy and raise mutual concerns across these groups. Research partnerships with universities have included a three-year study on food knowledge systems in a mountainous rural area. The work of the LWFH intentionally targets marginalised communities and small-scale farmers rather than well-resourced commercial actors, with the explicit goal of directing economic and cultural benefit toward marginalised communities whose food traditions were erased during colonisation. Funding has been chronically limited: for most of the period since 2010, the work has been self-financed through market sales, workshops, and landscape design consultancy, with two and a half years of dedicated philanthropic funding received from a Dutch foundation. Currently, minimal financial support comes through the community of practice, the UK botanic gardens partnership and consultancy work. A research strategy is currently being framed with partnering colleagues from a nearby university, to deepen academic rigour of the novel and innovative work being undertaken. The hub is not registered as an independent legal entity; it operates under the institutional framework of the host institute whilst a decision on formalisation remains open for consideration should circumstances necessitate it.