Upcoming ‘Edible Landscape’ course to teach cooking with wild plants

The upcoming ‘Edible Landscape – getting to know, grow and use’ course, is a weekend masterclass taught by landscape designer and indigenous foods innovator, Loubie Rusch.

The course will take place in the Karoo town of Prince Albert at the African Relish Recreational Cooking School from December 10 – 12 2021.

Rusch, the founder of Local WILD, started her wild foods journey as a forager. It was the only way to get hold of ingredients she needed, she says. Though hunting and gathering had been how our forgotten foods were accessed for millennia, re-integrating them into our modern lives needs us to explore more sustainable ways of access as interest in them begins to soar.

Attendees will learn about the importance of growing edible indigenous plants and eating local. Guests will also discover garden plants that have parts you didn’t know you can eat through cooking with several of them over the course of the weekend using Loubies’ latest book Cape Wild Food: A Growers Guide.

The course happens over three days and includes four cooking sessions plus a Ghost Walk with Ailsa Tudhope; visit for a cheese tasting and to shop at Gay’s Guernsey Dairy, a foraging outing to Dr Brett Bard, an organic farmer at Tortoiseback Haven with a picnic and a Sunday morning walk with Dr Sue Dean botanist on her nature reserve in the succulent Karoo with a visit to her nursery Renu-Karoo.

‘We bring guests to the Karoo to experience the region’s food and hospitality. African Relish is a hub of regional food knowledge for both local and foreign guests,’ the cooking school says.

‘The grounds include an olive grove and vegetable, herb and flower beds for foraging. Guests get to explore Prince Albert through a foodie culture visiting various producers and improving their cooking techniques in our kitchen. Prince Albert and the African Relish gardens are a welcome retreat from city life and business.’

For more information, call Lisa on 082 8833104 or visit the website here.

Pictures: Dimitri Otis