Farmers market enchants Fourways
FOURWAYS - Eighteen months after its opening week, landscape architect and botanist Greg Straw talked about the inspiration behind the flourishing Fourways Farmers Market.
Managing director of landscape architecture company, Earth, Straw is the genius behind high-profile projects around South Africa and the world, from exotic island resorts to Madiba’s memorial garden. In Fourways, meanwhile, he has created a vibrant, down-to-earth community hub… by accident.
In March last year, the Fourways Farmers Market opened to its first 680 visitors, after extensive remodelling of what was once a Keith Kirsten nursery. Straw and his team removed 73 tonnes of garden refuse and rubble from a site used as a dump by local residents for years, and replaced it with a rustic green haven. Today, the market seats about 2 500 people and boasts 102 vendors selling fresh produce, food and craft beverages weekly.
For fun rather than money, Straw said he decided to create a picnic park where the whole family, from dogs to grandparents, could relax together. The idea bore fruit, and the market is abuzz every Sunday with couples and families strolling between stalls and the bandstand, or enjoying a glass of champagne and a bite to eat on the shady lawns – all against a pleasing country setting.
“We’re in Joburg, we’re in the Big Stink, but let’s pretend we’re in a garden,” said Straw.
Straw is committed to providing a space that is functional and comfortable as well as attractively rustic. The market makes extensive use of recycled materials, and boasts everything that other markets don’t have, he said – from luxurious hygiene amenities to a sophisticated electrical grid for safety.
“I went to town on it,” Straw claimed.
Straw may soon go to town – literally – on another, grander project. He and his team have compiled plans for a suggested conversion of Ellis Park Stadium and its surrounds into a precinct. While Fourways residents continue to flock to the Farmers Market as summer blossoms, then, another big-city space could benefit from its transformation into another community-friendly, cosmopolitan location.
Details: www.ffmarket.co.za; info@ffmarket.co.za; 011 465 5276
