Sungate Farms, originally known as Madeira Market Gardens has been bringing Randfontein home-grown vegetables for 20 years.
The Herald decided to have a look at the processes the vegetables Randfontein residents buy at Sungate Farms undergo before being put into a bag and taken home to be served for supper.
This family business has been passed down from generation to generation and has been in the family for three generations.
Manuel Nunes senior, who started everything, came to South Africa in 1953 and in the early 60s, he started Madeira Market Gardens in Randgate. The farm and business have been passed down since to Manny and André Nunes. Manny handles the business side and André is responsible for the farming side.
The small produce shop has been in that location for 30 years and the fresh vegetables being sold in the shop were grown on a plot and transported to the shop. The shop grew exponentially and the family decided that it was time to move because the shop was getting too small.
Madeira Market Gardens then moved to Elandsvlei and changed the name to Sungate Farms. As in the past, all the vegetables and herbs they sell at Sungate they grow themselves and are harvested by hand.
On the 60-hectares farm Sungate grows 15 different kinds of vegetables from seedling they buy.
Workers harvest crops daily and those are taken directly to the store. The major harvest season, however, is in summer from December to May. These crops are planted in October.
Nunes junior has a secret to growing big, healthy vegetables. He said when weeds start to infiltrate the rows of crops, most farmers kill the weeds with pesticides.
Nunes junior, however, does not use pesticides to eradicate the weeds; instead the Sungate method allows the weeds to grow to a certain height after which they are hand-cleared.
The hand-clearing firstly creates jobs, and secondly the process of plucking the weeds from the ground loosens the soil around the vegetables, allowing in more oxygen, Nunes junior told the Herald.
The farm’s crops are irrigated with borehole water.
When the Herald visited the farm, workers were harvesting cabbage, carrots and cauliflower. Cabbage and cauliflower are harvested by chopping off the stem near the ground. The carrots are pulled out, put into bags and loaded onto a truck.
These vegetables are washed and delivered to the store where residents come to buy them.
