The home of Popeye’s favourite food

Popeye the Sailor Man got his power from eating spinach – and Carryou Ministry grows three different kinds of spinach, making the organisation something of a home for the character’s favourite food.

Carryou’s farming project is located on land belonging to Vleikop family who agreed to let the organisation use a section of the farm for their project.

The project started in 2014 and their crop yield has greatly improved since the first season. “We really struggled in the beginning, because we didn’t know as much as we know now,” Lesibana Mmethi from Carryou said. Initially, the project was run by amateur farmers but they have managed to develop their farming skills since and have increased their crop production.

Stephen Ngakane, who looks after the crops, said they grow different kinds of spinach on their farm, including mustard spinach, lazio (baby) spinach and Swiss chard spinach.

“Some of the spinach we have growing is from seeds that I planted in February. I really just took a chance on them because the ones I planted don’t grow all year round,” Stephen said.

Recently the farm has had an issue with water, as there has been little wind to drive the windmill they depend on to pump water from underground. “It’s been tough, especially because spinach loves water,” Stephen said.

The project is not limited to growing spinach – they have also grown tomatoes, watermelon, cabbages, carrots and lettuce.

Carryou’s harvests are not sold to the public; instead they’re used to feed the children at their drop-in centres. Brenda Naholo from Carryou said they are now able to feed 489 children at the Toekomsrus Drop-In Centre, and 360 at the Elandsvlei Centre every day.

In addition, Carryou has created four jobs and plans to create more once they have enough funding to train 10 people to contribute to the project.

Carryou still has big plans for the project and will carry them out as soon as they iron out all the creases. “[T]o fully utilise the facility, we must overcome certain obstacles. We’re looking for funding to develop the empty, fertile land to produce vegetables to be distributed to poverty alleviation programmes and for sale,” said Carryou’s general manager, Reverend Lawrence Mabaso.

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