Category GrowAndMakeYourOwn

Gourmet mushrooms have quietly become one of the more expensive items in the fresh produce aisle. At most South African retailers, oyster mushrooms can set you back anywhere from R80 to R150 per 200g punnet. That adds up fast, especially when you start using them regularly in cooking. What most people do not know is that cardboard, the kind your last online order arrived in, is one of the most effective growing substrates for oyster mushroom mycelium. With a few rand worth of spawn and a recycled box, you can produce several kilograms of fresh mushrooms every month, right inside your home.

Most households in South Africa spend a surprising amount on commercial toothpaste every year. When you multiply the cost of a tube by the number of people in your home and by twelve months, it adds up. And that is before you consider what you are actually putting in your mouth. Fluoride debates aside, the average commercial toothpaste contains a list of synthetic ingredients that many people would rather avoid. The good news is that making your own toothpaste at home requires only three basic ingredients, costs almost nothing, and genuinely works. This article walks you through exactly how to do it.

There is a strange disconnect in modern South African life. We have spent the past three years watching egg prices swing wildly. We have lived through avian flu shortages where Pick n Pay shelves stood empty. We have absorbed feed inflation, fuel surcharges, and load shedding penalties baked into every dozen we buy. And yet the obvious answer, the one our grandparents would not have thought twice about, is sitting in the back garden behind a low fence: keep your own hens.

There is a complete, daily food system sitting in the bulk section of almost every grocery store. It costs less than a taxi ride, needs no electricity, no soil, and no equipment beyond a jar and water. It produces fresh, living food every single day with less than five minutes of effort. It has been used for centuries, validated by food science, and largely ignored by the modern supplement industry for one simple reason. There is nothing to sell. This is not a trend. It is a biological process you can run in your kitchen starting tomorrow morning.

Store-bought mayonnaise is one of those products that looks simple on the surface but hides a surprisingly long list of ingredients once you flip the jar around. Canola oil, modified starch, artificial preservatives, and flavourants you cannot pronounce tend to make up the bulk of commercial mayo. When you make your own at home, you control every single ingredient, you know exactly what goes in, and the result is a condiment that tastes completely different to anything you will find on a supermarket shelf.

If you grow beetroot and carrots in your South African garden, you already know the problem: they all come ready at the same time, and there is only so much you can roast, juice, or eat fresh before the harvest starts going to waste. Fermentation solves that problem completely. A few minutes of prep, some salt, a glass jar, and you have a living, gut-friendly preserve that will keep for months and actually improve with age. This guide walks you through everything you need to know to ferment beetroot and carrot at home, from the science behind why it works, to choosing the right salt ratio, to knowing when your jar is ready to eat.

Most store-bought soap is loaded with synthetic detergents, artificial fragrance, and preservatives that your skin was never designed to handle. The alternative is simpler, cheaper, and more satisfying than you might think. Making your own soap from sunflower oil is one of the most accessible home chemistry projects you can tackle, and in South Africa it is particularly practical because sunflower oil is widely available, grown locally, and costs a fraction of the imported specialty oils that most soap tutorials call for. This guide walks you through everything you need: the science, the safety, the equipment, the recipe, and the process from start to finish.

The price of coffee is quietly becoming a household budget problem. Arabica futures hit record highs in early 2025, and South African consumers are feeling that squeeze at the shelf. A 250g bag of decent ground coffee that cost R80 two years ago now sits closer to R130 in most stores, and analysts are not predicting a reversal. The reasons are structural: Brazil endured its worst drought in 70 years, Vietnam's robusta harvest dropped by 20% after devastating floods, and three consecutive years of global deficits have drained international stockpiles. A PLOS ONE climate study found that by 2050, up to 56% of land currently suitable for Arabica production will no longer support the crop. In the hottest growing zones, that figure climbs to 80%.

Protein does not have to come from a packet of whey powder or a tray of chicken breasts from the supermarket. Long before processed food entered the picture, African farmers, homesteaders, and communities fed themselves well on the protein locked inside seeds, beans, and leaves that grow easily in our soils. If you are building a more self-sufficient life, whether on a small plot in Limpopo, a suburban garden in Gauteng, or a larger smallholding in the Eastern Cape, understanding which plants give you the most protein per gram is one of the most practical pieces of knowledge you can have.