Garden Day 2026: Five Chefs Bring the Harvest to the Table

A garden is more than a place where plants grow. It is somewhere to spend time, gather people, cultivate ingredients for the table and reconnect with where food comes from. For Garden Day 2026, that relationship between growing and eating takes centre stage.

Taking place on Sunday, 18 October, the 11th annual Garden Day carries the theme From Garden to Table: Grow, Gather, Celebrate – an invitation to consider not only what we grow, but what happens when that harvest makes its way into the kitchen and onto the table. Food gardens can contribute to food security and wellbeing while creating opportunities to share skills, learn about growing and bring communities together.

For chefs, that connection can be particularly meaningful. There is something satisfying about picking an ingredient from the garden and turning it into a meal, whether that means gathering salad leaves for dinner, roasting freshly harvested carrots or transforming beetroot into a centrepiece-worthy tart.

This Garden Day, five South African food voices – Bertus Basson, Chef Nti, Karen Dudley, Luke Grant and Jessica Shepherd of Good to Gather, and Ayabonga Gope – share their approaches to growing and cooking, alongside recipes that bring the garden-to-table philosophy to life.

Bertus Basson: If You Plant It, Eat It

For chef Bertus Basson, gardening is a personal pursuit. His Stellenbosch garden combines fynbos with vegetables and fruit trees, while raised beds and old fruit bins help him make the most of the available space. Even the garden’s waste has a purpose: charcoal and ash from the restaurant fire are worked into the beds, while chicken hay becomes mulch. “Our garden is a bit of a smarty box at the moment, a little all over the show,” he says.

His approach is practical, too. “I’m definitely more of a veggie grower. If you plant something, it should serve a purpose, either for beauty or to eat. For me, it’s always about eating!”

That philosophy extends to his Garden Leaf Salad with Mustard Dressing, made with leaves picked fresh from the garden, including beetroot leaves, kale, carrot tops, nasturtium and mizuna. “There is something special about picking fresh leaves for salad every night,” says Basson.

Garden Leaf Salad With Mustard Dressing

Ingredients

• Garden leaves, including beetroot leaves, kale, carrot tops, nasturtium and mizuna

For the dressing

• 2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 50ml white wine vinegar
• 1 cup olive oil

Method

Add all the dressing ingredients to a jar and shake vigorously until emulsified.

Toss the garden leaves with the dressing just before serving.

Chef Nti: A Taste Of Home

Nthabiseng Nti Ramaboa, better known as Chef Nti, has built her culinary career around keeping South African food stories alive. Her cooking combines familiar flavours and ingredients with a contemporary sensibility, with an appreciation for home-grown produce and local food producers.

Her Lemongrass and Ginger Beer is rooted in memories of Christmas mornings and celebrations in Soweto. Made with ginger, lemongrass, lemon and pineapple, it demonstrates how ingredients associated with the garden can become part of something made to share.

Lemongrass And Ginger Beer

Ingredients

• 625g sugar
• 250g fresh ginger, chopped
• 150g lemongrass, chopped
• 4 litres water
• 2 lemons
• 10g yeast
• 1 pineapple, cut into chunks

Method

Bring 1 litre of water to the boil and add the ginger, lemongrass and sugar. Stir until the sugar has dissolved.

Add the remaining water along with the lemon juice and zest and the yeast. Leave the mixture to rest for 10 to 12 hours before straining and refrigerating.

Serve chilled with fresh pineapple.

Karen Dudley: Letting The Garden Lead

Cape Town food personality Karen Dudley has long had a talent for making vegetables the star of the plate. Her Orange Fennel Salad with Pralined Almonds and Smoked Paprika brings together oranges, fennel, watercress, mint and thyme with Danish feta and a crisp smoked paprika almond praline. It is colourful and fresh, allowing the ingredients themselves to provide much of the character.

Orange Fennel Salad With Pralined Almonds And Smoked Paprika

Ingredients

• 6 medium oranges, using one or two Cara Cara or blood oranges if available
• 2 large fennel bulbs, very finely sliced
• Maldon sea salt
• 80g soft Danish feta, gently broken into bite-sized pieces
• A good handful of watercress
• 10g picked mint leaves

For the almond praline

• 80g flaked almonds
• ½ tsp smoked paprika
• 100g castor sugar

For the dressing

• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp orange juice
• 2 tsp runny honey
• Leaves from a sprig of thyme or a pinch of dried thyme
• 7 tbsp olive oil
• ½ tsp toasted cumin seeds
• 1 tsp smoked paprika

Method

To make the praline, prepare a baking sheet with a silicone mat or baking paper and lightly butter it. Toss the flaked almonds with the paprika.

Sprinkle the sugar over the base of a heavy-based frying pan and heat until the edges begin to caramelise and the sugar melts to a pale golden colour. Do not leave it unattended or stir it.

Immediately stir in the flaked almonds and quickly spread the praline over the prepared baking sheet as thinly and evenly as possible. Leave to cool in a dry place before breaking it into fine shards or crushing it lightly with a rolling pin.

For the dressing, whisk all the ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

Slice the tops and bottoms off the oranges. Using a sharp paring knife, cut down the sides to remove the peel and pith, then slice the oranges into rounds, removing any pips.

Trim the fennel bulbs, reserving the fronds for the salad. Cut the bulbs in half and remove the core, then slice very finely. Add the sliced fennel to the dressing.

Pick through the watercress, discarding any very thick stems.

In a shallow bowl or serving platter, layer the orange with the dressed fennel, fennel fronds, mint leaves and feta. Finish with the pralined almonds and the remaining fennel and mint leaves. Sprinkle with a pinch of Maldon salt and dust with a little smoked paprika.

Luke And Jess: Keeping It Close To The Source

Jessica Shepherd and Luke Grant of Good to Gather have built their food philosophy around sustainability, farm-to-table cooking and uncomplicated food that allows good ingredients to speak for themselves.

Their Beetroot Tarte Tatin demonstrates this approach. Beetroot is cooked until tender before being arranged over caramelised butter, brown sugar and red wine vinegar, topped with puff pastry and baked until golden. Served with crème fraîche, salad leaves and edible flowers, it balances the earthy sweetness of beetroot with the freshness of the garden.

Beetroot Tarte Tatin

Ingredients

• 10–12 medium beetroots
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 2 garlic cloves
• Fresh thyme
• Sea salt
• 1 cup crème fraîche
• Ready-made puff pastry
• Salad leaves and edible flowers, to garnish

Method

Cook the beetroot until tender, around 20 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool before peeling.

Melt the butter with the brown sugar, then add the vinegar, thyme and garlic. Halve the beetroot and arrange it in the pan.

Cover with puff pastry, cutting a small X in the centre to allow steam to escape. Bake at 200°C for 25 to 30 minutes until the pastry is golden.

Leave to rest for five minutes before carefully turning it out onto a plate. Serve with crème fraîche and finish with salad leaves and edible flowers.

Chef Ayabonga Gope: The Garden In A Salad

For private chef Ayabonga Gope, the connection between growing and food began long before his professional life in the kitchen. Growing up, he accompanied a neighbour to his farm to pick fresh produce, an experience that showed him how a garden can provide more than ingredients. It can create opportunity, support communities and contribute to food security.

That belief has informed his own community work. Gope helped establish a vegetable garden supplying fresh produce to restaurants and old-age homes in the Western Cape, while creating jobs and supporting the surrounding community.

His Grapefruit and Roasted Carrot Salad brings that garden-to-table philosophy into focus. Grapefruit, pomelo or oranges, fennel, tomatoes, basil, baby carrots, feta and wild rocket create a colourful salad that feels generous and distinctly suited to a South African summer table.

Grapefruit And Roasted Carrot Salad

Ingredients

• 2 grapefruit, peeled and sliced
• 2 pomelo or oranges, peeled and sliced
• A handful of fennel
• A handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 block feta, cubed
• Fresh basil
• Baby carrots
• 3 tbsp black balsamic vinegar
• Ciabatta, toasted with olive oil
• Wild rocket

For the dressing

• ¼ cup grapefruit juice
• 2 tbsp ginger juice
• 2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 tsp honey
• Salt and pepper

Method

Roast the baby carrots at 180°C for 10 minutes. Add the honey and balsamic vinegar towards the end and roast for another three minutes.

Combine the grapefruit, pomelo or oranges, fennel, tomatoes, herbs and roasted carrots.

Whisk together the dressing ingredients and drizzle over the salad. Serve on a bed of wild rocket, topped with feta and basil and a little more dressing.

Pistachios or avocado can also be added.

From Garden To Table

There is no single recipe for a Garden Day meal. It could be a beetroot tarte tatin surrounded by fresh leaves, a salad assembled from whatever is ready to harvest or a glass of homemade ginger beer shared outdoors.

The garden-to-table approach does not require a large vegetable patch or a professional kitchen. A few herbs in a pot, tomatoes on a balcony, carrots in the soil or a handful of freshly picked leaves can be enough to change the way we think about cooking. The growing is part of the pleasure, as is the cooking, but sharing that food is where the garden becomes something more: a reason to gather.

Garden Day takes place on Sunday, 18 October 2026. This year's From Garden to Table: Grow, Gather, Celebrate theme encourages South Africans to think about what they can grow and how they can enjoy the harvest, whether they have a large garden, a balcony or a few pots. The Garden Day website also offers recipes, celebration ideas and a Grow Guide for those wanting to begin growing their own food.

This October, the invitation is simple: plant something, pick something, cook something and share it. Even the smallest harvest can make its way from garden to table.

Credits

Images: Supplied