Every once in a while there comes a Saturday when I am not traveling or doing something ridiculously arduous, this weekend was one of them. Since it was school holidays I had a house full of offspring we had to find something to do, and one of them had heard about The Food Farm, an event organised by Flowetry Media House.
There’s a whole series of pop-up style events being organised in Gaborone these days where generally youthful vendors have a chance to market themselves and their wares. The focus of this one was on food, under the tagline “From Farm to Fork.”
After paying P30 each to enter (partially deafened by the PA system directly next to the kiosk) we circulated briefly:
- Zest tacos, burgers, fries
- JustGinger ginger-based cool beverages
- TwistandShake alcoholic and non-alcoholic juice based beverages
- Nondescript chisa nyama
- KWV/Global Holdings wine bar
- Nondescript cupcakes and other confectionery
- Possibly a couple of other non-memorable stalls (sorry, guys)
I chose a seswaa taco by Zest, it was good. Very good, actually. I wonder why they don’t appear at, for example, sports events like X-Trail.
The TwistandShake cocktail was unfortunately less good, and the presentation didn’t live up to the layered colours of the concoctions on display.
Considering the tagline of “farm to fork” there was no information on where the ingredients for the various stalls came from, an opportunity missed.
The venue is interesting from a historical point of view, but like the rest of the Central Business District is mainly a concrete paved shadeless hell-hole. The fact that the participants then park their cars in the scant shade offered by the monumental plaques explaining the history of Botswana then restricts the views of the monument.
Would we go again? Probably, if there was nothing else happening at the same time.
What could be done to improve the event? No cars inside the venue, move the sound system away from the ticket booth, provide more seating and shade, move the whole event to somewhere with passing foot traffic.
