Cape Town is pretending it’s still summer – all midday sunshine and balmy days – creating perfect conditions for lunchtime salad. ‘The leaves are really tender right now,’ said production manager, Ryan, when I picked up a box of greens from Oranjezicht City Farm last Friday. It makes sense. With mornings and evenings becoming cooler and the first rains offering some relief from the heat, we’re at this fleeting intersection: leaves have a chance to flourish and it’s still warm enough to contemplate salad.
Although inspired to share this one, I nearly didn’t. There’s so much that mere instruction doesn’t tell you: seeing the last few pomegranates hanging on the tree as leaves fall, turning a deeper magenta every day you don’t bring them in from the cold; having Claudia Roden’s Georgian salad1 on your mind after trying it out with baby spinach – dressed wilted leaves, fresh coriander, spring onion, pomegranates and walnuts; experimenting with different sugar ratios to make a sour-sweet syrup from the juice of those pomegranates.