Wholesome, diverse food on the menu at Earth Café
A firm favourite for many following a plantbased lifestyle, Earth Forest, which was situated in Stirling, ran on five basic principles; to show kindness and generosity, to be as local and organic as possible, to use only wholesome ingredients, to decrease your environmental footprint and to share knowledge of plants.
For those missing the freshly pressed juices and gourmet plant-based Earth burger once available at Earth Forest, a new humble café in the heart of Berea is now offering up all of that goodness.
Established by former Earth Forest owner Evert Minnie, Earth Café opened three weeks ago and has since been welcoming customers from all walks of life.
Offering their normal menu daily to paying customers, which sports a wide range of goodness, Earth Café is similar to Minnie’s previous venture in that healthy, wholesome food is at the centre of their food philosophy. Yet, it is also very different.
Earth Forest became a vegan mecca of sorts, when not many other restaurants or eateries in the city were offering plant-based meals.
Earth Café on the other hand has seen Minnie go through lifestyle changes and has changed with him.
“We’re still preservative-free, chemical-free and make everything ourselves.
“Look for things that are free range, naturally raised and are as organic and locally sourced as possible, but this time we are not fully vegan or plant-based,” Minnie said.
As with many businesses, Covid-19 played a big role in Earth Forest’s closure and forced Minnie to move on.
“We took a big financial knock and I went from co-owning a vegan restaurant to waitering in a restaurant that served meat.
“I also had no choice but to start eating meat again, we were in so much debt.
“Covid-19 forced a few things on us, it shifted a lot of stuff and made me more humble.”
He says while he never wanted to lose Earth Forest, today he could not imagine running a fully vegan café.
“This is an external expression of who I am. It wouldn’t make sense for Earth Café to be a vegan restaurant if I am not vegan. Your heart has to be in the food.
“So we’ve opted for good, wholesome and diverse food, inclusive food,” said Minnie.
While those who follow a plant-based diet are still catered for with a variety of vegan burger patties, vegan smoothies and falafel meals, there is also a wide range of options for meat eaters.
“The vegan meals are still there but it’s an inclusive café where meat eaters, vegans, vegetarians, anyone is welcome.”
Minnie takes this statement seriously, because anyone really is welcome.
This is put into action with the cafe’s Soup of the Day initiative.
At Earth Café, freshly made soup served with sourdough bread is available each day, free of charge, for those in need, while paying customers can contribute any amount towards someone else’s soup, should they wish to.
“I’ve always had a heart for homeless people. Kindness and generosity is one of the main things that drives Earth Café and we knew we needed to help in some way,” Minnie, 37, said.
“While we were sitting and designing the menu, the soup of the day idea just came to mind and we decided to put it on the menu in a way that customers could order the soup for themselves or donate to the initiative if they wanted to.”
Minnie says that putting an end to homelessness in the city was a cause he was very passionate about.
While soup may not do all the work on its own, offering food and friendship is how Minnie can help and he is determined to keep going.
“Customers have actually been donating more than we have been giving out so far. The response to the initiative has been really amazing.”
“We’ve been serving about three to four soups a day to the homeless, we already have a few regulars that come in from the streets.
“We haven’t put any limits on it and the goal is to serve as many soups to those in need as we can every day,” Minnie said.
But it is more than just offering a warm meal.
For Minnie, it is about creating relationships in an effort to make a difference in the lives of others.
“The soups cannot be ordered for takeaways. People have to sit down and eat in the café and the idea behind that is that it gives us an opportunity to form relationships with them and see them reintegrate into society,” Minnie said.
It is inspired by project he came across in Cape Town which saw businesses work together to create work opportunities in a community garden for the homeless.
In exchange those who worked there would receive points which they could then use to receive things they needed such as clothing, a meal or even a hair cut, Minnie said.
“I’d really love to create a similar thing here and have a few businesses involved, working together.”
He says losing Earth Forest was sad, but opening another restaurant was always in the pipeline and that faith played an important role in making Earth Café a reality.
“I went through a season of anger, mourning, depression, self doubt, but having the church community and surrounding myself with people that speak life into me has been incredibly helpful. Having faith was the first step, after that everything fell into place.
“We had nothing from Earth Forest and everything you see in the café today was gifted to us by family, friends, and even the landlords have been amazing,” he said.
“Earth Café wouldn’t have been possible without the people behind us.
“Seeing how much generosity there is has been overwhelming. A lady came in recently and donated R100 for our soup initiative.
“But seeing people come in from the streets who are very sceptical and nervous while sitting and waiting for their food, then become comfortable after the second or third time they come is incredible.
“They feel so unwelcome at first because that is how society treats them.
“To come to a restaurant and be served like a customer and treated as one is a very different experience.”