Vegan’s colourful 70s caravan is her darling

A BRIGHTLY decorated caravan from the 1970s is a regular at Durban events nowadays.

The message on the back window declares: “This is no hippie hot box.”

Named My Darling Clementine, the caravan is the creation of vegan foodie Debbie Rich, whose business Out To Lunch serves delicious plant-based food.

“I haul her off to events and she gets a lot of attention. You can’t miss her. I decorated her to reflect the beautiful colours in fruit and vegetables. There’s a rainbow of colours in food. So Clementine is a bright and vibrant little food truck,” she says.

Describing herself as a creative rather than a business-orientated person, Rich says what has evolved into her “little business” was motivated more by a love for healthy food and a desire to spread healthy eating habits and lifestyle choices than make money.

“I was heading towards 50 years old and I was feeling tired and lethargic, so I decided to go on a detox and cut out the things I was aware weren’t good for me – sugar, coffee, wheat, meat and dairy.”

Another motivating factor was that many of her contemporaries were battling breast cancer.

She felt much better after she changed her eating habits.

“I was in clothing design. I just started getting creative with food and it grew from there. People would come and have my food and tell me I should open a restaurant.”

But because she had no chef training, she instead began to sell at markets.

“At first people looked at me in a strange way. They are so used to chicken burgers and I was making wraps filled with assorted plantbased options.

“Unfortunately, people have this preconceived notion that vegans are some sort of unwelcoming religion. But that’s not the case. I know that food affects your longevity and your mental health. It’s not just about weight. That might be a factor, but there are a lot of thin people who are sick.”

She packaged her food in folded banana leaves which are plentiful around Durban and eco-friendly. Her wraps are placed in a portion of banana leaf-like cones which can be torn away as it is eaten.

Her market is broad, from strict vegans to Muslims who do not eat meat that is not halaal to those who simply enjoy tasty food.

She says a growing community of young people are aware of how damaging and cruel animal agriculture is. “It takes 50 000 litres of water to produce 1kg of steak.”

In addition to making colourful wraps, she also makes a bunless burger from brinjal, sunflower seeds, parsley and red onion, assorted salads and sweet treats such as healthy chocolate brownies. She has even developed a chocolate recipe that is free from all the baddies and is yet to find someone who does not like it.

Sometimes, Rich admits, people are scared to try her food. But, when they do, they often return to tell her that they enjoyed it.

“I’ve taken my little business to a lot of different places, including music festivals and even the tourism Indaba two weeks ago.

“When the daughter of a friend was going overseas, she put her small caravan up for sale. I spotted it and loved it but had no idea what to do with it. I decided to turn it into a food truck. When I bought it, I was told that it was called Clementine so now she’s My Darling Clementine,” Rich says.

But creating a food truck proved far harder than she envisaged.

When they cut out the side for a serving hatch, they had to reinforce it.

“It was a fun project, and was meant to be. It would be wonderful if people could be more adventurous and less concerned about failure.”

What she can’t do is trade on the roadside as, she says, it’s hard to get a business licence for this.

She has been invited to take her food offerings to Cape Town, but she’s focused on converting Durban to healthy eating.

She has her eye on another vehicle and says “hopefully, Clementine will have a husband”.

She is also cultivating a business offshoot called Jar-Jar Yum, which she describes as a simple and fresh grab ’n go lunch – plant-based food layered in a large glass jar with dressing in a smaller one. They fit together and are reusable.

She charges a R50 deposit for the jar on the first order and simply swops them at every next delivery.