the GoodEater Collaborative

Author: Joshua Levin (33 Articles)

Joshua Levin is a consultant to non-profits and their corporate partners in sustainable agriculture business development and sustainable food markets. Joshua holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business, where he was a Catherine B. Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship, and a BA from Harvard University. He lives with his wife in Brooklyn, NY.

- posted by Joshua

Julian Abramson lives on a farm in Tierfontain about an hour north of Cape Town, South Africa, with his wife Rozelle, daughter, six dogs, three hydroponic greenhouses, 20+ workers, and a massive pizza oven running around the clock.  Julian is living the lifestyle of a true pizza fanatic.

I visited Julian for work, but he offered us pizzas first.  He keeps the oven hot all day using wood from a non-native, Australian tree species the gov’t wants out.  Julian built a covered walkway leading to the oven, and next to it Julian has pots growing herbs, and jars growing sprouts, as last-minute pizza toppings.  Julian makes pizzas spontaneously whenever he, his family, or random neighbors are hungry.

Julian’s home is colorful and eclectic, covered wall to wall with bottles of the family’s experiments in chili sauces.  Even their toilet, which no doubt gets good use, is made of clear plexi-glass encasing red chilies.

Julian Abramson is a chili farmer by trade.  He grows 15 species of chili pepper hydroponically, as well as eggplant, tomatoes, and herbs.  Julian also constructed his own smokehouse, and he owns an on-site processing plant producing high quality chili sauces and spreads, which are bottled, labeled and exported as “Fynbos Fine Foods”.  Two years ago, their “Savourings” product recently scooped the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) Sofi Award silver trophy for “Outstanding Appetizer” at the New York Fancy Foods show this past July.

After admitting our hunger, Julian rolled out and baked three thin-crust pizzas using his own tomatoes and several types of chilies and peppers.  The cheese was from a creamery down the road.  He served a Margherita, a mushroom and chili, and his favorite: banana, green chili, and garlic pizza.  The dishes were served with a side of Julian’s no-knead bread he bakes daily in the oven.  I told him about my former, home-built pizza oven in Cambridge, and there was much communing, yet Julian’s true pizza oven lifestyle left me with something I can truly aspire to.