Vanessa Jacobs, the innovative business woman behind Sow Delicious^®, whose inspirational vegetable and herb Slab of Seed^® invention is taking edible gardening to a mainstream audience, has been named the 2016 Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year^® at the annual Entrepreneur of the Year^® competition sponsored by Sanlam and BUSINESS/PARTNERS, held in Johannesburg this morning.

Sow Delicious^® began as an online niche gardeningstore in August 2013, through which a gap in the market for “grow-your-own” products was identified. This prompted Jacobs to launch her Slab of Seed^® invention in 2014, which quickly evolved into the business’ core offering, changing its focus from an online store to wholesale for retail.  

The Sow Delicious^® niche is that its Slab of Seed^® only grows plants you can eat with each slab growing a mix of three different 100% Heirloom varieties. Making edible gardening more accessible for the ordinary, non-gardener consumer; the slabs grow just as well in pots as they would in a normal garden, thereby making them ideal for novice gardeners living in flats or townhouses. As the blocks are pre-fertilised with organic fertiliser, they germinate twice as fast and hold water three times longer than soil.

According to the judging panel, Jacobs is deserving of the award as she has tapped into a budding market that has unlimited potential for growth and expansion. “This idea is truly original and embodies everything that our competition stands for – true entrepreneurism in identifying a gap in the market, researching the idea and then capitalising on the opportunity. In our opinion, it is only a matter of time before this product takes off in South Africa and around the world.”

Discussing why Sow Delicious^® is a worthy winner of this title, Jacobs says that their innovation has revolutionised the grow-your-own market in South Africa. “We feel that our trademarked invention – the Slab of Seed^® – addresses three fundamental issues relevant to our society – health, food security and affordability. We successfully changed 34 000 South African lives last year and now we want to change the rest of the world.”

For more information on Sow Delicious^® please visit www.sowdelicious.co.za.