Afrikara

Afrikara, situated at Hoekiesdam Farm, is a socio-agricultural community that actively upholds and promotes soil fertility, animal health and sustainable interrelationships between human beings and nature. Afrikara co-founder, Aletta has been farming on Hoekiesdam for 35 years and has been on a journey of applying biodynamic practices on the farm since 2002.

Through youth-focused education and the practice of biodynamic permaculture, which enlivens the soil and stimulates life forces, we produce the highest quality of food to nourish body, mind and spirit without depleting natural resources. We are a working, bio-diverse farm and established cooperative, producing organic dairy products, lamb, wool, eggs, vegetables, herbs, sprouts, medicinal plants, fruits, olives and honey.

We grow organic, seasonal vegetables, herbs, olives and sprouts and are currently adding more gardens. We are also developing food forests, consisting of fruit and nut trees and medicinal plants. We grow and harvest our own waterblommetjies (edible water lilies), a local delicacy. Our hives are harvested once a year, with minimal interference. Our bees forage on waterblommetjies, fynbos, bluegums, vineyards and orchards. The harvesting is contracted out , with the beekeeper providing sufficient honey for live-in Afrikara members and volunteers, and the remainder constituting his payment. In this way, we offer the bees protection and sustainability, as well as interfacing with the community.

Our cows are pasture-fed and free-roaming in large, fenced meadows. They are milked once a day, usually at sunrise, giving us raw, organic milk and cream, from which we produce feta, butter and labneh (a soft probiotic yoghurt cheese). In line with bio-dynamic principles, our cows are not dehorned. We have a medium-sized flock of pasture-fed sheep, who lamb outdoors and rear their young with minimal human interference. They are shorn once a year. The lambs and lactating ewes are separated from the rest of the flock and housed under-roof at night, until the male lambs have undergone rubber-ring castration. Our hens and cocks run free, ensuring that their diet contains a balanced mixture of plant and insect matter. Their free-range presence on the farm ensures that fly populations are controlled, as they are able to access the fly maggots and larvae. In addition, we feed them organic sprouts, dairy waste and kitchen scraps. They are housed under-roof at night, to protect them from predators.

We host Waldorf-themed youth camps that encourage learning through participation in authentic farm activities, as well as art and movement workshops, to ensure a rich program that engages all aspects of a child’s being: the hands, the heart, and the mind.

Our ultimate aim is to build a land-based community of people who are committed to ethical, natural and sustainable agro-ecology.