Wegraakbosch

The farm was bought in 1918 by the Thompsons. Since then all attempts were made to farm as naturally as possible, with minimal harm to the environment. The farm is off-the-grid, with water supplied from a spring and electricity supplied by solar power. No pesticides or fertilizers are used on the farm. No industrially produced chemicals are used unless the wellbeing of the animals would be compromised without it.

Organic farming with a holistic approach in which the soil, plants and livestock are seen as a single system, is implemented here. This approach encourages natural methods to solving farming problems, a simple example planting nasturtiums to repel insects in the vegetable garden. Another amazing example is keeping the dairy clean without soap (visit us and find out why)! Minimal tillage is what we aim to, and our pigs do a large part of the soil moving. The soil is enriched by compost made on the farm, as well as our cow, goose, goat, chicken and pig manure. In this way, minimal machinary is used on the farm. The dairy follows suite with hand milking and making cheese in a copper couldron over the fire. A biodigester is currently being installed to produce gas for the dairy’s stove and fridge. A large emphisis is placed on encouraging healthy micro and macroscopic biomes.

A large variety of organic vegetables, berries and fruit are provided to local restaurants and in  vegetable boxes which are dropped off in Tzaneen (Wednesdays), Polokwane (Fridays) and Haenertsburg (Thursdays). The compost and vermipost used in the garden is made on the farm and care is taken to provide delicious vegetables. Our free range chickens also fall under the vegetable garden, and supply free range eggs. We LOVE our veggie box customers because there is minimal waste (only what is ordered is picked), our vegetables are delivered fresh (they don’t sit around on a shelf),  we use almost no plastic (less waste), we are local (minimal carbon footprint), the vegetables are seasonal and it promotes a farmer-consumer relationship.