Anne and Brad of Robertson

Tell us a little about yourself!

I'm Anne, a born and bred Capetonian, Brad, my husband, grew up in Zim and moved to Cape Town when he was 16. We met at school and church and got married and have 4 kids. Brad worked as a children's pastor in Pinelands, Durbanville and then Rondebosch. I studied Dietetics at UCT, but stayed at home with the kids once they came along. I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease while I was at Varsity, but was in remission while I was pregnant and breastfeeding for 10 years. When my symptoms came back the doctors wanted to put me back on the same meds from 10 years earlier. I wasn't happy with this approach and started asking questions and experimenting on myself, changing what I was eating and where I was sourcing my food from.

How did you start doing what you are doing now? 

As we started on our food journey we began changing how we bought our food; joining and hosting a food club, buying directly from farmers and wanting to produce our own food where possible.

We started small - reading and asking questions. We started with a garden and then chickens and then also included rabbits for meat - all in our urban back yard. We learnt more about regenerative agriculture and the importance of starting with the soil and restoring the soil using animals. We had an increasing passion to do more of it for ourselves. We went on a journey of realising that out calling in life was changing to a new calling of growing nutrient dense food that heals peoples bodies while restoring the environment. We were unable to buy a farm of our own, but miraculously were connected with a family who had a farm and were not in a position to farm it themselves.

We formed a partnership with them and we moved onto the farm in February 2021. The farm hadn't been farmed for 25 years and the land was very degraded. We knew it was very important to get animals onto the land and so we started with 3 milk cows, 25 sheep and chickens. Over the years it as been amazing to watch the land transform. Even after 3 and a half years, we still feel like the farm is establishing itself, and we are still learning so much in the process. The transition to farming has been a very challenging process, but also one of the greatest joys of our lives.

What are you most proud of in this process? 

We feel proud of the progress and regeneration that we see in the farm ecosystems, and that we found enough courage and faith to step out and go for it and follow our dream.

What is the most helpful piece of advice you received when you were just starting out? 

The best advice was to just start where we were, doing as much as we could right where we were. Also, we were encouraged learn as much as we could in this space through following homesteaders, reading books and visiting farms. Once we were on the farm, some of the best pieces of advice were:

- don't make any big decisions too fast - learn the land and ecosystems

- get herbivores and/or chickens as soon as you can, even if it is only a few, to start the regeneration process

What advice would you like to give to others who are younger/earlier on their journey? 

The advice we often share with people is to just take the next step on your journey. If it's a food journey, change one thing at a time - buy your pasture raised eggs, then find a better milk supplier, then join a food buying club. To do everything all at once is often overwhelming. And if your journey is about growing your own food, aim to learn how to grow/produce one more thing right where you are. Also, don't pressure yourself to have to grow ALL your food, not at first anyway.

Be open to the unexpected in your journey, we weren't expecting to partner with another family, but this opportunity with Ant and Lynn has made it all possible.

Where do you see growing going in South Africa? 

We are encouraged by the growing awareness and re-connection to food production that seems to be happening in South Africa. More and more people are caring about where their food is coming from. We think that the future is moving towards two key shifts - firstly, more and more people growing and producing whatever food they can where they are. And secondly, consumers reconnecting directly with farmers/producers to create a new food system that is based on ethical, regenerative and transparent food production principles.