Ellen from the Crags

Tell us a little about yourself!

I am a 62 year old woman born in 1962 in San Francisco, California. For 40 years, Northern California was my base. I was fortunate in that throughout my 20's and 30's I was able to travel the world, living in such diverse places as Nova Scotia, Canada, Guatemala, Venezuela, China, and Japan.

I came to Africa, in the year after 9/11, to a Sustainability Conference in Jo’burg. From there I travelled to Cape Town, up through the Garden Route to Nature's Valley, stopped and stayed for awhile exclaiming "Wow! This place is phenomenal, I could live here!" not knowing for a moment that I would be here 22 years later, living on this extraordinary farm in the Crags, just 10 km away from that amazing estuary and beach! This has become my home!

I bought the farm 9 years ago as a deceased estate - the original owners had both died in relative old age and their two adult children didn't want it because of where it is situated - it is approximately 1.5 km outside a growing but small township.

Things to know about me - my kitchen is my laboratory, my orchards and gardens are my Muse, cursive handwriting in lined blank page journals as far back as 1979 hold the thoughts and dreams of my overactive mind. Song, books, dogs, and beaches heal my soul.

How did you start doing what you are doing now? 

How did I start this journey of a life - as far back as middle school when I was 13, I was influenced by going to a farm school in the foothills of the Sierra Mountain range. In high school I spent weeks hiking in those mountains. 

After several tragedies, including vandalism of my rental property on the farm, I have been the only human here for the past 1.5 years. I live with my two female dogs & two female pigs, bees, bats, birds and butterflies, without tenants or any other source of reliable income., which has certainly proved challenging! I have spent the time working hard on letting go of the tragedy of my past, turning to the land in a very conscious way to find solace and healing, and AM STILL STANDING!! Healthy in body and as much as possible in mind. 

I really deeply get that there is an equal amount of "good", beauty, and divine in the world as there is harshness, cruelty, and dysfunction. I choose everyday to focus on the former because, blessed be, it is right in front of me and this is my home!

I am dreaming of a collaborative farming venture on my property. Collaborative farming where one person tends the trees, one grows the vegetables, and another tends animals. Potentially so many other possibilities  of sustainable small biz activities - a nursery, bee keeping, tourism possibilities in relation to Nature (Bat house, Butterfly dome), food processing and presentation and sharing - a farm stall, a tea garden and a whole plethora of scientific study opportunities!

What are you most proud of in this process? 

I am the most proud of my ability to see, study, experience and love the diversity in the world. From the soil to the stars, this world is an endless phenomenal experience, each element and organism an individual and at the very same time connected to all others around - how delightfully simple and infinitely complex is that? I myself have played many roles - daughter and sister, wildlife biologist and farmer, wife and mother.

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

The most helpful advice I ever received was to start where I am capable of making a difference, even if just a small gesture everyday.

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

Embrace both simplicity and complexity at the same time. Detach yourself, as in a story, and at the same time delve in to all of your endeavors with mind, body and soul. Have the courage to stay with anything and everything while at the same time let go of the past and future to stay in the present moment, always to the best of your ability. Release into the infinite, non duality. Honour change above all, it is the only fulcrum to hold onto. 

Where do you see growing going in South Africa? 

Hopefully innovation, use of indigenous knowledge systems and materials harvested sustainably and utilized creatively, small/local/diverse/ organic. Food production and consumption as the nucleus of this Rainbow Nation -  collaboration amongst all involved to provide abundant, nutritious, multifaceted lives and livelihoods coming together to provide for all.