Stephanie and John from Get Dirty ZA

Tell us a little about yourself!

Stephanie’s gran was an inspiration from a young age, often taking her on walks around the garden paying special attention to the little things, which helped her see the patterns inherent in nature. She chose the medical field however, finally ending up in corporate, and just as her physical and mental health started deteriorating she met an Italian in Rwanda who told her about permaculture which, with the love her gran found in the small things, sent her down the rabbit-hole to what eventually became Get Dirty after meeting John.

John grew up on the edge of an indigenous forest in the small town of Eshowe in KZN, his childhood spent mostly catching fish in the local streams to stock his fishtank with. After studying geology and working in mineral exploration for some years, that same love for fishkeeping led him to aquaponics and in turn permaculture and agroecology.

We recently moved from the KZN south coast to Cape Town to further connect with all the incredible projects and gardens down here. We have a tiny garden but have ripped up the paving, and planted a cover crop which will soon be squashed down to make way for veggie beds and a herb spiral. Most of our trees we’re growing in pots so they can move with us to the future farm, wherever that may be!

How did you start doing what you are doing now? 

It all started one night three years ago over a dinner of asparagus omelettes, when the conversation turned to soil health and then John’s time spent on a permaculture project in France, and how he’d used an amazing tool called a broadfork to help convert a horse paddock into a permaculture garden.

We raved on a bit about how useful broadforks are in saving time and conserving soil health, and a quick squizz online made us balk at the price of importing one. “Why don’t we see if we can make them here locally and if we get any interest maybe we could start selling them?” Sometimes late night ideas disappear and sometimes they stick; this one stuck!

The next day we went out to visit our local boilermaker friend and a week later had a prototype. Seven versions later we released our first broadfork online, and now we continue to look for tool ideas that can help have an impact on shifting SA’s farming landscape towards human scale agroecology farms.

What are you most proud of in this process? 

Our commitment to manufacturing our products in South Africa using locally sourced materials (e.g. our handles being turned from SA-grown saligna and not imported ash or hickory). We strongly believe in creating local jobs and reducing the environmental footprint of our products. We’re also motivated by our decision to oppose the planned obsolescence model in manufacturing, rather adopting a “one customer, one tool for life” mindset to help us continuously improve the quality and durability of our products.

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

I“Don’t start a business where you have to create the market.” Clearly we didn’t listen - the passion for starting a business with a good cause that promotes agroecology was too strong!

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

Don’t be too hard on yourself. A lot of people think they have to reach all their goals by the age of 35 but that’s very seldom the case. Things take time; savour the small victories and the connections you make, and enjoy the journey instead of blindly focusing on the end goal.

A mentor or some sort of business coach also goes a long way (if anybody reading this wants to get involved, please do reach out!)

Where do you see growing going in South Africa? 

Access to organic produce is slowly moving out of the higher income brackets as more and more people realise the importance of having nutrient dense fresh veggies in their diet, and more growers learn about agroecology principles that allow them to grow on a small scale with minimal costs. We’d love to see urban and peri-urban market gardens develop into

thriving community and economic hubs, not just in places like Cape Town but across the country. We have great faith in the resilience, ingenuity and compassion of all South Africans, so we’re optimistic that we and Africa at large will only grow from strength to strength in the agroecology and regenag fields.

Land tenureship in rural areas is still an issue that must be addressed though, as many people have access to plots of land but are unwilling to invest a lot in that land if it can be taken away from them at any moment.