HEAVEN ON EARTH
A bunch of innovators who really care. These are the entrepreneurs of the Overstrand. From responsible and sustainable farming practices to the manufacturing of original local high-quality products, in their endeavours to provide a livelihood for the people who live here they tread lightly on Mother Earth.
LOVELYAS WELL AS DELICIOUS
We wanted to work with nature
MARELIZE IVANOV
The most beautiful time of day on Sophia Farm is early morning, just after sunrise. This is when the flowers open in a crazy potpourri of lush colour and aroma. Now, before the heat of the day kicks in, the sweet smells are at their most pungent. At any given moment, you’ll find about ten varieties of edible flowers (around 26 altogether) here. They are handpicked while jolly honeysuckers chirp away in the background, devouring nasturtiums, their favourite.
The story of this African farm started with the modest tomato. But not just the ordinary supermarket variety. “We’re talking about the beefsteak tomatoes from long ago, bursting with flavour and sweetness. You can smell it,” enthuses Marelize Ivanov. About a decade ago, her husband, Slav, started cultivating these from heritage seeds which his grandmother had sent from Bulgaria. He wanted everybody to experience the taste of a genuine tomato. Though he was only two years old when his
parents immigrated to South Africa, the pleasant memories of his grannys’ organic fruit and vegetable garden had been etched into his mind. Then his parents, Ivo and Rumi, bought Sophia Farm, a piece of land on a slope in Tesselaarsdal (see right). After completing courses in organic and aquaculture gardening, both subjects close to his heart, Slav resigned from his computer programming job in Gauteng and became a farmer. Marelize, an accountant at the time, eventually joined him.
“We wanted to work with nature,” she says, “and stay clear of insecticides. I started experimenting with edible flowers, initially among the tomatoes where they would attract ‘good’ insects.” Such as ladybirds (who just love the taste of plant-eating insects!) and bees. Local restaurants became interested; guests do, after all, eat with their eyes as well. And each flower has its own unique taste. Sweet violets go well with dessert, while the tart flowers of wood sorrel temper the sweetness of ice cream. If you want to garnish cocktail drinks, try nasturtiums, pansies and geraniums. Flowers contain the same vitamins as fruit and vegetables in corresponding colours. – LvdM
(Marelize: 082 302 1838, unifiedbiotics@gmail.com).
FOUNTAIN OF BLESSINGS
It was like an explosion
IVO IVANOV
It was just an old and neglected little pond on their new farm. Nothing to get excited about. But the Ivanovs were intrigued by their pond; it never dried up. The water even tasted sweet and they finally noticed the fountain on their two-hectare Eden in Tesselaarsdal is a source of an excellent quality drinking water. They suspect the previous owner had sunk a borehole and found this precious vein of water, now it keeps welling up. This is not true for all the boreholes on their farm, though – the water from a few others is barely potable.
Ivo is a violist and previously a member of our National Symphony Orchestra. He and his wife, Rumi, immigrated from Bulgaria thirty years ago. Because their son, Slav, is passionate about nature, they bought this farm a decade ago and named it after the Bulgarian capital, Sophia.
Ivo realised the potential of the water
