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Saturday 09:00 - 16:00 Sunday 09:00 - 16:00

Heart & Soil Nursery

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Heart & Soil Nursery

At Heart & Soil homestead we are interested in helping people grow. We sell plants and run workshops! Nursery, Urban Farm, Permaculture homestead
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30/08/2024

Tomorrow from 10am-11:30 I'll be sharing our story of raising ducks and quail. The workshop is R200 and I'm hoping it'll help you decide if ducks (and if so, which type of duck) are right for you.

Just as annuals, shrubs and trees all add resilience by harvesting light in different ways, different types of animals add different layers of resilience to a space, because they each have slightly different needs and contributions. And unique personalities, which adds richness to our lives.

29/08/2024

We're leaning in to our strengths this spring.

This weekend, we have some new medicinal and edible plants (black lovage, Allium triquetrum, feverfew) we've been cultivating, as well as black cherry tomato seedlings, the first basil of spring, and all our second winter planting.

It's admittedly 6C as I write this and yes, I saw that video of snow on table mountain, so I guess we need to hedge our bets on spring, but I reckon it's around the corner. (the tomatoes relish a challenge)

I'll post a link to our shop in the comments, so you can see our full list and order ahead.

Each weekend, we'll also be available for edible and medicinal gardening questions if you're in the far south and would like to chat. This weekend, there's our duck and quail workshop on Saturday (R200, 10-11:30), and then on Sunday I'll be available for questions between 9am and 1pm. I hope it'll be a way to build community and convey the nuance that's hard to capture in online communication.

28/08/2024

In tomorrow's newsletter, I'm so excited to be sharing Marosane and Paul's story of working to become debt free. They've managed to downsize to a tiny space as a family of four, in order to make space for growing together as a family, and ultimately also growing food. We're cheering you on, neighbours!!!

Here's a snippet of their story:
"Reflecting on our journey, the thing we’re most proud of is the courage it took to make the bold decision to downscale and change our lifestyle to become debt-free. It wasn’t easy to go against the grain and make such a drastic shift, but that decision has had a profound impact not only on our lives but also on those around us."

26/08/2024

It's dumpling Monday, and chopping veg at dawn is just about perfect. Or at least, it always feels like there's enough time at dawn.

22/08/2024

Heart & Soil Homestead: Seedling time!
46 Lochiel rd Sunnydale

I've added seedlings to our online shop. I ordered seedlings from our grower in Philippi about 8 weeks ago, and drove to pick up today.

The cold wet winter has meant that spring seedlings are delayed. Much of Philippi is actually under water right now, and so it's great if you can plant a lot of second crops, as this will surely have knock-on effects for supermarkets. There are so many people unable to work their regular farm jobs. So as we plant, we are so grateful for the space and chance to do so.

I'm grateful for our grower, and for our seedlings. They'll be R3 each, and R200 for 100 seedlings. We have:
Cauliflower,
dinosaur kale,
spring onion,
frilly lettuce,
broccoli,
rocket, and
cabbage.

I have a feeling these will do very well as the soil warms up.

I'll let everyone know as soon as summer seedlings are available. I take this as an opportunity to adapt and be flexible, and shift our growing schedule.

21/08/2024

I am so excited to be sharing Lesley's story today. Lesley lives on the Limpopo border with Botswana, and her botanical drawings are enough to keep me inspired for weeks. She is the grower with the most experience so far! I hope you enjoy her story as much as I did.

Here's Lesley's advice for those earlier in the journey:

"Read up about permaculture principles, but don’t become a slave to them. Adapt them to your particular situation i.e. your climate, your soil and your water availability. . No need to adopt all of them at once. Choose one or two that are the most suitable for you, get that right, then expand to include others. Most important of all is to be realistic and pragmatic."

Let me know if you'd like to sign up for our newsletter, and I can get you added. Our dream is to create connections, optimism and momentum as we grow together.

20/08/2024

Our red hot pokers are.... yellow... And really beautiful. They shine this time of year.

18/08/2024

Early morning is a good time to see what is happening in the garden, and I'm always surprised. most of our brassicas are finishing up but this one is out of sync. I'm going to be planting a second batch of brassicas for fun, and because we've made some extra space...

17/08/2024

Snails peak in our garden around this time of year, and then decline as I clear some of their habitat, and cool predators like this glow-worm show up to help. He was surrounded by snail shells, I think he feasted.

16/08/2024

I'm so excited to have BSF larvae available for sale for the first time!

Imagine if across the deep south of Cape Town, we raise healthy laying hens with very little commercial feed? So much waste could be diverted from landfill in this way.

For families with just a few chickens, we are usually trying to do better than larger operations. We want our chickens to have wonderful healthy lives, we want to have truly great eggs, and we want to live more sustainably.

Finding a way to feed our chickens sustainably, while keeping them healthy, can be complex. It is difficult to figure out what is in commercial layer feed in South Africa. We know it typically involves a lot of processing, large monocrops, and sometimes fishmeal.

Yet we can slowly change how we feed chickens in urban and suburban areas. Chickens are fantastic primary decomposers- which means they are excellent at breaking down kitchen scraps and gaining nutrients from those scraps. Chickens love eating our greens and all our leftovers.

Yet laying hens need a balanced diet, including adequate protein. Where kitchen scraps and weeds from the garden provide calories, they also need a sustainable source of protein. This is where BSF come in. They provide protein and calcium, as well as micronutrients and fun.

We're gradually scaling up production to regularly provide live BSF to chicken owners in our community. I'm so excited for community, and for sustainable protein.

16/08/2024

Please help spread the word!
We still have some space in tomorrow's humanure composting workshop!

Heart & Soil homestead
46 Lochiel rd
10-11:30, 17 August.
R200

Spoilers: The simplest, easiest way to safely compost humanure is through thermophilic composting, because it builds on millions of years of co-evolution of microorganisms and all their symbiotic partnerships.

We'll cover how we do this, and various setups to consider scale, physical limitations, etc. We'd love to see you!

14/08/2024

I am so excited to be sharing Simone and Matthew's story in our newsletter this week! They are growing abundantly in KZN.

"That we have created a life we love, that we are relearning skills lost to many of our generation and then teaching our children and that we are providing a simple and down to earth life for our children in this fast paced, pressure filled, instant gratification world we live in. They know where our food comes from, what it takes to get it on our plates and exactly what it means to eat meat. Also, I’m proud of the homegrown and organic coffee we get to enjoy every morning, that is a real labor of love and a great reward!"

Join us- I'll share a link in the comments.

13/08/2024

There aren't enough photos of Eugene on here, mainly because he's often behind the camera. Our verandah is also our workshop, where Eugene builds.

Homesteading/small-scale farming is not simple. Often to set up a new small system there ends up being a cascade of other projects. To make space for our growing needs, Eugene (and Hana) are making the stairs to the loft more compact and space efficient. I miss the spiral staircase, but the floor space has already meant more space for our kids to play card games in larger groups.

I love that there are usually ways to use our space better, rather than build more space.

12/08/2024

Dumpling Mondays the sequel: A couple of people asked what the dumpling skins look like, so here you go! Korean style dumplings are just flour and water, and you can steam them or pan fry them (just a little oil necessary). We pan fry because the kids love them best this way.

Meals are a great way to connect and create traditions together, one meal at a time. I've heard so many stories where Cape Town urban farmers grow for market, yet are unhealthy ourselves, because we grow what will sell rather than what we love and know how to cook. Or, growing takes all our energy and time and we're left with no energy to prepare good food.

Complex injustices underly this phenomenon, yet I could see it happening to us as well. Small habits can help with this. Dumplings every Monday, peanut butter spinach and microgreens with every dinner, etc. It's an act of love to eat well.

11/08/2024

Cut too much veg forgetting that it's a holiday weekend. If you're around, please come today before 1pm! Clarence also had lots of extra ciabatta, for an affordable local lunch . And, while our spinach does not come with frogs, it's grown in an environment that supports all kinds of life ###x.

10/08/2024

Humanure workshop!
Heart & Soil Homestead, 46 Lochiel rd.
Saturday, 17 August 10-11:30

If we can normalise better approaches to waste, we can change the world together!

Our family has been exclusively using a composting toilet for 9 years, and in that time we’ve saved at least 675000L (675kL) of water and produced about 16 tons of compost. You can save water and make compost too, with just a few considerations about how to safely compost human waste.

My goal is to show you our simple indoor bucket system, and give you the tools to decide the type of approach that will work for your family. So I'll describe a few other systems as well, that may work better for different scales, settings, and physical limitations. Even if you only adopt a composting loo system in a few years, start the exploration now.

To reserve a spot, I'll put a link to our shop in the comments, or you can comment and I'll send it to you. Look forward to seeing some of you on Saturday!

09/08/2024

Tomorrow we'll have beetroot whole wheat sourdough bread available by pre-order. I am hoping that being tiny means we get to experiment and do things that would be impossible at scale. It can mean we do all the things, all the time.

It might seem ridiculously inefficient. But it's permaculture principle #8: integrate rather than segregate. A little of a lot of things every day creates a ton of great cycles, and all the cycles feed each other. We learn how everything connects. Also, it means our kids, who are home learning with us, get to observe and participate in all.the.things.

You can pre-order via our shop. Buy some kimchi, it's the real thing, with organic home grown cabbage and spring onion. You can rinse it if it's too spicy.

08/08/2024

Perfect babies and perfect mamas. Very grateful for healthy births and healthy babies so far. And just when we're desperate for the taste of milk and cheese, spring comes. (we'll wait a while before we start milking...)

07/08/2024

This week, I'm excited to share the story of Tristan from the intentional community of Kuthumba. Tristan started out focused on permaculture, and his example of identifying his passion for values-based decision making is helpful to so many of us on our growing journey. Good food systems are about good connections and relationships. Kuthumba is an example of relationships coming first.

"When we formed the community, I used the Values Based Decision Making framework for our visioning process. It really worked, and has become the most valuable and effective tool in my toolbox, and the one that I recommend most. It’s also had a hugely positive impact in my own life - the more I make decisions according to my values, the better it becomes."
groupfacilitator

06/08/2024

First blewitt of the season...

05/08/2024

It really helps to build habits slowly. Every Monday we have Korean style/mandu dumplings with whatever veg is growing/leftover from the weekend. Our kids love folding the dumplings, play dough time for preteens, teens and adults. We've built this habit over a couple of years, so that it doesn't seem like work.

04/08/2024

A good urban permaculture system is not self-sufficient, it is community sufficient. We have so many sources of waste, and so many places where we can sell/give our surplus. So it makes sense to make hundreds of circular systems that engage the community beyond our gates.

One of these systems is making waste into a protein source, in the form of black soldier fly larvae (BSFL). These BSF are for chicken and duck feed, and hopefully also to sell.

When we traveled, I had to let the young black soldier fly larvae system go, as I didn't have strong enough systems to ask others to stand in for me in keeping it going. This week, I started over, and got some neonates from Epping. When I returned from Epping there was this double rainbow over the caravan where we'll rear the BSFL. Larvaeland is coming!

03/08/2024

1) Did you know that if you want to eat a turkey in South Africa, you'll end up with one shrink wrapped and sent all the way from Brazil? Sometimes turkey will say that it is "produced in South Africa", but as far as I can tell, this just means that it was processed in South Africa. South Africa's last commercial turkey farm closed in 2018.

2) I remember reading in Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, that turkeys in the U.S. had to be artificially inseminated because their breasts had been bred to be too large to mate.

I think these are two examples of how a market economy, based purely on supply and demand (particularly seasonal demand), renders absurd, and often invisible, realities. Sometimes they are even made intentionally invisible by repackaging.

What if we make the connections more visible, and see if it changes us, changes our choices, changes the supply chain a little? Our two turkeys spend a lot of the time on the verandah strutting around. They're pretty stubborn and very tame. Gobble King fights with everyone, hence the feather scruffiness. They took a long time to get this big, and they're not going anywhere.

02/08/2024

It's spring workshop season! I always decide it's spring during the coldest part of the year... do you do that?

You can reserve your spot in upcoming workshops:
Spring tour 3 August 10-11:30
Free! You do need to reserve a space via our shop. (Tour not suitable for young kids)

Humanure composting Saturday, 17 August, 10-1130 R200
If you've ever wondered how to compost human waste safely, this workshop is for you. We've been exclusively using a composting toilet for nine years.

Growing Summer veg Sunday, 25th August 10-11:30 R250
A few people have requested more support in veg growing. This workshop is to help set you up for a great summer growing season. I'll show you our approach, limitations, and growing plans, and walk you through common challenges.

Raising quail and ducks Saturday, 31 August 10-11:30 R200
Have you ever considered raising quail or ducks instead of chickens? By providing an overview of quail and duck's needs, I hope to help you decide whether quail or ducks might suit your context. We'll cover: health and feeding requirements, space needs and preferences, and much more.

Raising dairy goats Saturday 14 September 10-1130
I wish more people knew about the possibility of raising dairy goats, even in the suburbs! Still, there were a few important things that we needed to get right to be good caretakers. I'll cover goats' social, space, and housing needs, fencing, diet, supplements, breeding and milking... all in 90 minutes! You'll also get to meet our beautiful baby goats.

Growing Summer Veg part 2 Sunday 22 September 10-11:30
While the first summer veg workshop was to get you prepped, the second part will look at how things are growing, check what we can improve, and make plans for the rest of the season.

01/08/2024

I'm so enjoying making sourdough bread each weekend. You can book a loaf via our shop website (I'll link in comments), or just show up on the weekend, sometimes there are loaves that aren't prebooked yet. The're always more than 50% whole wheat.

31/07/2024

I'm so excited to be sharing a snippet of another deep South farmer, Benson's story, this week. The issue of land and access is central to any discussion of growing, and Benson is willing and able to jump into the mess, and truly see people with empathy. I'm very challenged by this, and I hope this approach will help others as much as it has helped me over the years.

"I choose to farm inclusively and collectively on common land to facilitate change on two levels: helping people grow and helping them heal. While I am not particularly adept at healing, I know that a garden can create a conducive space for it. My ideal situation is a healthy bounty and a significant yield, coupled with a diverse team of people—racially and culturally mixed—working together."

The story will go out tomorrow.

You can join our newsletter for weekly Thursday grower stories, Monday growing tips, and Friday availability lists.

30/07/2024

I think the opposite of capitalist consumption is connection. That is at the root of what we do. If we can see the person who produced something for us, it is easier to see all the other ways we are connected. And it becomes easier to be kind, because we know our existence is a miracle, nested in a web of connections.

29/07/2024

Poor Eugene keeps building fences to keep the chickens out of the house, and we keep having "special chickens" (and turkeys) who demand special privileges.

29/07/2024

I can only seem to grow grass in the veggie garden, where I don't want it. Mission for the week is to get this grass partially removed and then mulched with cardboard, and to slowly get ready for spring...

25/07/2024

Much slower that ChatGPT, but I'm slowly going through the classic People's plants and seeing what we can add to our online shop.

I'd love for people to be able to click on our shop and learn something new about plants they love. And over the years, for those connections to deepen and become common knowledge. And then from common knowledge, real deep collective understanding about how and when to use plants to heal or support a good life. I have found sometimes just knowing is enough to create a calm space.

Address

46 Lochiel Road
Sunnydale
7975

Opening Hours

Saturday	09:00 - 16:00
Sunday	09:00 - 16:00

Website

http://www.heartandsoilhomestead.co.za/

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Videos

Sorry about the bobbing quail. He was not harmed in the filming of this reel... Quail and ducks are a way of adding resilience (and joy!!!) to your space.

We start milking our does right after kidding, so that everyone gets used to milking at midday while we're all relaxed. Then, when the babies are around one month old, they are put in a separate enclosure at night, and we start milking at 6am. It's a gentle process.

This one's for Fin. It's an oversimplication in 1 min: mulch is vital in the heat of summer, to protect microbes and cool the soil. We mainly we use compost as mulch, unless the soil is not shaded in mid October, then I start to look for other options, and sometimes use woodchips.

Goat birthing season is just finished, with 7 healthy babies and 4 healthy moms.

We can produce truly local urban eggs as a community if we can divert organic waste effectively. Instead of layer pellets, it's possible to use kitchen scraps, weeds and greens + Black soldier fly larvae to get great eggs at the household level.

It's possible to plant a second winter crop indoors right now, but I like to start our tomatoes this time of year so that they get strong before the weather gets hot and dry.

It's seedling time! You can also start greens indoors for a second winter crop. (we still have a lot of greens in our beds so I'm focused on tomatoes for now)

Napa cabbage was our second large crop where we sold quite a lot (first was basil).

Heaven is guinea pigs eating on your lap.

Sometimes I grow microgreens just for the joy of watching the guinea pigs enjoy them.

Our peas were hit hard by the storms this year, but imperfect still yields a lot of food, so I'm keeping at it.

Our olive tree missed our roof but is no more.

In the mega storm, we have to keep our ridiculously tiny roosters safe, right? (too big to be with the quail, too tiny to be in shelter with the other roosters...)

when it's cold outside, the guinea pigs live in their winter home. (Yes, the winter room is the whole sunroom)

You can hear the Masi church music pumping, but otherwise picking is super peaceful. We won't be harvesting veg again until Sat 22 June- we're really looking forward to seeing you then!

Our goats don't have pasture, so we try to spend a lot of time making their lives interesting and fun...

veggies this weekend :)

trellising peas with Hana. The way we're starting our days these days. #urbanpermaculture #urbanhomestead

Our pekin bantams encounter BSF larvae for the first time. They're not quite sure of them. How long do you think it'll take for them to love their larvae?