Lilydale Farmer's Day

Subsequent to the farmers’ day held in Mazabekweni near Highflats in late May, a follow-up event was held at Lilydale Farm in the Donnybrook area in September and was attended by community members from the Eastwolds/Mackenzie area as well as Creighton. Dougie Strachan once again performed a demonstration of the agro-ecological cultivation technique that has proven so successful in his project. The commercial farmers neighbouring these communities covered the cost of putting together 25 starter packs which were given to households wishing to start cultivating their own home gardens. The packs included a fork, a rope to measure out planting intervals, and fertilizer and seed. The next phase in the rollout of this project is to establish hubs from which fertilizer and seed can be repackaged and sold locally in the same way that has been done so successfully by the Strachan’s at the Mazabekweni and Umzimkhulu sites.