Many years ago, a friend of mine bought a new Bakkie. He was eager to take it for a ride and I had business to do in Cape Town so we made a trip of it. We gave the N1 a wide berth, putting his four-wheel drive on trial. We took the long route, through the small Karoo towns that don’t get many visitors. We stopped at the pubs, chatted with the locals and exited via the dirt roads. We got lost a few times, had a couple of flat tires and continually extended our arrival date.
At the time, I was farming with cherries on the Mpumalanga Highveld where the annual rainfall is about 750mm. In the summer months, lush fields alternate with the rich biodiversity of the wetlands. There was very little that compared to this arid landscape with its 200 mm annual rainfall.
I fell in love with the landscape and its wide open spaces. It was there, on an unmarked dirt road that I turned to my friend and told him that one day I would buy a piece of land here and be buried on it. He simply laughed and shook his head, for life in the Karoo is as beautiful as it is harsh. In 2018, I finally bought my farm in the Karoo, situated on a piece of the Great Escarpment, 60km North-East of Sutherland.
On his first visit, Bongani, an employee who had worked with me for so many years he had became a friend, was bewildered with my decision. He had never been south of the Vaal River before and after taking a walk on the farm he was worried. ” What will they eat ”, he said, ” if there is no grass?”
Our sheep roam free, eating fragrant shrubs that give them the distinct Lamb of the Sutherland Karoo area, flavour. Geographically we qualify to produce under the label of Lamb of the Sutherland Karoo area, of Origin but we have not as yet registered as producers traders. We strive to produce meat naturally and our sheep receive no added hormones or antibiotics. Our lambs are born on the veld and spend their lives roaming the highland in search of the tastiest Karoo Bossies.