Old Orchard Farm

By Elise.

Whilst on the farm in South Africa we met a woman named Carrie who guided our restoration of the pizza oven and taught us how to build with cob. She told us we should visit Old Orchard Farm in Zambia; a farm training local farmers in organic methods and trialling low-cost high-yield crops and methods and their suitability for Zambia. Agriculture is the cornerstone industry in Zambia, which has a booming population that is estimated to nearly triple in the next thirty years. Poor land management, (such as the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, overgrazing of livestock, over-logging for firewood, and burning-off fields after harvest) has caused large areas of land to become degraded and desertification is a real issue for the future of farming here. If current practices continue the country won't be able to feed itself in the next few decades. This is an issue shared throughout the world but Sebastian Scott of Old Orchard Farm is doing what he can to rectify the mistakes of 20th century farming, and teach locals about the benefits of organic farming and land management.

After an 8 hour bus ride from Livingstone, we arrived in the small town of Kafue, about an hour outside of the capital, Lusaka. The farm is a bit confusing to find, but eventually our cab driver works out we are going to the 'Scott' farm. The farm actually belongs to Seb's father who happens to be the former president of Zambia. He was serving as vice-president when president Sata died in office and assumed the presidency but was unable to hold the office long term due to his British birth and Zambia's constitutional rules. He governed for three months until elections could be organised and in what seems a strange turn of events, quit his party following the election to become leader of the opposition. This quirky story is not so bizarre for African politics if even half of what we have been told here is true.

We are greeted by two dogs, a few of local Zambia workers and students, and a Danish intern named Bjarke. Seb started by selling his produce at the local market and has since grown the business to the point that he now supplies organic produce box subscriptions to Lusaka. All of the vegetables are grown in a one acre field in front of the main house. There are surrounding fields of beans and peas, such as soy, kidney, black-eyed peas, as well as lots and lots of corn.

Beans and corn are the staples in Zambia, with the corn being ground into a flour, which is used to make every Zambian's favourite dish, nshima. Nshima is starchy, firm porridge that you eat with your hands, shaping it into a scoop which is used to spoon up beans or vegetable stew. It takes some time to learn the technique but we had it down pat by the time we left. One of the Zambian workers named Royd was very fond of nshima, insisting we eat it every day for lunch and crediting the meal for his strength.

The soy and corn are also grown to feed the pigs and chickens. There are also cows for ploughing and milk when available, as well as a donkey. We are not quite sure of the donkey's purpose, but he was good mates with the cows and just all round good fun. He would let out a loud bray if you left it too long to let the cows out in the morning, and when out repairing fences in the fields it is very funny to charge the donkey and see him buck away. One day Zach found him outside the boundary fence at the very edge of the farm. The gate was closed and there was no indication of how he got out but when Zach opened the gate all he had to do was walk out and look at the donkey, who hung his head and marched back inside the farm. Classic.

The pigs were particularly good value, especially the piglets. There were two litters, with two sows and about 6 - 8 piglets each. They were very interested in sniffing our hands, but sometimes got a bit cheeky and went in for a little nip. On our last day on the farm the piglets from one of the litters had gotten out, and were chasing each other around the bean fields and just the happiest little free piggies. There were two groups of juvenile pigs on the other side of the farm, being fattened up for market. On our first day Zach and I helped feed them. The noise when you rounded the corner and they saw you coming was unbelievable. They were beside themselves. Jumping on one another, climbing the fence. Every morning we would move the pig and chicken tractors (a caged area used to house the animals) to a finished section of pasture. After harvesting the tractors were moved through the field, where the animals would eat the weeds, dig up the earth in search of food and fertilise the soil with their droppings. Once this process is complete the soil is in prime condition for planting a new crop.

It was the time of the bean and pea harvest when we were at the farm, so we spent a lot of our time there threshing. This usually involved going to the outer fields, gathering the dried beans on a tarp and proceeding to thresh, or whack, the pile with large sticks in order to separate the beans from the pods. After a sufficient whacking, we would separate the chaff from the beans, using wind and buckets. It was very simple way of harvesting, and felt very old fashioned and humble. Separating the chaff is a real skill, and by the end of the two weeks I must say we got pretty good at it. It was very quaint and lovely, and we spent many days sitting around threshing and discussing travels or farming with fellow farmer, Bjarke. 

One day, while out threshing, the cows kept sneaking in to the field, and munching on the pigeon pea. Zach and Bjarke removed them several times, fixing the holes in the fences, only to discover the cows had found another way in. Very cheeky. The pregnant cow and the donkey didn't join in these escapades as one could not fit through and the other was too smart or too lazy. After spending most of the morning herding cattle we walked back to the main house. On our way through the gate I heard a rustle of leaves behind us, and turned to see a mouse stop and then fly backwards through the air. A moment later I realised the mouse was caught in the mouth of a Black Mamba. Despite the name, Black Mamba's are actually a green-grey, almost sage in colour (helps them hide well in leaves), with a small black spot on the back of the head. This was the same type of snake who met its end on the farm in South Africa, but unlike that small number this one was about a metre in length. Stunned, I could barely get the words out of my mouth to call Zach and Bjarke, and when they turned to look the snake high tailed to the other side of the fence and on to a different property.

Until arriving at Africa I had never even seen a snake in the wild. I have to say despite it being dangerous, it was very beautiful and surreal to see a wild and misunderstood animal catch its prey. Zach and Bjarke must have walked past this area four times that morning herding the cows, along with one of the farm dogs, Cowpea, and wouldn't have even known the snake was there. I feel the snake gave me the privilege of seeing it.

The dogs on the farm were some of the most loveliest in the world. Cowpea and Carl Marx (who we thought was named Cowmax until Seb arrived to correct the Zambian pronunciation) are those classic African mutts you see everywhere. There was a pair of cats, still kittens really, who looked so alike it took us a few days to realise there were two of them. I named them Ana and Elsa. They were very good at catching mice in the main house, and would come visit Zach and I in the middle of the night. Ana would follow me out into the fields when feeding animals or harvesting.

One day one of the Zambian workers came into the main house with a owl. It was a South White Faced Scops Owl, a common southern African owl and is usually found nesting on the ground in scrub. The workers were out clearing a fire break with slashers and accidently hit this owl and damaged its wing. He was very excited and informed us we were going to eat it (we're not quite sure how serious he was) but we were able to dissuade him eventually. Zach spent the next few days looking after the bird by bringing it sugar water, building it a nest behind the dorms, catching blister beetles (only to find out it probably wouldn't each them), he even caught a mouse but owls are loathe to accept food they have not caught themselves and so it would not eat. On the weekend we went to Lusaka for a night, when we returned the others informed us the owl had disappeared. We like to think it took it's time to heal, got hungry, and finally went out to hunt.

As it turns out, our natural builder friend, Carrie, from Groot Marico also came to stay on the farm while we were there. She built a rocket stove next to the pizza oven and was planning out a grain silo and a water storage tank to built during an upcoming natural building workshop. Before this we had been doing all of the cooking in a small broken fire place, so the rocket stove was an amazing improvement. Funnily enough the need for a coffee before work resulted in Zach becoming an early riser, for the first time in his life. It took almost half an hour to build a fire and boil water with fuel constantly hampered by the cold and damp nights of Zambian winter so he was up by 6am most mornings.

We only spent two weeks on the farm in Zambia, but it was a real insight into local African life. In many ways it was very different to the farm in South Africa, and there were many contradictions in terms of culture. Prime example of this is that the Zambian students would play American or westernised African music on Friday night and spent most of their free time on their phones, whereas the white South African's spent their weekends drumming around a fire. Two versions of African farm life, each seemingly searching for what the other has.