Mike Stekhoven & Willie Odendaal

Modderfontein

Hi my name is Mike Stekhoven and together with Willie Odendaal and a passionate team we grow organic lemons, oranges, olives, rooibos and raise cattle here at the historic Modderfontein farm.

The history of Modderfontein goes all the way back to 1725 when it was the first farm established by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) here in the Citrusdal valley. For the next 294 the farm played an important role here in the valley particularly because it is the gateway to and from the southern Cape.

We acquired Modderfontein in 2001 and began work restoring the historical buildings of the farm. At the same time we started the enormous undertaking of converting the neglected farm to organic principles. When people ask me about what organic farming I tell them that it is basically a holistic way of producing food and at the same time trying to preserve the surrounding landscapes by using systems as close as possible to those that occur in nature. Organic farmers try to preserve nature as much as possible by using practices that are hands-on but at the same time low-impact on the environment, such as weeding mechanically instead of using herbicides and encouraging predatory invertebrates to help control pests, instead of using man-made chemical pesticides.

Interview with Willie

Is this a good region to grow organic citrus?
Willie: Here at Modderfontein, due to our location close to the Atlantic and the mountain area we have exactly the right micro climate to grow organic lemons and orangres. What you need are warm dry summer days and cold wet winters without frost and that is what we find here.

What is the biggest difference between organic and non-organic farming?
Willie: Conventional agriculture can also be described as recipe farming meaning that if you follow all the instructions you are normally successful. With organic it is very different, you are constantly adjusting, recalibrating … you have to be on the ball and stay creative.

What have you learned over the years?
Willie: To be honest I have become more relaxed and realized that nature has a great way of fixing itself. I have learned not to immediately act but to wait, ensure healthy soils and here there stimulate indigenous nature to bring back balance in the orchards.

Would you ever go back to conventional?
Willie: I would not want to do that despite the fact that organic agriculture is hard work and costs a lot. I learned from Mike however that I must see it more as an investment. The healthy soils we have built are not only of value to us today but also for future generations that will inherit this land tomorrow.

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soil

The soil here is rather sandy and therefore we have to build soils. A healthy soil environment is created by using manure from our cows and agrowaste material to make compost. This helps to build up soil organic matter which in turn can be seen as fertility agents. The use of compost also helps to minimize soil erosion and therefore nutrient and water loss.

biodiversity

A large chunk of our land is a natural area which is abundant with local flora and fauna. We see a wide range of animals including various antelopes, dassies, monkeys and of course a lot of birds and insects. Beekeepers love to bring their hives here as it is a safe haven for their populations. As opposed to our conventional neighbours the bees stay permanently on our premises. Because we have some old buildings on our land we often see bats making their homes there. We encourage this as much as possible since bats eat a lot of moths and that helps keep down the caterpillar population in our orchards. One of the most cheeky visitors are baboons, they come down from the mountain looking for a sweet treat and that is why we plant our delicious navel oranges as far away from them as possible. What we notice is that they don’t really like the tart lemons so we planted these closer to where the baboons live and this helps to ensure they do not wander further onto the land.

In the past we also lost a lot of young trees to the small duiker antelope which caused a bit of a headache. Toay these losses are manageable, I guess when you choose not to fence everything in you need to calculate with these losses.

society

One of the things we are most proud of is that we have managed our activities in such a way that we can employ our 55 workers year-round. For them, working on an organic farm is much harder work but on the other hand it is also a safer, chemical free environment. For about 20% of our staff we provide housing. Furthermore we have set up junior management program where the employees receive management training skills so they can lead small teams. When it comes to giving the workers a voice, they have set up a special worker committee which is an excellent way to address and improve issues.

climate

As with all fruits, when it comes to energy, citrus trees rely on mother nature! Therefore in farming the dominant energy inputs are indirect and come from for the manufacture and transport of fertilisers (specifically nitrogen) and pesticides. Depending on the crop these can account for as much as 80% of the energy input. Since we grow organic citrus (therefore not using chemical fertilisers, pesticides or other agro chemicals), it comes as no surprise that our organic navels and lemons are considerably more energy efficient than our non-organic neighbours.

Furthermore we have solar panels that power our water pumping activities near the dam and we are shipping our products to Europe by sea and not by air

water

The fact that we use high quality compost allows us to save a lot of water. Just to give you an idea, we can easily work with one third less water than our conventional neighbours in the valley. It comes as no surprise that after the serious drought we experienced in this region in 2018 that many conventional growers are choosing to work with compost as a way to lower their water usage.

When it comes to water supply we rely on the water that flows down the kloof, the nearby olifant river and a bore hole that we recently drilled. The water is pumped into a new dam that we built and from there the water finds its way to the trees through high tech water saving drip and spray irrigation systems.

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