This post is something that I have been pondering for a while. I’m a firm believer in the use of organic matter in the garden and on farm. Here at Livingseeds Farm we spend a lot of time and money adding organic matter to our soil, mainly as a mulch on top of beds, but we do spread compost onto our grazing lands when we have spare. We are primarily a seed production operation and the main function of our animals is production of clean meat for our family and compost for the gardens.

To give you an idea as to what ‘method’ we practise we are firm believers in nitrogen capture utilizing carbon, we actively green manure with nitrogen fixing legumes in all unused beds over winter, we use high density-high impact grazing of cattle and sheep, we run a small pastured poultry operation for select customers and compost the slaughter waste of cattle, pigs, sheep and chickens once again with judicious amounts of carbon. (Joel Salatin’s methodology rules on this farm)

We don’t vaccinate our animals, no de-wormers, no licks, no dips and definitely no chemicals or poisons. Our water is solar pumped and then drip irrigated via gravity through a few kilometres of drip lines. This reduces our water requirements by over 80% and we are also doing our bit to save electricity.

Are we registered as organic NO! Will we ever be? NO!

Why not?  you may ask.

It’s pretty simple and here is my thinking.

I think that it’s simply ludicrous that the organic farming community wants to hand over the foundation and essence of what we stand for, to an institution that is corrupt to the core.

It’s the same as asking crowd of known paedophiles to look after your children… for the long weekend.

In what right mind would anyone ask our government to protect the essence and values of organic agriculture?

Come on guys, get your heads on straight, once they have their hands on organic legislation they can and will have it changed, amended, altered and twisted to suit big business. Remember big business has a lot more clout and can properly wine and dine the political powers, than a few small organic operators. They have a lot more to gain from lowering the bar when it comes to organic certification.

The US organic community is currently fighting to keep GM infected crops from getting organic status, all because the USDA now has control of the word ‘organic’. The same can and will happen here.

Already certain farmers worldwide are now talking about ‘Beyond organic’ as they try to prove with a smart phrase, that they are better than organic because that special O-word is already tainted.

I propose that instead of having organic legislation passed. What needs to happen is that chemical legislation needs to be passed.

Very simple, if ANY synthetic chemicals are used in the growing, harvesting, processing, packaging or storage of any food product is should get a simple label that says CHEMICALLY TREATED.

No threshold and no exemptions, it’s simple and it would work.

But then again it’s a dream, seeing as our government is too scared to properly label Genetically Infected food. Why on earth would they properly label chemically treated food or even protect the fundamental tenants and values of organic agriculture.

This is a follow-up on a previous post on Farmers Markets. This post has come around mainly from watching other stall holders and how they deal with sales that walk past their stalls.

What must be remembered is that people come to markets to spend money. Here is something you might not realise, “They Actually Have Money to Spend!” It’s up to you to excite them, when people are excited they are more inclined to spend that money with you.

A very common complaint that my wife has at markets is that they are often full of cheap trash, she has often popped out to a market to purchase a gift and come back empty handed and disappointed at the quality of the goods on offer.

The decision to have a stall at a farmers market is pretty easy, and generally one can get away with a couple of hundred Rands in initial investment. It’s making the sales that seems to be the hardest part!

I’ve seen people with good quality perishable goods that should be selling quickly, have a disastrous day. At the end of a whole day sitting in gloom, they grumble that the food is going home to feed pigs…. meanwhile, they should have sold out.

I believe that there are two MAIN hurdles that people need to overcome when looking at farmers markets.

The first is what to sell. This is one of the continuous questions that I hear from people that want (or need) to make an additional income.

My advice is generally to visit your local markets and just watch. Don’t watch what the stalls are selling.  Watch where the people are spending time AND money. These are the stalls that are selling something that’s in demand.

NOW look at what they are selling, take note of a few things. The first thing you will see is that the stall is probably full of produce / product. There is excitement on both sides of the stall and the person selling is typically talking loud enough so that passers-by can pick up on the conversation.

It does not really matter what the products are, but it’s generally fresh, new, exciting, upbeat and LOCALLY PRODUCED. Either by themselves or another local person or farmer.

My list of fast selling lines are.

Market veggies (Speciality and/or seasonal)

Seedlings (Flowers, veggies or herbs)

Lettuce and/or Salad pre-packs (Quick wins in your own garden for high margins)

Farm produce (Eggs, Fresh chicken etc)

Feta Cheese (Quick and Easy to make and everyone loves feta)

Cut Flowers (Surprisingly, these are great sellers at farmers markets, walking with a bunch of pretty flowers is very sexy)

What needs to be remembered is that people are looking for something that has a story, so tell them one, and tell it over and over again. Just as long as it’s the truth.

People want value for money, and they want to enjoy their purchase. People also like telling their own story of how they ‘found you’. If you are selling a consumable item and it’s a great product, they will probably share your goods with guests, as well as your story and that’s how you develop a name.

Selling DVD’s at a farmers or craft market is not what people are looking for, if they want to buy illegal copies of new movies they will buy it at the Zimbabwean on the first street corner or PS2 Games from the Malawian at the second one. They also did not come to visit their local China mart stall, don’t try sell junk guys, people can see through you.

People come to the market to try something new, so your Herb Leaf Salad pack that really IS a Herb Leaf Salad pack is going to rock their palates this evening and they will be back for more next week. Those stunning unusual veggies or flowers will be taken home, because you used special seed or they are old unique varieties that are not available anywhere else.

The second hurdle is: Actually doing what you paid money to do in the first place…. selling!

Successful stalls NEVER have a chair for the stall holder to sit on.

I have watched fellow stall holders at a number of markets over the last year, the main deterrent to a prospective buyer is a stall holder that is sitting down or chatting to another stallholder.

The act of you sitting down prevents prospective customers from casually approaching you, because you are busy….. busy sitting and doing nothing. I’ve seen people, reading, knitting, eating, or just sitting glumly behind their stalls. If you are going to sit down, rather do it at home where you don’t have to pay for the privilege.

Another thing is talking to other stall holders. Now don’t get me wrong, be friendly and and show and interest in them, as they will assist you with your stall when you are short staffed or need to run to the loo, or vice-versa.  But don’t strike up a full length conversation and ignore the feet walking past. Stop those feet and talk to them instead.

If you are a smoker. Don’t smoke at your stall, no matter what your belief is about your right to smoke. And please don’t walk away from your stall to smoke, and them come and smoke at my stall! I tend to lose my sense of humour, as your smoke chases my customers away. I might just make you buy something.

My wife, eldest daughter and I run 2 separate stands at our local market, we sell our seeds and seedlings as well as a separate stand that sells fresh filter coffee by the cup. We have a rule that at least one of us is outside the stand engaging customers, talking to passers buy and generally being affable.

Our method is simple, and it’s as follows. Touch, Pause, Engage and Pass.

Touch with a word or two to spark interest.

Pause to see if there indeed is interest.

Engage and develop that interest

Pass the customer to the team mate behind the stand, if they are busy then help that customer yourself.

What this does is creates foot traffic and excitement at your stand, that excitement draws more customers. When things quieten down, then start again. Touch, Pause, Engage, Pass.

Farmers and Craft Markets are only as good as the stall holders, and they are the people that make the “vibe” of a market, if you guys are all glum and grumbly, don’t expect customers to cheer you up or spend money with you.

Being upbeat, having a smile and engaging with people all contribute to better sales. It’s easy and cost nothing. You are going to spend the day there anyway, so rather do it with a smile and come home with full pockets.

It gives me great pleasure to post a guest article on Selfsustainable. This is an extremely well researched article by Danie Olivier from Mossel Bay. With so little information readily available on this uniquely South African bean, Danie wanted to know more and set about investigating the history of this unique bean. Below is the result of months of work, Thank you Danie.

The Hereboontjie

Have you ever heard of the Hereboontjie (directly translated as “Lord’s Bean”), a flat white bean with a black marking above the hilum (the place where the seed is attached to the pod)? It is an unnamed variety of Phaseolus lunatus, and our very own authentic South African Lima bean, an Heirloom variety, that is still cultivated mainly the Sandveld, and a few other areas in the Western Cape. The first record of this bean in Afrikaans was by Pannevis (1880) in the form Heerenboontjie and in the Patriotwoordeboek (1902) in the form Heerboontjiis. The Entimologiewoordeboek van Afrikaans says that the name comes from Netherlands, in the form Herenboon.

In 1963, Dr. C. Louis Leipoldt already said: “It would be hard to find something more genuinely Afrikaans in a vegetable garden than the good old Goewerneursboontjie, or Hereboontjie, as it is also called.” Till this day it is still regarded by many as the aristocrat of beans.

Where does the name come from?

Through the years a number of stories were handed down as to where this white bean received its name. Looking at all the different sources there also does not seem to be consensus about the origin of the name. Listed below are all the stories I found during my research.

The first story is one that I have heard a couple of times, and to me it sounds the closest to the truth. The story goes that the Hereboontjie was named after Jan van Riebeeck who was the “Here van die Kaap” from 1652-1662. Reportedly, this bean was first introduced to the Cape by the Here XVII, thus it indeed has a long history in South Africa. It is also believed that each year Van Riebeeck sent some of these beans to “The Queen” as it was the only bean “She” would eat. Die queen in question is unknown, because at the time King William III was too young to marry and there was no royal family on the throne in the Netherlands.They were ruled by stadholders and not royalty during this time in history.

The second story comes from the Sandveld. Goewerneursboontjie, directly translated as Governor’s Bean, is the common name that the famers here use for the Hereboontjie. According to them this name was recorded by governor Simon van der Stel who first imported these beans to the Cape. Others suggest that the farmers of that time had to surrender a portion of their harvest to the governor as harvest tax, and that this is where the name Governor’s bean originated.

Thirdly there are a few people who suggest the name Governor’s bean is derived from the feudal system that might have ruled in the Sandveld during earlier times. This system has a landlord that made land available to farmers who then farmed according to an agreed share. When harvest time came, it could then be said: “Remember the lord’s beans”, hence Lord’s Beans or Hereboontjie.

This bean is also lesser known as the Sewejaarsboontjie or Seven-year bean, because it is perennial. Unlike other beans some Lima beans have deep thick perennial roots from which the plant grows in subsequent seasons. Here in South Africa it is normally grown as an annual because the plant does not survive the very cold and frost of our winters. Only in the tropics like Central- and South America it grows as a true perennial.

Anelia Marais from Elsenburg wrote in her letter to Die Burger on 23 June 2001, that a very old dictionary recorded the name as ‘civet bean’, but that none of the farmers in the Sandveld know this name. I did some research and found that the civet or sieva bean is indeed a Lima bean which has seeds much smaller than the normal Lima- or Butter bean. This corresponds with the Hereboontjie which has smaller seeds.

Lastly there is a beautiful quote that I am in including. Riana Scheepers wrote the following in here column Plotseling in Die Burger about the Hereboontjie: “I do not know where this bean got its name, but if I could guess, it is because the Lords grace abundantly rests upon it.He grows only where others gave up long ago: in the thinnest weakest soil imaginable. But when after vining up and ripening it reaches the other side, it is a beautiful thing. Something that makes connoisseurs sing odes.”

Another story comes from the very same Sandveld. It is said that since the first British occupation every year two bags (streepsakke) of Hereboontjies were sent to Buckingham Palace for the royal family’s personal use. These beans is believed to come from the Langfontein farm between Aurora and Redelinghuis.

Evita Bezuidehout calls them“Bloubloedboontjies.” i.e. Royal Beans

Other interesting facts.

For the proud people of the Sandveld region there is one relentless test for a bride who wants to wed into the family, and that is how well you can prepare Hereboontjies. Will you honour your Hereboontjies, treating them with care and respect? only then are you a good wife.

Some people of European descent are allergic to Lima beans because of an genetic mutation that occurred at the time when that beans were first introduced to this part of the world.

According to Leipoldt, the Hereboontjie is not the one with the black patch we know, but beans beautifully coloured like Amandola marble with hues of black-brown, red, white and yellow colours. He also says: “It is true, we currently seldom find the goewerneursboontjie in its original grandeur, and that it is also becoming smaller, more wrinkled and less colourful. There is even pale-yellow and off-white descendants, South American varieties with a less flavourful taste which are not nearly as aesthetically pleasing to the eye.”

In 2001, Mrs S. Coetzee from Bothasig in Cape Town, wrote in a letter to Die Burger in which she mentions that here parents (De Beer) moved to the Kromland farm near Graafwater in the Clainwilliam district. She was five years old at the time. Her parents cultivated Hereboontjies which was mottled with purple speckles. The beans are planted in September and ripen toward March. Pods are harvested by hand and thrown in bags until completely dry. Thereafter the beans are beaten out or shelled by hand, a job that was always given to the children. All the broken beans were thrown out.

From the above paragraphs we can clearly see that there are a number of Hereboontjie varieties which are different to the one we know. I could not find any pictures or information on what these other beans look like, but it falls in line with the dictionary definition.

Cultivation

Today Hereboontjies are primarily cultivated in the Sandveld. They are common between Elands Bay and Lamberts Bay as well as around Aurora and Redelinghuys, Sandfontein and Piketberg. There is also a belief among some people that Hereboontjies can only be cultivated here, but this is not true. Apparently they can grow anywhere, needing only sandy soil and fresh water. I have also read about Hereboontijes being cultivated at Riebeeck-Kasteel, Onrus and Graafwater, but I am not sure of the scale.

Hereboontjies prefer poor, moist, slightly acidic, sandy loam. It is sensitive to high pH levels, hence it grows so well in the Sandveld. It likes flood irrigation and grows well in unfertilised soil. For this reason it holds good potential for organic gardening.

Hereboontjies are rarely bothered by insects and diseases, and the reason seems to be the natural cyanide content of the plant. The green plant material contains cyanide, while the dried plant material contains none or almost none cyanide, hence it is only used as a dry shell bean.

Because the uneven ripening of pods makes mechanical harvesting difficult, this task is accomplished mostly by hand.

At Elsenburg 60 plants were planted in an area of about 300m. No fertiliser were used and the plants depended on what remained in the ground from the previous season. Drip irrigation was applied at 8 litres per plant per week. After being shelled and sorted, the yield was 15kg of dry beans. (about 5 t/ha), which is in accordance with yield numbers of the Sandveld.

 

 

It appears that animals also benefit from the plant ,and commonly eats the dry plant remains after the harvest. The dry material (pods, stems and leaves) were analysed by the animal production laboratories and tested for various nutritional elements. The results are as follows:

• Total Digestible Nutritional Material             61.68
• Raw Protein                                                              15,06
• Fibre                                                                             32.56%
• Fat                                                                                 2,51%
• In Vitro Organic Material Digestibility          67,02

 

Origin of the Lima Bean

Lima beans are one of the seven Phaseolus species that all originate from Central- and South America.

Some sources indicate the bean’s other names as Madagascar- or Birma-bean even though it does not come from there at all. There is however a Madagascar Lima bean that is another rare African heirloom. Source Website

According to Zven & De Wet’s Dictionary of cultivated plants and their regions of diversity, Pudoc 1982, Netherlands, the origin is Central America particularly the Andes mountains (from Peru to Argentina).

According to these writers the Lima bean can be divided into three main variety groups:

Apparently these are the original Lima beans from Peru.

We have the pleasure of a guest post from the African Centre for Biosafety on the proposed changes to the Plant Breeders Rights Act. These proposed changes are of critical importance to anyone that uses seed or plant material.

 

Guest Post by: Mariam Mayet

African Centre for Biosafety

www.acbio.org.za

Introduction

In this briefing, we bring to the attention of small- holder farmers, the proposed amendments by the South African government (Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) to its Plant Breeders Rights Act concerning the issue of Farmers Rights. The proposed legislation will have far reaching implications for the rights of farmers vis-à-vis commercially protected varieties of food crops. The proposed amendments cut to the very heart of the rights of farmers to save, use, exchange seed and propagation material. We urge small farmers in particular, to engage in the process and make their voices and objections heard.

Farmers Rights

Farmers Rights are those rights arising from the past, present and future contributions of farmers in conserving, improving and making available genetic resources, particularly those in the centres of origin/diversity. The concept of Farmers Rights is recognised in the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture (FAO) International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources, (“The Seed Treaty”), which entered into force in 2004. The Seed Treaty’s objectives include the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. Its preamble affirms farmers’ rights to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seed and other propagating material, and to participate in decision-making.

Further, Article 9 of the Treaty recognizes the enormous contribution that local and indigenous communities and farmers of all regions of the world, particularly those in the centres of origin and crop diversity, have made and will continue to make for the conservation and development of plant genetic resources which constitute the basis of food and agriculture production throughout the world.

Plant Breeders Rights in South Africa

Currently, South Africa’s Plant Breeders Rights Act, 1976 (Act No.15 of 1976) grants plant breeders certain intellectual property and other rights over plant varieties. These allow the rights holder to claim royalties as remuneration for the use of a protected variety and prevent unlawful uses. The plant breeder/right holder has a sole right to the variety for the first 5 to 8 years to produce and market propagating material of the variety. During the next 15 to 17 years the holder is compelled to issue licenses to other persons who may also wish to use and market the material. When the holder issues a licence to another person, the holder may continue to claim royalties for any propagating material produced and sold. Use of a protection variety without the consent of the right holder is thus not allowed and is regarded as unlawful.

Section 23 of the Act provides for certain exceptions, which allows a farmer to use farm saved seeds and propagating material on land occupied by him or her without paying royalties. The law does not, however, allow the exchange of protected seeds between farmers.

SA, UPOV and farmers rights

South Africa’s plant breeder’s rights legislation is strongly influenced by the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties (UPOV). UPOV was established in 1961 and is an international regime designed principally to protect the interests of plant breeders. UPOV has been amended several times-in 1972, 1978 and 1991. South Africa is a Party to the 1978 UPOV agreement and its provisions are binding on the Republic. In terms of the 1978 UPOV agreement, the holder of a plant variety had a monopoly on the commercial propagation and marketing of the variety but little control over other uses. The scope of the intellectual property right protection is only in respect of production for the purposes of commercial marketing, offering for sale and marketing of propagating material of a protected variety.

Farmers were thus free to multiply seed for their own use for as long as they wished. Breeders were also free to use a protected variety to develop a new variety as long as it did not require repeated use of that variety. Farmers were also allowed to freely use their harvested material from a protected variety for any purposes.

However all of this changed dramatically when UPOV was revised in 1991, the rights of breeders strengthened and those of farmers severely curtailed.

UPOV 1991 extended the scope of a plant breeder rights’ to also include other activities such as exporting, importing and stocking of protected varieties. Breeders’ rights were also restricted in that they were no longer allowed to produce varieties that were essentially derived from a protected variety. Crucially, it allowed national governments to decide whether farmers could be allowed to reuse the harvest of protected varieties on their own landholdings without the authorisation of the rights holder. UPOV 1991 binds its members to disallow the exchange or selling of such harvested material. There is no flexibility in UPOV with regard to this restriction.

While South Africa has signed this UPOV 1991 version, it has not yet ratified it. In other words, the UPOV 1991 is not binding on South Africa and it is thus under no obligation to either implement or ratify UPOV 1991. No developing country that is a member of the 1978 UPOV agreement, including major grain exporting countries such as Brazil and Argentina, has ratified UPOV 1991.

Nevertheless, South Africa, already as far back as 1996, and in terms of amendments to the Plant Breeders Rights Act at that time, began a process of implementing some of the UPOV 1991 provisions. These relate inter alia to the restriction on farmers’ rights, particularly in regard to harvested material. The current provisions of the Plant Breeders Rights Act, namely those contained in the current section 23(6)(f) thus prohibits the exchange of harvested material and ties such harvested material to a farmer who is in occupation of land. However, farmers are allowed to use all propagating material including vegetative material for the purposes of propagation.

Proposed new law severely restricts farmers’ rights

Now, South Africa wants change to its Plant Breeders Rights Act and further restrict farmers’ rights. It has during 2011, published the Plant Breeders’ Rights Bill for comment. Stakeholder consultations are still underway and government is still open to receiving inputs and comments. Government appears to be particularly keen to engage with small farmers.

The Plant Breeders’ Rights Bill contains a new section 9, dealing with farmers rights. It continues to prohibit the exchange of protected seeds between farmers, however there are still no limits on farm saved seeds for further propagation.

The proposed provisions contained in sections 9(1)(d) and 9(2) are of crucial importance. A farmer is now restricted to only use harvested material on land occupied by him from a protected variety (as opposed to propagating material which is the current position). Propagating material has a wide definition and includes any reproductive or vegetative material of a plant that can be used for the propagation of such plant whilst maintaining the essential characteristics of the original plant. Small farmers must carefully consider that the implications are of these restrictions for them. Furthermore, the exchange of such harvested material derived from protected varieties between farmers is prohibited.

Seed that is later produced post harvest from such protected variety appears to be excluded from the provisions and may not be used for further saving, propagation and exchange.

The proposed section 9(1)(2) expressly prohibits farmers from saving, exchanging, propagating or using protected varieties of vegetatively propagated crops (which will be prescribed). Vegetatively propagated material are produced asexually and in agronomic terms, includes, apples, avocados, cannabis, citrus, date, fig, grapes, manioc, potato, strawberry, sugarcane, tea, vanilla and willow. This prohibition will have extremely far reaching implications for farmers.

Small- holder farmers need protection

The South African government argues in its 2011 Plant Breeders’ Rights Policy that as a result of the lack of a clear definitions of ‘farmer’ and scale of production and the scope of the plant varieties, the farmers privilege has been abused by commercial farmers, to such an extent that there has been a significant decrease in the investment in planting breeding and the virtual collapse of plant breeding programmes. It appears that breeders have singled our vegetatively propagated crops as a major problem.

While it is beyond the scope of this article to delve into these arguments, we do believe as a general principle, that Farmers Rights, particularly those of small- holder and subsistence farmers should be fully protected and not restricted.

The rights of small famers to save and exchange all seed and use and exchange propagating material (including seeds) between communities is in fact non-negotiable. Farmers’ Rights are crucial for ensuring present and future food security in general, and in the fight against rural poverty in particular. Farmers’ Rights are necessary prerequisites for the maintenance of crop genetic diversity, which is the basis of all food and agriculture production in the world. The protection and recognition of Farmers’ Rights will allow farmers to maintain and develop crop genetic resources as they have done since the dawn of agriculture some ten thousand years ago.

The government needs to pay special attention to the needs and interests of small-holder black farmers, particularly with regard to land tenure, land holding, communal ownership of land and generally how communities organise themselves when it comes to farming the land and the use of harvested material.

Conclusion

We urge the South African government thus to craft provisions for the recognition and protection of farmers rights. Such provisions must be clear and unambiguous and must clearly take into consideration and respond to the particular circumstances and constraints of small- holder farmers.

Plant Breeders Rights and other forms of intellectual property over plant varieties have played an enormous role in the monopolisation and control by corporations over South Africa’s food systems. South Africa must protect its small farming communities and ensure that Farmers Rights are not impeded from continuing to make a contribution to the conservation, development and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for agriculture production. We also strongly urge the South African government not to ratify UPOV 1991, which will undermine the flexibility that the government presently enjoys to give effect to the recognition and protection of Farmers Rights.

Editors Note: We strongly urge and advise every member of society that would be affected by the proposed laws to get involved. If these laws are passed or the UPOV 1991 is ratified it will be too late and you may find that what you are now doing for pleasure or profit will become illegal.

I would advise that you get intouch with Mariam via the African Center for Biosaftey Website to help formulate your responses.

It’s now or never !!!