About us
Two Peas
There are just two peas at Peas on Earth:
Colin is a South African with lots of experience with animals and people having worked in 5 star game lodges for nearly 10 years. Starting as a game ranger for Gorah Elephant Camp in Addo Elephant Park, his career took him into lodge management, and into the Okavango Delta. After a couple more game reserve experiences, he decided he’d had enough of making money for others and wanted to try making it for himself. Oh, and he married Nicky in 2004 too. So, in June 2008, he started life as a farmer on Mpetukop Farm. Since then, he’s had a pretty steep learning curve, along which he has lost some veggies, done a lot of weeding and is now beginning to establish a market garden to be proud of. He also repairs everything (pumps, electrics, gas, vehicles), makes feed for animals, manages the farm and all the veggie production and shares responsibility for the trading store with Nicky.
Nicky is from England but has been living in South Africa since January 2004. After five years of working as a journalist in London, she arrived in Africa as a volunteer for Willing Workers in South Africa. She proceeded to volunteer for a couple of years and then worked for Wild Coast horse Trails, managing their working rider programme. She is an experienced horsewoman and works as a freelance horse trails guide, as well as caring for and training her own horses. Nicky is responsible for all the computer work, website and marketing. She’s also the number one jam maker, though Colin makes on occasions, and white witch of Mpetu with her herbal ointments and oils. Nicky also helps run the shop, keeps the books, cares for horses and rabbit, shares responsibility for the pigs, ducks, chickens, bantams and dogs. She goes riding – for work, for pleasure and for socialising!
Between us, we have a wide range of skills that we are keen to share with others, just as we are eager to learn from others. Our experience in hospitality makes us, well, hospitable, and we are, in general, nice people and good hosts. We are passionate about our life here in south Africa and, specifically here in the Eastern Cape, and want to share our experiences with others and gain from the skills and knowledge that our guests and volunteers bring to the farm.
Pea Puppies
Although there are only two peas living in the house at Mpetukop, there are three dogs that tend to dominate life on the farm. As they have big personalities and are such an integral part of life here, all three have to be introduced here in our virtual farm reality.
Peakay
Peakay is the oldest of the three dogs, having been born in May 2008. Although he will soon be turning two years old, people still mistake him for a puppy and they’re right – he hasn’t really changed since he was about six months’ old. Peakay is of uncertain breed, believed to be a Jack Russell crossed with something – possibly Labrador? Nevertheless, he is very handsome and is also our top guard dog. He has Jack Russell in him and was bred to be a hunting dog, so he has that typical Terrier fearlessness. Despite numerous accidents and attacks, Peakay has never sustained any kind of injury and, even after his genitals were removed, he recovered in about 30 minutes and never looked back. Despite these qualities, he is also capable of escaping from anywhere and can even open gates with his huge, dexterous front paws. He has a very thin, sleek coat which shines all the time and never needs brushing – but fails to keep him very warm so, in winter, he likes to sleep between Nicky and Colin, underneath the duvet. He is a very affectionate dog but also jealous and dominant – we wouldn’t wish him on anyone else but we love him to pieces.
Yulara
Yulara is the only proper breed at the farm, though a lot of people mistake her for a mongrel! She is an Australian Cattle dog of the Blue Heeler variety. Although not 100% typical of her breed, she has beautiful markings and a very typical Cattle dog approach to life. Yulara is devoted to Colin, but not quite as devoted as she is to playing with sticks, balls, Frisbees – in fact, anything that can be thrown and caught. She is extremely athletic and fearless in her leaps into the air – and into the dam. She loves life and, each morning, goes around the farm squeaking and wagging her tail, saying hello to all the birds and animals. Out of all the dogs, Yulara is the most useful around the farm. She’s excellent at bringing buckets in from the field and is also helpful when it comes to rounding up the chickens, although she sometimes gets a little too enthusiastic. Yulara is about six weeks’ younger than Peakay and we hope to breed from her in the future.
Biscuit
Biscuit is something of an accident. He was the result of an unplanned pairing between a Cairn Terrier (of sorts) and a Jack Russell/Chihuahua. His mother only gave birth to two puppies and the other was still born, so Biscuit is a unique little dog and never to be repeated as his father’s been castrated and his mother, sadly, died. Biscuit is just over a year old and is the sweetest, happiest and most gentle of the dogs. He loves the horses and spends his morning lying in the sun outside the stalls or wandering about between the horses’ legs, collecting drops titbits of feed. Apparently, even since birth, Biscuit has been an independent character and is often found playing alone with a small twig or piece of fluff. Although Biscuit has not yet been castrated, as it would be wonderful to breed mini biscuits (they’d probably be the kind you get on a saucer with coffee), everyone suffers when Yulara comes into heat and Biscuit becomes a vibrating mess of testosterone, so that plan might have to be reconsidered. Biscuit accompanies Peas on Earth to Farmer's Markets, selling his peanut flavoured biscuits to help raise money for the SPCA.
Our vision in buying this farm is really just an extension of our vision for living in modern south Africa. We both love this country and are committed to seeing it prosper. As a result, we aim to live as unobtrusively as possible - sharing our material wealth with our fellow man and our vegetable wealth with all and sundry. We both believe that you receive in life a reflection of that which you have given out, so we strife to live happily and fairly, without conflict or exploitation.
As we grow and increasingly amount and diversity of produce, so we are increasingly able to opt out of modern 'civilized' living and depend more on our own capabilities to provide for our own needs and those of our animals and land. We would one day like to see this farm being run as a completely self-sustaining property.
Our other ambitions are spiritually linked to this vision and represent our desire for a happy holistic life in which plants, microorganisms, animals and peas all flourish in mutually beneficial relationships. To facilitate this, we believe in having a spiritual centre to our farm which is why we are currently building a labyrinth.