Life sure has a way of surprising you at times, sometimes you are rowing left in the stream of life without realizing that the current is forcing you in a completely different direction.
After major staff layoffs at Splinterlands and a huge tomato crop that failed, I had to scramble to make a plan, shit was real. I was already looking after my mom with dementia full-time, and with my daughter in university, and my dad very close to losing the little bit of eyesight that he had left, the pressure was mounting mentally physically, and especially financially. I needed to find a way to cope with all the new changes as well as the additional financial obligations. One thing I knew was that both the family as well as the farm had to survive, and the task was laying very heavy on my shoulders.
At first, I had no idea where to even start, but I knew that I had to start somewhere.
While I was still trying to figure out how to bridge the situation, I started making some jams and preserves from the fruit that I had on the farm, as I had done so many times in the past. It always used to be a reasonable side hustle and brought in some cash from time to time. But now I had to upscale the process. I sold these jams as well as some roasted locally sourced macadamia nuts. It was a long way from providing a sustainable income, but I figured I could generate enough to buy some seeds and accompanying supplies to plant the next crop.
Little did I know that life was steering me in a completely different direction.
One morning, I stood looking out over my failed tomato crop, the fruit was small and sparse, completely unmarketable, but still good for use in the house. So we decided to start salvaging what we could from the crop. I figured that I could make and store a decent batch of tomato jams and tomato-based causes, and whatever didn't sell we could always use in the house. After making all the jam, sauce, and soup that my refrigerated storage could handle, I was still left with a daily dose of tomatoes that just couldn't be sold. I came up with an idea to try and sundry some, this was something I had never done before, but, the one thing that is ample on this farm is the undying Limpopo sun. After some extensive YouTube research, I considered myself well-informed enough to give it a shot. I got to work putting up some makeshift drying nets and dragged every loose standing fan from inside the house closer. I dried whatever tomatoes I could salvage. Once dried I thought it would be worth a shot to advertise the organic sundried tomatoes along with my other products on local groups, and the response was simply overwhelming.
Before I knew it, I had to start buying in tomatoes to try to keep up with the demand. This of course opened up a door to a new product range. Sundried tomato pesto made with macadamia nuts and quattrocento cheese. Soon my range included not only sundried tomato pesto but also sundried tomato vinegar reduction, (a byproduct made from boiling the sundried tomatoes in vinegar when making the pesto.)
With these new products on my list, my client scope started growing, and along with that the demand for nuts. This in turn allowed me to grow my product list even more.
Came Mango season I added some dried mango to my list as well, and I started incorporating the nuts into homemade candies such as macadamia nut brittles, Italian nougats, and gourmet marshmallows. it was at this stage that the business really started blossoming.
Sundried Tomato / Dried Mango
It wasn't long before word started spreading, and very soon I had people and shops from all over South Africa contacting me with orders. I never dreamed that this little home enterprise of mine would grow so exponentially.
The only problem I have at this point is that the demand is currently exceeding my production rate, and for the most part, I put in at least 12 hours of work a day from Monday to Sunday. At this stage in a one-week window, up to 100kg of nuts get hand roasted, and over 2000 macadamia nut brittle bars are meticulously handcrafted, Then there are all the craft jams/jellies & preserves made from locally sourced seasonal crops, these are all traditional delicacies that you can not find in in your general grocery stores, this range includes traditional Afrikaans favorites such as tomato jam, mango jam, mango chutney, preserved guava, maroela jelly. And that's not even to mention all the other candies.
Macadamia Choc-Chip Cookies / Nougat Toronne with wild honey & Macadamia / Turkish delight & Coffee toffee Marshmallows
More recently I was contacted by the Tzaneen local business forum, which acknowledges me as an up-and-coming local business supplier and would like to put in a standing order for some of the products I make to add to gift baskets for national and international guest speakers throughout the year.
It has reached a point where I no longer have any time left to market or advertise products and my energy is solely dedicated to the production, From December until now 12 additional shops have contacted me wanting to stock my products in their shops, and right now, I simply don't have the capacity to serve them all. I am currently at a point where I am looking into mechanizing some of the candy processes and I am even considering employing someone on a full-time basis.
I have already contacted a few engineering shops to help me get the candy production line up and running. I am hoping that they will come back with some positive news very shortly. Until then I will carry on slaving away over roasting nuts and candy pots <3
So far my little kitchen enterprise has allowed me to keep the family and the farm up and running, it allows me to pay for any and all arising university costs as well as my mothers ever demanding medical needs. And above that, I now also have everything I need to get a new crop into the farm soil, hopefully, this time with a bit more success.
This is essentially how DownToEarth.Africa was born. Necessity sure is a great driving force!