Sandies Glen: How green is my garden

Writer & Photographer Raphael da Silva

A growing ethical, eco-friendly farming revolution is quietly being cultivated in Sandies Glen, a community nestled amongst ancient poplar trees, spring-fed dams and fynbos-covered mountains, in a secluded valley between the villages of Stanford and Napier.

Organic vegetables, biodynamic wines, free-range eggs, goat’s milk cheeses and proteas – these are just some of the products that are being lovingly produced by both recently-arrived residents on smaller plots of land, as well as bigger, more established farms.

Cathy Marriot and Basil Stillwell enjoy the winter sun on the stoep of their Sandies Glen home with their dogs.

Sondagskloof is one such smallholding in Sandies Glen. Here, over the past two decades, owners Cathy Marriott and her life partner, Basil Stilwell have passionately crafted their vision of the kind of life that they want to live – close to nature, healthy and self-sufficient but, most of all, being able to provide beautiful food for their family.

Cathy in her gardens that supply OK Foods and restaurants in the Overstrand with organic produce.

Just like the vegetables they now grow for clients such as the new OK Foods at Gateway Lifestyle Centre in Hermanus, their growth has been organic.

“This is the culmination of a longheld dream,” says Cathy, recounting the history of Sondagskloof. “We bought the property nearly 20 years ago when I was pregnant with our twin daughters and moved here permanently eight years ago from Cape Town. The whole idea was that we would live off the land and be self-sufficient, but it took a while to accomplish that.

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