Meadowsweet

Meadowsweet was the 1st certified organic farm in SA. Diane and Antonio Rivera started farming Biodynamically in the Central Drakensberg of KwaZulu/Natal, South Africa in 1979. Initially they had Jersey cows and were supplying milk to the local community – selling their milk from the back of their van to the inhabitants of Loskop. They converted to being a commercial herb farm in 1983 (again a 1st in SA) supplying bulk herbs to a major condiment distributor locally. They soon developed the Meadowsweet range of culinary herbs and herbal teas which they marketed country wide and exported bulk ‘certified organic’ herbs to an organic distributor in the UK (another 1st).

They started a school for the children of the area’s farm workers on their farm and became very involved in social and rural development. Diane opened a little shop on the farm and tourists to the area were given guided tours of this unusual farm and spoken to about the importance of farming using ecological, economical and ethically social values in our still very politically ‘incorrect’ South Africa.

This was the birth of the Meadowsweet ethos of walking our talk with regards to uplifting and IMPROVING the QUALITY of LIFE of everyone who came into contact with Meadowsweet; from the soil, the plants, the animals and the people working and living on the farm, to everyone who visited or even used products from Meadowsweet.