Our Ethos
We are passionate about wholesome living and this starts with what we eat, how we think, how we move through the world and how we care for our environment. We have developed this website for a number of reasons. The first is to share our personal story and information we have learnt along the way and are still learning. The second is to offer some of the Mayfield goodness to you through the products and services we offer, or a visit to us for a day or an overnighter. The third is that we have connected to other like-minded people and we buy their products or are involved in projects with them and thus we have put those links on our website so we can ‘hook you’ up with them too! We are all for sharing information so feel free to get in touch and ask questions. And as we find more connections so we will add to our website, building a community of more like-minded people and hopefully that can change the world.
Eat Local. Support Local. Think good thoughts. Be kind. Nourish the soils. Choose wisely in all things.
More about us, the people
We are a family of five, 2 parents (Piers and Dominique) and 3 offspring (Gabriel, Noa-Grace and Sebastian). Not to forget to mention the 7 dogs (we have 5 cattle dogs which can make the house seem a little crazy at times) and of course the proverbial 2 cats. We live in a rambling farm house that has had bits and pieces added on over the decades and gives one the feeling of the hacienda in the book House of the Spirits by Isabela Alende. It is warm and welcoming, colourful and always something homemade and home-baked on the kitchen counter or in the oven. Despite being in a rural area, there is a constant flow of people in and out of the house. This flow may be in the form of friends of the family members, or out of town visitors, or professors coming to look at the famous Mayfield soil, neighbours, new connections….there really is never a dull moment!
About the land
Mayfield Farm has a rich history; Piers being the third generation of his family to have the honour of farming here. It all began with his grandfather, who used to farm sugarcane in Cuba but during the turbulent Cuban revolutions and independence in the 1930’s, foreigners were chased out. Mr Garnett snr. went back to England but then chose South Africa as his new home and started working for Doringkop Sugar. In 1942, during his employment here, he bought Mayfield Farm, spending his evenings and weekends building it up and destumping (on horseback) large wattle plantations. There was a small cottage, which had served as the Thring’s British Outpost in the 1880’s but a new farmhouse was built in 1946 and the family moved in (This is the home that Piers and his family currently live in). Piers’ Dad, Christopher, was 8 years old at the time. Fast forward to when Piers had completed his studies at the Agricultural College in Nelspruit, done some traveling and at the age of 27, Christopher asked him to come back to Mayfield to manage the farm. This has always surprised Piers as he was always the latest riser, out of him and his 3 siblings and never pictured himself as a farmer! However, things always turn out the way they are meant to and here we all are!
Piers is passionate about preserving this precious heritage and takes the role as custodian of this piece of land to heart.
Blessings
As a family we are constantly in awe of how things grow on Mayfield, how they smell, the quiet passing of the seasons, the animal visitors and inhabitants from large Fish Eagles to microscopic organisms in the soil. We marvel at the magnificence of each sunrise and each sunset. Each full moon is as spectacular as the last. The richness and fecundity of the soil is a marvel and deserves to be protected, respected and nourished. It is with gratitude we awake each day and sleep in the blessings of Creation, this land.
Our History
