The farm becoming sustainable

Dave's update:

"I have just returned from Malawi.  Trip went well – farm is totally ready for the rains.  The guys have worked really hard again to be ready.

Maize mill is running and making some money – should pick up nicely after the next harvest.
Mushroom house is working well and sales are taking place almost daily.
Honey – we are down to 12 hives but do hope to harvest honey early in the new year.
Pigs – 35 died.  Foster suspects sabotage :(  We brought in our last 5 pigs now to try again.

I have sent you some pics of the latest.  We are fairly close to being sustainable now, in terms of our security and staff costs, and basic maintenance and electricity etc."

The pictures from the top: Black mamba on the farm; the maize mill in operation; planting maize 

Hill Top Farm's first crops

The farm has had some good rains and the crops are growing !!!


Beans ...

Soya ...

This is wonderful news and we're hopeful for a great harvest in a few weeks.

Malawi Farm

Finally managed to reach Foster at the farm yesterday - they have been experiencing very heavy rains and his phone fell into a pool of water in the fields (eish) - so he has not been able to chat for a few days :)

All the crops i.e. maize, beans, ground nuts, Soya have been planted and are doing well. Weeds are growing even faster than the crops and this is the major challenge at present - to be expected as this season we have turned bush / grass into farmland. Our township folk are struggling to contain the weeds as they cannot afford to hire extra labour. The "farm" 10 acres are more or less under control from weeds.

We have purchased a trailer to go with our small tractor. This will be delivered soon from a small-holder estate near Mulanje.

We are looking to get a backup generator and solar geyser soonest.

Looks like I will be in Malawi 21 March - 4 April.

Thanks for your interest, prayers and support

Chat soon

Dave

Hill Top Farm Shines

Great news today - Escom has put in the 3 phase meter and turned on the juice at Hill Top Farm.  We have lights at the the farm !  We can now get cracking on the water supply issues.
Other good news - Foster tells me he has located 2 complete wheels for our dear old tractor - rims, tyres and tubes.
The frenzied pace of work preparing the land for this rainy season continues unabated.  Chirobwe, Ndirande, Lunzu and the Chigumula village folk are all hard at work.  The land will be ready within weeks I am told.
Down in the valley the 4 secondary school orphans and the 21 primary school orphans all have new uniforms and are at school as planned, paid for by the bean harvest recently harvested by Frank and his team.

August 2011 - Farm visit from from the USA

During August a team from the USA visited Hill Top Farm and helped with getting the farm ready.

They also spent time teaching school children  ...

 ... and even got to play football with our Malawian friends.