Arriving in Johannesburg at the age of 17 from ‘the Country’, was quite overwhelming. Disappointed at missing out on possible Head Girl status in Springs, and settling into a Sandton community, my mettle was forged. University followed, then living in New York, coming back to live in Cape Town to run my own car engine & gearbox business and finally returning to Joh’burg still looking for my ‘place’.
My original purpose of studying criminal psychology reared its head, because I still wanted to help people to prevent them from becoming a criminal statistic, when I learned that ‘you are what you eat.’ This perspective fascinated me, as I found more and more research that indicated that not only your physical health, but also your mental health, is totally effected by your nutrition. My own research showed that our commercially available food, was not meeting the paramount requirements for a healthy body and mind.
At the same time, I started on a very strict diet, which enormously helped my own health state, and I started to look for vegetables that would fulfil the requirements of a healthy body and mind. Through an interesting series of events I discovered Franchi Sementi heirloom vegetable seeds, and took myself off to Bergamo in Italy to get the agency for these excellent award winning seeds.
Sought After Seedlings, Sub-Saharan agents for Franchi Sementi, was born in 2010.
After enormously hard work, the stringent requirements for new seed imports of the Agricultural Department were met, and with absolutely no financial assistance, my first order of seeds was placed, for R19,000.00.
Our recent orders from Franchi Sementi are R160,000.00, plus investment in other commodities. Along this sometimes very tough path, largely because people are difficult to convince of new perspectives, our organic practice met with some very stiff opposition, especially within the industry itself. Change is very hard for a lot of people.
However, awards received to date include Rising Star Entrepreneur of the Year, GIBBS 10,000 Women Awards, Finalist in Absa Jewish Achiever Awards, and finalist in Investec Jewish & Black Achievers.
As a small business, I have launched by own range, Linda’s Original Seeds, compete with multinational seed companies, supply almost every notable nursery in Gauteng and Cape, establish unique landscaped Organic Vegetable Gardens, eg Saxon Hotel Villas and Spa, give talks countrywide, and train many people to grow their own food. Oppenheimer Foundation Staff and their gardens, is one of my achievements.
I believe my work is imperative to make a difference in so many ways and winning this award would bring into the spotlight the possibilities of a better life, by seeing that I offer attainable solutions to health problems, which have exponentially increased – both mental and physical. My next expansion is to include start up spaza businesses in this arena. My nominator must know that the saying that “All disease begins in the gut” as Hippocrates said, and it’s time to set this right.
My vision: To describe the current situation as dire, is an understatement. People are literally starving. Unemployment is a huge part of the problem and food sustainability is THE basic need. We need to provide the means for SA people to provide at least this basic necessity, hand outs cannot last forever. Educating people on how to grow food is my forte, but giving them the information as to why, they need to eat properly, is just as important. With spaza shops & mainstream suppliers and educators, we can make a difference. I wish to continue pioneering in this direction, hopefully with some support on this trajectory.
