The landscape between Bloemfontein and Bultfontein isn’t exactly the Free State’s scenic showstopper. It is flat and featureless, even now, bathed as it is in spring sunlight. This time of year, the cultivated fields are bare, the natural vegetation is sparse, and the soil is baked hard. Everything waits with bated breath for the arrival of the first thunderstorms of summer. Only then will the tractor engines start up to get maize and sunflower seeds into the soil – to be harvested in winter. Red grass will shoot up to brush the bellies of cattle. And when the wind blows, purple waves will rise and fall in the lavender fields.
Yes, lavender! Thanks to the nursery of two sisters-in-law on a farm in the area, there’s lavender in abundance – and at affordable prices – in the Free State these days.
EVEN AS A CHILD, Desireé van der Schyff (then Troskie) loved plants and was interested in how roots grow beneath the surface of the soil.
“I know it’s a little odd to have that kind of interest at such
