Winter Farming at Sesisonke

First and foremost is the drop in temperature. Being situated in Harrismith and being one of the coldest parts of the Free State, it is not uncommon for the temperatures to be as low as -4 deg celsius during early morning. Some crops can handle the cold, while others go into ‘hibernation’ or a recovery period if you will. One of these crops are our Apples. Their trees stand pruned and bare, and to protect them from the frost we blanket them in protective cover to prevent dew settling. A crop that can handle the colder climate is that of Wheat. The planting of the seeds takes a couple weeks to complete which we do now over the June/July period. Ideally we will harvest the crops in December. On the opposite side of things we are harvesting the last of our potatoes now. Depending on the required area, we either use the bulk harvester or lift them with the diggers by hand. We planted them about three months ago, so the turn around time is quite quick. Our Maize crops that we planted in November are also harvested now.