Sheryl Stivens: Organic Pioneer
Sheryl Stivens grew up on a mixed farm in Winchmore, Ashburton. Her family were fourth generation New Zealand farmers growing a variety of crops as well as breeding stud sheep. An experience when she was a young adult set her firmly on the organic path.
Mercedes Walkham traces the life of this Soil & Health member who embodies the motto of ‘healthy soil, healthy food, healthy people’.
Hunting and gathering
When Sheryl Stivens was 19 years old she moved to Australia, and met her husband Hal several years later in the Northern Territory.
“In those days we were young hunters and gatherers catching abundant fish and game in the Australian outback and sleeping under the stars,” Sheryl recalls.
“It was when we moved to Wagga Wagga (New South Wales) that Hal and I bought 30 acres of land, discovered the joys of growing your own food started to garden,” said Sheryl.
A turning point came for them with the realisation that there were no freshwater yabbies or other creatures in the billabongs on their land, due to the chemical fertilisers used to grow grain on the surrounding farms. They had both grown up with families using superphosphate and like many thought it was a “bird-poo type of product that came from Nauru Island” and never considered it to be toxic.
This realisation made them re-evaluate all their belief systems and from that moment on they vowed that they would not use anything that would poison the soil. “It became an unwritten law in our lives,” Sheryl says.
ABOVE: Sheryl Stivens
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Author: Mercedes Walkham is part of a collective organic garden based in Ashburton. She is pictured here with Sheryl.
