The saying goes that if you make your bed you have to sleep in it. At Avondale we believe that if we create the best environment to sustain life, the animals will return, as a breeding pair of Jacky Hangman (Fiscal Shrike) predator birds demonstrated recently.
Johnathan Grieve discovered a nest with chicks by chance in the company of Glen Carlou winemaker Arco Laarman and Caspor Eugster of Colomé wines in Argentina.
Our Bio-LOGIC way of natural organic farming strives to recreate a living system on the farm where life is balanced by predators, and symbiotic cooperation between vines, plants and organisms and animals. In fact nature does its own killing, so there is no use for chemical pesticides.
This means we have to lure as many living animals back onto the farm and into the vineyards as we can. Other wild animals spotted on the farm, apart from the abundant bird life, include eagles, falcons, owls, lynx, klipspringers, toads, big fat cobras and, of course, the “never-stop-partying-in-the-vineyard” baboons.
While Johnathan was showing the farm and explaining the benefits of natural farming, Caspor spotted the nest and alerted the others.
“What better proof can you get that our system is working when you stumble upon such a tangible example of restored life in the company of other winemakers who want to learn from us,” says Grieve.
