Kelly and Bruce are Planting the Seeds of their Dream Regenerative Farm and a Better World

Photo Credit: Kelly Steenhuisen

Growing their own food is a labour of love that has defined the very purpose of farming couple, Kelly and Bruce. The decision to trade their roles in the corporate world for the open soil wasn’t just a career change – it was a mission to regenerate the world.

KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (25 March 2025) – Growing your own food takes a level of dedication that deserves respect, and for Kelly and Bruce, it’s a way of life that seems to come naturally.

Bruce’s journey began in childhood with herbs, succulents, and bonsais, while Kelly’s spark was ignited at a Greenpop festival in Zambia. When their paths finally crossed, they realised early on that they shared a vision: a life of growing food and experimenting with low-tech, affordable off-grid systems.

“We had both left jobs that didn’t suit us. Bruce left a leading energy company, and I left a life behind an office desk. We were searching for a different path. We decided to travel in our van and trade hard work for knowledge and experience on homesteads and food gardens around South Africa,” Kelly tells us.

They managed to complete their Permaculture Design courses during their travels and together cultivated a huge amount of hope for a better world.

“After our travels, we designed and implemented various food gardens, volunteered on community projects and managed a few farms. We’ve also since completed numerous courses on Regenerative Agriculture and soil health and gained experience with animals.”

The couple grow interesting versions of common foods by selecting heirloom varieties, which are often very colourful. These include rainbow corn, purple broccoli and black tomatoes!

“As a society, we’ve lost so much of the beauty of food in the industrial system and much of the nutrition as well. Heirloom and heritage plants and animals can bring that back!”

Known as “The Regenerative Pear” on their shared social media platforms, Kelly and Bruce share their passion and extensive knowledge of regenerative design with their online audience and even earned a feature on Humans Who Grow Food recently.

In a system where everything costs money, for this pair, planting a seed, harvesting food and then saving the seed to grow again feels radical and hopeful.

They recently moved from Knysna to Lions River in KwaZulu-Natal, to continue their farming journey on the homeland they had missed dearly.

“We missed KZN and had been dreaming of moving to the Midlands for a while, so when our farm management contract ended, we decided to take the leap with sheep, ducks and chickens in tow!

“We are starting from the ground up on a small bit of rental land in the KZN Midlands, and we aim to build ourselves up here until we can (hopefully) get to the point of purchasing land and building a big regenerative farm to produce great food from, as well as to teach and run community projects from,” Kelly shares.

Currently, they sell rare breed chicken hatching eggs and plan to add sheep milk and cheese, flowers, as well as heirloom vegetables and greens. Bruce and Kelly also look forward to designing and consulting on regenerative systems, like grazing plans and food forests, for other people in the future.

Farming is this family’s way of life! The ultimate dream is to buy, design and create a farm that supplies great, poison-free food quality food to the local market, regenerates soil and ecosystems while providing up-skilling and educational opportunities to those that would not usually receive them.

“We believe that the solution to resilience is many small, diverse farms. And we’ve learnt through experience that people absorb teachings much more readily when they can see the working system in front of them, and not just on paper.

“We’ll be first-generation farmers. This dream feels so out of reach right now, but we hope to be surprised in the coming years.”