Schoemans of Middelwater

On our way to the Schoeman’s farmhouse on Middelwater, a baboon runs over the gravel road with a beautiful green pumpkin under one arm. He sneakily looks at us as if he knows that he got away with something. It is common knowledge that these human-like beasts are a major problem for farmers, but it does not take away the charm of the moment. On the foot of the hill lies a charming old farmhouse. This is probably the way children would picture a farmhouse. Cattle, chickens, dogs, geese, wild ducks, monkeys, baboons and fish all sharing one yard. A mythical farmhouse hugged by a hill, flowers, trees and water.

Taking the expression “Old School” to a whole new level, we learned that the original family farm “Vissershoek” was the home to the second local farm school after World War II and the third school was built on the farm Sandspruit. The original family farm “Vissershoek” belonged to the three Schoeman brothers, Lood the first, Hendrik and Japie Schoeman. They bought the farm from the Visser family that named the farm “Vissershoek”. The second school was inside the “Vissershoek” farmhouse of Lood Schoeman the first. After space became a problem, the brothers built another one-room building to accommodate the school.

Lood Schoeman the first had two sons, Lood the second and Martiens. They grew up on “Vissershoek”.

Lood the second later bought two other farms “Middelwater” and “Sandspruit” to accommodate his three children – Lood the third, Poppie and Jan.

Lood the third took over the farming on “Middelwater”. They farmed fruit trees and dairy in the earlier days on “Middelwater” but changed to flower farming after they established that there was a big market for it.  He had three children with his beautiful bride Johanna Budding. She grew up in Den Haag and wrote a book about “The Hungry Winter Years” during war.

 Lood the fourth was the only one that inherited his father and grandfathers passion for farming. His sister Dina was academically inclined while Frans and Hettie where born entrepreneurs.

Lood the fourth had to make a swift change in direction, because of the pandemic, to keep his workers employed, so he planted various vegetables instead of flowers. The biggest challenge during the pandemic on Middelwater was keeping the workers safe. Providing PPE is expensive and there is zero support from Government. Farmers had to drive up and down to get the workers from their houses to work and back while public transport was locked down as farmers still had to find a way to feed the country while the world was in lockdown.