Sophia Farm

Our family immigrated from Bulgaria to Johannesburg in 1991.

Marelize grew up in Parys in the Free State and went to High School in JHB where she met Slav. Slav moved to South Africa with his family at the age of 4 and he grew up in JHB. Slav and Marelize started dating in grade 11 in high school. Marelize completed her studies at UJ with a degree in BCom Accounting, Slav completed his studies at UJ too with a degree in BSc Computer programming and mathematics.

After completing his degree, Slav had the opportunity to spend a month in Selati Game Reserve to complete his course and become a level 1 Field guide. Although he did not choose to follow the path of being a field guide, his love for nature only grew as he learned more about it. He worked as a programmer for a firm called Sitwala for 1 year. However, as an outdoor guy he quickly grew tired of sitting in front of a computer screen in an office every day. With all the traffic and tension in the city he was ready to make a change in his life. In 2011 Slav did an introductory course to Hydroponics for a few days in Pietermaritzburg. He found it very interesting and read some books on hydroponic and organic farming which were recommended by his lecturer. He then did more research on the subject online. Finally he was ready to build an experimental system in the backyard. After a few days of putting scrap pieces together, he had completed his hydroponic system. He was very happy with the results and was interested to do it on a larger scale. In 2012, the Ivanov family bought Sophia farm in the Western Cape. Slav moved and was staying on the farm alone for the first year. In this first year he started developing the farm. Making it more comfortable to live on and preparing it for production.

After Marelize completed her degree she worked at a company called SkinChem. She was doing procurement, accounting and putting procedures in place to set up the cosmetic factory. Although she really enjoyed her job she was also growing tired of the rat race in JHB. She wanted to start her life on the farm in the Western Cape. For that first year she lived with her in laws in JHB. Not long after that she was married and living with Slav on the farm. Since then they have been building onto the farm and growing each year.

As it is with most European countries, food is a main attraction in Bulgaria. Since his childhood Slav has never forgotten the giant pink tomatoes that he was buying at the market in Sofia capital of Bulgaria with his grandfather. These tomatoes were so fleshy and had an intense flavour that he had never tasted in South Africa. It became a childhood memory that he could never forget. When he was learning about farming all he could think about is how he will be growing these pink tomatoes that nobody else in South Africa wanted to produce.

Marelize, Slav and their family are now living happily on the farm fulfilling their dreams.