If you want to know the true colours of a
‘greenie’, just take a walk through her yard. If
you find a wind turbine, a biodigester to turn
waste into compost and gas, a car that runs on
biofuel, ducks patrolling her veggie patch for
snails and solar panels on her roof, then she’s a
very deep green. Environmental activist Anthea
Torr is someone who walks her talk: her family
plot in Noordhoek on the outskirts of Cape Town
is a lesson in sustainable living. She lives
there in a small cottage with her two sons David
(17) and Henry (8) and her former husband Andrew
lives in the next-door cottage, which works well
for their son Henry.
‘Last night I made ratatouille and salad for supper and the only thing that wasn’t from our garden was the organic feta cheese,’ remarks Anthea with quiet pride.
Her determination to make a difference on this planet led this businesswoman and mother of two to make a U-turn in her life. From being an interior designer operating in the corporate world of Johannesburg, she’s now the driving force behind Enchantrix, a range of environmentally friendly body care products and household cleaners, and editor of Biophile, a magazine dedicated to telling the truth about threats to our environment and health.
‘Simple living is my motto,’ says Anthea. Her philosophy is to live lightly on this planet and do no harm – to the earth, its people and animals.
It was motherhood that changed Anthea. Her eldest son, David, broke his arm when he was little and it wouldn’t heal. ‘His journey opened up the whole field of healing for me,’ says Anthea. She researched practically every healing modality, from modern medicine to alternative therapies, and was enchanted by the healing properties of essential oils. ‘On the physical plane they are one of the most potent healers on the planet, but they must be gently extracted and organically grown or the pesticide residue goes into the oil.’ After five years with his arm in a cast, David’s limb was mended with bone transplanted from his leg into his arm.
The birth of her son Henry started Anthea on another journey. As a breastfeeding mother, she was alarmed at studies which found over 350 synthetic chemicals contaminating the breast milk of British women, absorbed from body care and household products. The more she researched, the more alarmed she became at the extent of the chemical poisoning taking place on a daily basis to our planet and its people. She immediately began looking for alternatives. ‘For instance, you can use bicarbonate of soda as a cleaner and an abrasive; and a mix of lemon juice, salt and borax removes ink and mildew stains from clothes.’
But body care products that did not contain harmful chemicals were hard to find, so she began importing the Green People range. ‘But these were expensive and a bit ahead of their time. I felt we needed something local.’ She found a like-minded soul in microbiologist Wendy Lilje who was starting a range of eco-friendly cleaning products. ‘We decided to join forces and Enchantrix products was born,’ recalls Anthea. ‘We wanted to do body care as well so people could live free of harmful chemicals.’
A fortuitous meeting with plant scientist Trevor Steyn, who had just started the Esse range, led to him offering to formulate and manufacture for them.
‘We use local ingredients as much as possible, including organic essential oils,’ says Anthea, she firmly believes that if more people insisted on supporting local industry, much of the crime we face in the country would be alleviated. ‘People are too driven by the short term solution of higher profits, without looking at the longer term consequence of poverty,’ says Anthea.
The business has grown slowly but steadily over the past five years. Their core trade remains through health shops and mail order nationwide, but recently they have had many export enquiries.
She started Biophile, a bimonthly magazine, after visiting Britain to attend a workshop nearly four years ago. ‘I came across The Ecologist magazine and felt we needed something similar in South Africa that would tell the truth about what was happening on our planet.’ Back home, she decided to use a small inheritance from her mother to put her idea for an environmental magazine into action with the help of Steve Venter, a desktop publishing expert, and the staff at Enchantrix. ‘We’re not making money yet, but we are covering costs,’ she laughs. ‘And every time a new subscriber signs up, we’re thrilled.’
Although she leans more towards the arts, she admits her B.Com degree has been useful in setting up her businesses. But it’s a real passion for life and making a difference that drives Anthea.
Her morning starts early as she gets up to do a session of meditation ‘I’m an Aquarian and very in my head, so I need to still my mind. I find that meditation and visualisation makes me more focused, tolerant and does so many things for me.’
At 6.00 am she wakes her sons David (16) and Henry (7), and makes organic oats porridge for breakfast and packs school lunches. Henry goes to the Waldorf School in Constantia and David to Abbott's in Claremont. ‘The education system is so antiquated. It doesn’t allow children to be the multi-dimensional, awesome human beings they are. Although Waldorf is still required to follow the government curriculum it does provide a more holistic education,’ says Anthea. She believes we are seeing a new breed of children arriving on the planet, often referred to as golden (golden aura), crystal (rainbow aura), and indigo (indigo aura…the system busters!) children and that we have to change to accommodate them, not the other way round.
Once the children leave for school with their lift club, Anthea walks on the mountain behind her five acre Noordhoek property, or does yoga, before going to the Enchantrix office in Muizenberg.
Most afternoons are spent with Henry at home. She gets to discuss the vegetable garden with the gardener, checks on the orchard and rides on her horse.
Most nights are spent behind the computer, with both Enchantrix and Biophile there is always much to be done.
The biodigester has been built down the slope from the two houses so that gravity ensures all the sewerage and grey water run into it. Manure from the horses and chickens also goes into the digester and after special microbes have ‘digested’ the waste, the odourless liquid is filtered through a reed bed and the rich compost put on their 100 fruit and nut trees and the vegetable garden. Methane gas formed during the process is piped to the kitchen to be used for cooking. ‘It’s a beautiful system: the more we pooh, the more we can cook,’ chuckles Anthea. She has recently ordered a methane generator and water heater.
Their wind turbine and PV panels power the plugs and low-energy CFC electric lights, solar vacuum tubes heat their water, and they collect rainwater off their roof. ‘And once the generator is installed, we’ll be almost off the grid altogether,’ grins this environmental activist gleefully.
Anthea Torr
083 227 0269
www.enchantrix.co.za
www.biophile.co.za
"Hope is born of activism, engagement and a stubborn determination to make the world a better place....."
‘Last night I made ratatouille and salad for supper and the only thing that wasn’t from our garden was the organic feta cheese,’ remarks Anthea with quiet pride.
Her determination to make a difference on this planet led this businesswoman and mother of two to make a U-turn in her life. From being an interior designer operating in the corporate world of Johannesburg, she’s now the driving force behind Enchantrix, a range of environmentally friendly body care products and household cleaners, and editor of Biophile, a magazine dedicated to telling the truth about threats to our environment and health.
‘Simple living is my motto,’ says Anthea. Her philosophy is to live lightly on this planet and do no harm – to the earth, its people and animals.
It was motherhood that changed Anthea. Her eldest son, David, broke his arm when he was little and it wouldn’t heal. ‘His journey opened up the whole field of healing for me,’ says Anthea. She researched practically every healing modality, from modern medicine to alternative therapies, and was enchanted by the healing properties of essential oils. ‘On the physical plane they are one of the most potent healers on the planet, but they must be gently extracted and organically grown or the pesticide residue goes into the oil.’ After five years with his arm in a cast, David’s limb was mended with bone transplanted from his leg into his arm.
The birth of her son Henry started Anthea on another journey. As a breastfeeding mother, she was alarmed at studies which found over 350 synthetic chemicals contaminating the breast milk of British women, absorbed from body care and household products. The more she researched, the more alarmed she became at the extent of the chemical poisoning taking place on a daily basis to our planet and its people. She immediately began looking for alternatives. ‘For instance, you can use bicarbonate of soda as a cleaner and an abrasive; and a mix of lemon juice, salt and borax removes ink and mildew stains from clothes.’
But body care products that did not contain harmful chemicals were hard to find, so she began importing the Green People range. ‘But these were expensive and a bit ahead of their time. I felt we needed something local.’ She found a like-minded soul in microbiologist Wendy Lilje who was starting a range of eco-friendly cleaning products. ‘We decided to join forces and Enchantrix products was born,’ recalls Anthea. ‘We wanted to do body care as well so people could live free of harmful chemicals.’
A fortuitous meeting with plant scientist Trevor Steyn, who had just started the Esse range, led to him offering to formulate and manufacture for them.
‘We use local ingredients as much as possible, including organic essential oils,’ says Anthea, she firmly believes that if more people insisted on supporting local industry, much of the crime we face in the country would be alleviated. ‘People are too driven by the short term solution of higher profits, without looking at the longer term consequence of poverty,’ says Anthea.
The business has grown slowly but steadily over the past five years. Their core trade remains through health shops and mail order nationwide, but recently they have had many export enquiries.
She started Biophile, a bimonthly magazine, after visiting Britain to attend a workshop nearly four years ago. ‘I came across The Ecologist magazine and felt we needed something similar in South Africa that would tell the truth about what was happening on our planet.’ Back home, she decided to use a small inheritance from her mother to put her idea for an environmental magazine into action with the help of Steve Venter, a desktop publishing expert, and the staff at Enchantrix. ‘We’re not making money yet, but we are covering costs,’ she laughs. ‘And every time a new subscriber signs up, we’re thrilled.’
Although she leans more towards the arts, she admits her B.Com degree has been useful in setting up her businesses. But it’s a real passion for life and making a difference that drives Anthea.
Her morning starts early as she gets up to do a session of meditation ‘I’m an Aquarian and very in my head, so I need to still my mind. I find that meditation and visualisation makes me more focused, tolerant and does so many things for me.’
At 6.00 am she wakes her sons David (16) and Henry (7), and makes organic oats porridge for breakfast and packs school lunches. Henry goes to the Waldorf School in Constantia and David to Abbott's in Claremont. ‘The education system is so antiquated. It doesn’t allow children to be the multi-dimensional, awesome human beings they are. Although Waldorf is still required to follow the government curriculum it does provide a more holistic education,’ says Anthea. She believes we are seeing a new breed of children arriving on the planet, often referred to as golden (golden aura), crystal (rainbow aura), and indigo (indigo aura…the system busters!) children and that we have to change to accommodate them, not the other way round.
Once the children leave for school with their lift club, Anthea walks on the mountain behind her five acre Noordhoek property, or does yoga, before going to the Enchantrix office in Muizenberg.
Most afternoons are spent with Henry at home. She gets to discuss the vegetable garden with the gardener, checks on the orchard and rides on her horse.
Most nights are spent behind the computer, with both Enchantrix and Biophile there is always much to be done.
The biodigester has been built down the slope from the two houses so that gravity ensures all the sewerage and grey water run into it. Manure from the horses and chickens also goes into the digester and after special microbes have ‘digested’ the waste, the odourless liquid is filtered through a reed bed and the rich compost put on their 100 fruit and nut trees and the vegetable garden. Methane gas formed during the process is piped to the kitchen to be used for cooking. ‘It’s a beautiful system: the more we pooh, the more we can cook,’ chuckles Anthea. She has recently ordered a methane generator and water heater.
Their wind turbine and PV panels power the plugs and low-energy CFC electric lights, solar vacuum tubes heat their water, and they collect rainwater off their roof. ‘And once the generator is installed, we’ll be almost off the grid altogether,’ grins this environmental activist gleefully.
Anthea Torr
083 227 0269
www.enchantrix.co.za
www.biophile.co.za
"Hope is born of activism, engagement and a stubborn determination to make the world a better place....."
Anthea
Torr
