Pioneer tea farm a major hit with nature lovers

The present house is set in a well manicured garden, with paintings and pictures of four generations.

Located about 30km from Nairobi, Kiambethu offers an ideal day excursion from the hustle and bustle of the city with a beautiful scenery of tea farms, the Ngong Hills and fresh air.

Originally the farm sat on 350 acres of land but over the years the family has sold off big chunks of it leaving 35 acres, of which the tea is planted on two.

Mr McDonell, who died aged 98 in 1970, built Limuru Girls’ School on his farm for his daughters.

The national school is located 100m from the farm gate. He also built All Saint’s Church Limuru, where archeologist Dr Louis Leakey is buried, on his land.
This is part of the history that Mrs Vernon shares with guests during the tour of the farm, which begins at 11 a.m with a cup of tea, though she says she now serves coffee to accommodate people’s tastes, and home-made cookies.

Mrs Vernon tells the story of how her grandfather had tried to grow different crops on the land but many could not survive the high altitude. A friend travelling from India gave the settler tea seedlings, which he planted, becoming one of the pioneer tea farmers in the country.

Today, high breed tea is planted for high quality yield compared to the original bushes planted from seedlings. In the well manicured garden, there is a sample of the original bush, which has smaller leaves compared to what is currently grown on the farm.

With no factory built in the area at the time, Mr McDonell processed his own tea and would travel by train to Nairobi’s Bazaar Street, now Biashara Street, to sell it to the traders, Mrs Vernon says.

The nearest factory is now five kilometres from the farm, which has its own packaged tea that guests can buy.
Mrs Vernon leads most of the tours along with Chuma, a six-year-old friendly mixed breed dog who knows where to stop during the walk on the farm.

The 20 to 30 minute tour also includes a walk in an indigenous forest, which boasts a wide range of trees many of which have medicinal value.

People have been known to try sneaking into the forest to harvest tree bucks and roots for herbal medicine but the farm hands and dogs are ready to repulse intruders.

The forest, which sits on about five acres, is home to a wide variety of birds and Colobus monkeys. After the tour, guests gather for a home cooked meal, which is partially prepared with ingredients from the farm’s garden.

Kiambethu also has a herd of Channel Island cows that provide the milk used in the farm, with the surplus being sold to a local dairy.Geese can be seen walking around the site where the original house once stood before termites destroyed it.

Despite all the farming activities and earnings from tea, it is the tours that bring in the money for the farm, says Mrs Vernon.
The number of visitors to the farm has been increasing with guests referring others by word of mouth.

The tour costs Sh2,300 per person and includes all meals and drinks. “We offer tours almost every day,” she says.

Mrs Vernon’s mother, Evelyn Mitchell, who had moved back to the farm to care for her ageing parents started the tours in the mid-1960s.

Growing up, Mrs Vernon says, she would never conduct the tours but in 1998 she was left with a group that had booked for a visit following her mother’s death.

She made notes and guided the tour and the rest is history.Before taking up the running of Kiambethu Farm, with her deceased husband Marcus Vernon, she had worked at Greenacres School for 22 years. The school shut down and is now a boys’ boarding school.

The mother of two attended Limuru Girls’ where Mrs Venon says she was unhappy to be in the boarding school yet she could see her bedroom window from the school.

Her mornings start early and include walking her seven dogs before a meeting with her staff of five to prepare for the tours of the day. She also enjoys gardening.
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Kiambethu Farm contacts: www.kiambethufarm.com