Good as gold

There once was a time when Sheherazade Goldsmith didn’t think about the environment. At all. After a whirlwind romance and wedding to editor of The Ecologist Zac Goldsmith, she and her children are now knee-deep in the organic way of life. The eco-warrior talks to Annie Deakin about Chelsea, a wormery and her love for her VW Golf GTI

Sheherazade Goldsmith, the poster girl of the eco-movement, is hopping on crutches across the courtyard of Ormeley Lodge, the Surrey childhood home of her multi-millionaire husband Zac and his siblings Jemima [Khan] and Ben.

‘I tripped this morning on the school run and I think I’ve sprained my ankle. I’m off to hospital later,’ explains the Chelsea-born-and-bred former model. Goldsmith, a neat size eight, seems bird-like in her frailty and yet is mother to three children – Uma, seven, Thyra, five, and four-year-old James. Hair roughly tied back, make-up free, she glows with a wholesome beauty. For the school run, the family squeeze into her eco-friendly Toyota Prius. ‘I was very grumpy about buying it because it felt like I was driving a golf buggy; it’s automatic and accelerates very slowly. I loved, loved, loved my old VW Golf GTI,’ she gushes, ‘But then realised the thrill that you get from accelerating at a green light just wasn’t worth it.’

Sleepless nights about global-warming is a relatively new anxiety for the 33-year-old. ‘Before meeting Zac, the environment didn’t cross my mind at all,’ she says in her plummy voice. He is editor of The Ecologist. They married in 1999, four months after he sent her over a bouquet of roses with his telephone number in a Chelsea pizzeria. ‘My friends thought I had gone mad. But it felt right… I just felt very happy that there was a person I could imagine growing toothless with.’ Like Zac, hers is a glamorous pedigree. The daughter of wealthy financier John Bentley and Columbian-born former actress Viviane Ventura, Goldsmith grew up just off the King’s Road. ‘Chelsea is my favourite area in London. It is wonderful because of its accessibility to all the parks – you’ve got St Lukes on Sydney Street, Hyde Park just up the road and Battersea Park just over the bridge. I love all the different coloured houses.’ An avid fan of the community feel of Chelsea, she’ll hotfoot to Chelsea Green for Tom’s Kitchen’s monkfish and to Pimlico for Daylesford Organic. Mournfully she is leaving the borough and moving to Richmond as Zac is trying to become the elected MP for the constituency. ‘It’s hard because I’ve lived in Chelsea my whole life.’

After school, she followed the advice of Richard Branson and signed up with Storm Models. ‘I was pretty awful at modelling; I really don’t like having my picture taken.’ She later worked in marketing for Armani, Prada and Donna Karan. ‘I loved it but all I was interested in was saving enough money to buy those labels and go out at night.’

‘I never once thought about the environment. At that age, you don’t really think about your health or future, you are invincible and live for the moment. You certainly aren’t going to spend extra money buying organic food when that money can go on clothes!’

Aged 24 and on her honeymoon, she fell pregnant. ‘I suddenly became terribly aware of what I was eating and how it might affect my unborn child.’ The same year, Goldsmith opened an organic deli in Battersea’s ‘Nappy Valley’. Pouring tea, baking cakes and washing-up occupied her days for almost two years. ‘I wasn’t spending any time with my baby and felt utterly miserable about it.’ When pregnant with her second child, she decided to stay at home.

‘I didn’t want to go through that awful guilt of not spending every minute of the day with your newborn.’ She now does what parents do best; fretting. ‘I worry a lot about climate change. It’s the biggest threat to our children’s future. The worst case scenario is extremely alarmist.’ Her wormery is also troubling her. ‘The minute there is a cold snap, all the worms die and I don’t really understand why.’

Her brood of mini eco-warriors draw on both sides of paper understanding that trees have to be cut down for their scribblings. ‘They tell people off in their classrooms for not being environmentally-friendly, for using too much paper or throwing things on the floor.’ Goldsmith’s eyes widen as she squeals, ‘Loo paper – children tend to use a lot of loo paper and I am training them to understand that actually it’s not good to.’ Girlish hysterics resound. ‘If they are given a plastic toy, they’ll say ‘uh-oh, it’s plastic’. They know wooden toys are better for the environment.’ Last year Thyra won an award for her ecologically-aware poster. ‘We were oh-so proud,’ she gushes, semi-sarcastically.

Her one guilty secret is that organic fashion does not fill her wardrobe. ‘The truth is, it’s not quite there yet. I bought all the children’s uniforms fair-trade but there were no sizes, not enough products and it was not well made. Their skirts have already broken.’ Her t-shirts, knickers, towels and bed linen are organic cotton but the industry needs to evolve. ‘Did you know 25 per cent of pesticide use is sprayed on cotton? And think of all the workers who are being exposed to all sorts of terrible illnesses,’ she panics. ‘Even if it isn’t right yet, we need to keep buying organic cotton to show that there is a demand for it.’

Packaging infuriates her and Zac, so much so that when he buys his sandwiches, he leaves the wrapper with the seller. ‘The shopkeeper usually asks what she should do with it and he says, it’s not my problem, it’s your packaging. He’s not that popular,’ she grins.

Supermarkets justify their packaging because trials reveal that loose apples do not fly off the shelves like their wrapped counterparts. ‘It’s up to us as consumers to buy the apples which are not so beautifully packaged or picture perfect – they have probably had a lot of chemicals sprayed on them.’ She argues articulately, ‘If you look at an apple growing on a tree, it has brown stains on it but is much better for you.’

The Goldsmith’s fridge is filled with locally-grown, seasonal produce, mainly from their 300-acre self-sustaining farm in Devon. ‘Having lived in Chelsea my whole life, I never thought I’d see myself on a farm.’

Sheep, cows, geese, pigs and chicken run riot on the farm. They double up as playmates for the children and as ingredients for Goldsmith’s recipes. ‘We eat whatever vegetable is growing seasonally and whatever has escaped the slugs or bad rain.’ Broad beans and peas from the summer are frozen to last all year and carrots, parsnips, swede and apples stored in sand. ‘I make pizza with my children too but they have become pizza snobs since going to the absolutely fantastic pizzeria in Chelsea Farmer’s Market.’

You can take the Goldsmith out of Chelsea, but you can’t take Chelsea out of the Goldsmith.

A Slice of Organic Life edited by Sheherazade Goldsmith published by Dorling Kindersley, £16.99