Innehållsförteckning för Spring 2016 från go! Platteland

Quite often, we find ourselves having to describe Platteland’s readers: Who are they? Where do they live? How old are they? We have even had to describe the typical Platteland reader as an individual, and he/she had to have a name, an age, an occupation, interests, children and an income. As we’ve racked our brains over who our reader is, we have joked and laughed but also quibbled, because we have never been in absolute agreement about the quintessential Platteland reader. Recently, we were lucky enough to meet someone who makes things a little clearer. Her name is Celeste Burger and she lives just outside Worcester on the farm Kuruma. Here, together with Kobus Kritzinger, she has planted a vegetable garden based on permaculture principles that simply takes your breath…

NORTH WEST Mielie Makietie, Sannieshof 2 & 3 September The group Adam will perform at the Reformed Church’s Mielie Makietie festival, plus there’s a wonderful country market offering farm-fresh meat, paintball, a mechanical bull, fishing, a foefie slide and, of course, a braai. Entrance is free. Where? Corner of De Klerk and Church streets Contact mieliemakietie.co.za FREE STATE Spring Festival, Rosendal 2-4 September Its natural beauty, friendly people and platteland hospitality are motivation enough to relax in this pretty town in the Eastern Free State, but you have even more reasons to visit during this festival, which promises music, poetry, perfume, wine, cheese, movies, traditional Sotho entertainment, delicious food, permaculture talks, open houses, a retro Fifties-style dance (complete with roadhouse burgers and fun prizes), and even a workshop titled “Entertain…

We posted more photos on Facebook – type “Platteland” in the search field.…

Probyo Cultured Drinks in the variants Sports, Immune and Digestive are 100% natural and contain live cultures (a 250ml bottle makes 32 drinks) R125 Probyo probyo.com Solar-power outdoor lights R85 each The Eco Green Shop theecogreenshop.co.za Twine holder (twine excluded) R259 Starke Ayres Garden Centre starkeayresgc.co.za Melamine plates R20 each Checkers checkers.co.za 080 001 0709 Mortar and pestle R40 Woolworths (selected stores) woolworths.co.za 0860 022 002 Gozo rocking chair R2 199 @homelivingspace home.co.za Better Earth Natural Aromas Air Freshener contains no harmful aerosols about R43 Better Earth betterearth.co.za Hessian bag R48 Agrimark kaapagri.co.za Charisma Wild Fig candles R75-R149 Starke Ayres Garden Centre starkeayresgc.co.za Recreate fridge magnets made from old computer keyboards R250 The Eco Green Shop theecogreenshop.co.za Row planting line for tidy beds R250 Sow Delicious sowdelicious.co.za Dish brush R58…

Johan “Mot” de Wet Learner at Landboudal “There is a great spirit at our school. Punishment for not doing your homework is to fififill bags of feed.” Daniel Jacobs Baker at Spar “I have been with Jannie’s family since the early years. Baking was always a dream of mine, and I’ve now been doing it since 2000. There were flops in the beginning, but by the second or third time the recipe was in my head.” Andre Labuschagne Jacobsdal Abattoir and Butchery “Thanks to the irrigation, many of the farmers aren’t feeling the effects of the drought. Yet we have seen farmers with tears in their eyes when they offload cattle because they can no longer afford the price of the feed.” Andries Ramakatz Farmworker “There are lots more work…

BEDFORD • Mayfield Shop This lovely novelty shop sells old-fashioned and modern décor, porcelainware, art and clothing. Hope Street. 082 809 4578 Mayfield Shop Just the drive through the Cowie Valley to Lochart Ainslie’s farm is worth the effort. This piece of colonial civilisation in the wilderness is a real treat; come look at the old mill and the 300-year-old oak trees. And ask Lochart exactly how much work was needed to get the pitch absolutely perfect. It’s private property, so phone to make an appointment. Cowie Valley, on the R63 to Adelaide. 046 685 0630 • Baviaans River Conservancy The long stretch of gravel road into the valley is wonderful for watching game from behind the steering wheel, or you could cycle or walk (there are no predators and…

SHOPPING LIST • untreated sprouting seeds of your choice (not seeds meant for sowing) – try wheatgrass, buckwheat, mustard, beetroot, alfalfa, the brassica family, tatsoi and Oriental greens TOOLS • containers with drainage holes • seedling potting mix – recipe on page 77 This is how Fill the container with sowing potting mix and scatter ½ teaspoon of sprouting seeds on top of the seedling mix. Water using a mister bottle or a watering can with a small nozzle. Keep watering every 1-2 days. 1 After 3-5 days the seeds will start to sprout and roots will grow down into the growing medium. Continue to water every 1-2 days. 2 Once the seeds grow their first 2 true leaves and are 5cm-10cm tall, they are ready to be harvested. Snip…

When Capetonians say they’re heading to the market in Woodstock on a Saturday, many people will assume they’re referring to the well-known hipster haven The Old Biscuit Mill in Albert Road. Quite a few would grumble, “That market won’t see me again any time soon. It’s just too crowded, filled with guys sporting carefully maintained beards and skinny jeans, and it’s simply too expensive.” The other Woodstock market, now known as Market at The Palms, was held for the first time on 12 February 2012 in The Palms Décor & Lifestyle Centre at 145 Sir Lowry Road. It was called the Platteland Market, because the idea was that small-town bakers, brewers and farmers would bring “the best of the platteland” to the concrete jungle every Saturday. The focus has since…

WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU! Write to us and tell us about your move to the platteland, the characters in your town, festivals and bazaars you love, things that bother you, your garden, animals and clever ideas... Send an email to letters@goplatteland.co.za or post it to Platteland Letters, PO Box 740, Cape Town 8000. We give preference to letters of fewer than 300 words. Remember to include your name and surname and, very importantly, the town where you live. Platteland reserves the right to edit and shorten letters at our discretion. win Madine Swart wins a gift from Sought After Seedlings, worth R1 000. It consists of a wooden basket, Magic Seeder, two bottle-top waterers, clippers for thinning out seedlings, Franchi Sementi natural soap, seed sticks and five packets…

There are still a few spots available at our workshops in Hartbeespoort and Bloemfontein. On 3 and 4 September, Annelien Pienaar (left) will demonstrate how to bake brown bread, rye bread and ciabatta at Bos-en-Berg Guest Farm in Skeerpoort. On 17 September it’s the turn of the Freestaters: Marcelle Botha (below) of Demo-Den Cookery School will demonstrate how to make baguettes, cinnamon rolls and farm-style bread. If you’re interested, don’t delay: there are a handful of places left in Bloemfontein and only a few spots at the Hartbeespoort workshop. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW When and where? Saturday, 3 September (fully booked) and Sunday, 4 September 2016 at Bosen-Berg Guest Farm, Hartbeespoort; Saturday, 17 September 2016 at Demo-Den Cookery School, Bloemfontein Price R1 290 per person – this includes the…

Tasty Wastenots by Sally-Ann Creed and Jason Whitehead Nose-to-tail eating (using everything edible and wasting nothing in order to be kinder to the planet, to your pocket and yourself) is a growing trend. Let a best-selling nutritionist and chef show you how to get it right at home. Bonuses: wine recommendations, tips for starting a vegetable garden, and diet suggestions for your pets. R320 Human & Rousseau nb.co.za 021 406 3033 WIN 2: SMS Wastenots Potjiekos and Pot-pourri by Dine van Zyl Potjiekos is more than just a way to cook food, says Dine van Zyl – it’s also a mindset and a way of life. Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about this traditional cooking method, making fire, and how to buy and treat the correct potjie is covered…

R661 500 An old house on a large erf of 1 608m², with wooden floors, two bedrooms, one bathroom and a lovely stoep. R966 000 Neat house on an erf of 1 606m², with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a double garage and two outbuildings. R3,9 million GWK is selling this 396ha farm, which has a fourbedroomed house, large storeroom, pecan orchard and established pastures. There’s also a centre pivot irrigation system of 13,2ha and water is sourced from two boreholes and Kalkfontein Dam. For information on more plots and farms in the area, contact GWK Properties 053 832 0736 gwkproperties.co.za…

ADELAIDE • Ons Erfenis Museum This stately former parsonage, which dates to the middle of the nineteenth century, is the town museum today. It has been beautifully renovated and is packed with antique furniture and porcelain- and earthenware. Admire exquisite old objects and learn more about the local history. Queen Street. 046 684 0656 • Winterberg Taxidermy Rudi van Niekerk is the only taxidermist in town. His showroom, where stuffed buffalo, warthogs and kudus parade, is open to visitors. Strange, but oddly fascinating. He’s on Haddon farm – there’s a sign at the entrance to town, with a turnoff to the right from Bedford. 083 986 9583 • Winterberg Post Retief Conservancy A stretch of bumpy gravel road brings you to the Piet Retief Monument after 40km (where his farmstead…

Asian greens (2) Alliums – leeks and onions (3+) Watercress (3+) Legumes – peas and beans (4-5) Kale (3-4) Leafy greens – lettuce and rocket (3-4) Brassicas such as cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage (5+) Swiss chard – South Africans tend to call it spinach (5 for crisp stalks, 3-4 for tender leaves) Herbs – chives, coriander, mint, origanum and parsley (3+) Root crops – beetroot, carrots, turnips (5-6)…

SHOPPING LIST • untreated sprouting seeds of your choice – try mung beans, chickpeas, lentils, the brassica family, radish, beetroot, clover, mustard, Oriental greens, fenugreek and sunflower seeds TOOLS • glass jars • squares of netting (large enough to cover the opening of the jars) and rubber bands This is how Add 2 tablespoons sprouting seeds to each jar and add water to cover the seeds. Then cover the opening of each of the jars with netting and secure with a tight-fitting rubber band. Let the seeds soak overnight. 1 Drain the jars the following day (take care not to let the netting slip off – it happened to us!), fill them again with cool water, shake and rinse again until there is no milky residue left in the water.…

Are you the kind of person who packs the car the moment you hear the spring-flower spectacle has started, but for the life of you cannot remember all the flower names? John Manning’s popular Photo Guide to the Wildflowers of South Africa, with photos and step-by-step identification of more than 900 wildflowers in South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia, is now available as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod. (The Android version will be available later this year.) Say you’re in the veld, see a flower and wonder what its name is – or perhaps you’re simply curious about it. You select the flower colour, the month and the region where you are (grassland, savannah, fynbos or Namaqualand). A short list of possible species will appear on your…

COUNTRYWIDE National Garden Day 9 October Gardening is hard work but good for you: it promotes brain activity, lowers blood pressure and works to counteract stress, anxiety, fear and depression. National Garden Day encourages you to forget about all the toil and sweat, and enjoy the fruits of your labour. Invite a few people over for coffee and rusks, maybe a glass of wine. Or perhaps you like the sound of a picnic, lunch or a tea party, or reading a book… Fingers crossed for good weather in the middle of spring! gardenday.co.za info@gardenday.co.za @GardenDaySa Clivia shows September 2016 September is clivia month and various South African clubs forming part of the Clivian Society showcase their blooms at the following locations (with the dates in brackets): Pretoria (3 & 4),…

The thing about Jo’burg is that almost no one you meet here is actually from Jo’burg. It was years after I moved here that I first met someone who grew up and went to school in the city and was now working in Jo’burg. At any gathering I made a habit of proving this to people, thinking I had cleverly discovered it all by myself. But – as with so many of my discoveries, such as the genius toilet-seat warmer I invented when I was 11 – someone else had already discovered this. Everyone I knew was from Harare or Rustenburg or ’Maritzburg or Durban or the “South Coast” if the town they were from was so small it would be embarrassing to say out loud, or Port Elizabeth, Grahamstown,…

News about the seasons, what to plant now, tips, easy DIY projects, crosswords, gossip, competitions with great prizes… Yes, this is what you can expect each month in our electronic newsletter. Direct to your email inbox, free of charge! For those who haven’t registered yet, we’ve made it even easier: simply send an SMS* stating “Newsletter” and your name, surname and email address to 34910. Otherwise, visit our Facebook page and click on the “Newsletter” tab (next to “Timeline” and “About”). Don’t you know anything about this? That’s because you haven’t “liked” our Facebook page yet. It’s the easiest thing to do: just log in to facebook.com and type “Platteland” in the search field. Do you like us yet?…

I can count the black families on my one hand (for an honest reflection of the numbers I’ll even have to chop off some fingers). The people who clean our homes and work in our gardens are my people. Where is the so-called platteland? Far away in the bushveld? Just past the final suburb as you drive over Sir Lowry’s Pass? Or where Pam Golding hasn’t yet opened an office and Woolies wouldn’t even bother? Where the sun stands still, rusty garden gates hang lopsided and there are more people on the liquor store’s doorstep than bums on pews. The platteland is in my blood. It’s the place just beyond the mountain. Bonnievale. Where I grew up, went to school and started using my brain. I remember it as being…

Ronell de Wet Owner of Bietjie Moeg Guesthouse “I have been through all Jacobsdal’s phases: I grew up here and went to Landboudal. Now, my children go to school there. It’s a small, quiet town, but the schools and irrigation scheme make it quite busy.” Steven Fluks Worker at Landboudal “For the past four years I have been working here at Landboudal in the fields and at the nursery. I really enjoy being here – at the school and in Jacobsdal.” Gideon “Laaitie” de Wet Learner at Landboudal “If you’re not boarding at Landboudal, you don’t really feel part of the school, so my brother Johan and I stay in the hostel even though our parents live in town.” Olga Vermaas Works at OVK “Nothing much happens in and around…

T he koeksister mafia of the platteland? Oh no, she’s not at all worried about them… if there is even such a thing, grins Gerda Swanepoel, the mastermind behind the bestselling brand of Ouma Rooi koeksisters, which are now also baked at a small factory in the Cape. She, her sister Jeanette Pretorius from Pretoria, her sister-inlaw Fien van der Westhuizen from Polokwane, and her son-in-law Johann de Villiers from Vredehoek in Cape Town all use exactly the same recipe, yet no one’s koeksisters taste exactly the same. “What’s more, when this family recipe was published in the first Koekedoor baking book, it was the same version my mother gave me donkey’s years ago – and no, I didn’t leave out any secret ingredients to trick people. “Ouma Rooi koeksisters…

The Bedford Garden Festival was started by the town’s gardening club in 2004 and has developed into an event that, over the past few years, has attracted about 2 000 local and overseas visitors annually. How does it work? About 30 outstanding gardens are opened to the public on the last weekend in October. Aspiring and professional gardeners admire Mother Nature’s spring attire, meet each other, exchange tips and chat about all things green. Most of the gardens on show are farm gardens, although town gardens – and, in the past few years, township gardens – have increasingly come to the fore. Even if you don’t enjoy getting dirt under your fingernails, the variety of colours and fragrances will captivate you. Roses, in particular, are a big attraction – the…

Jargon buster • SPROUTS are germinated seeds that are eaten root, seed and shoot 3-5 days after sprouting in glass jars. • MICROGREENS, also known as “vegetable confetti”, are the edible stalks and leaves of seeds sown in a growing medium and harvested by snipping off the stems at ground level 7-14 days after germination, when the plants have grown their first two true leaves and are up to 10cm tall. • BABY GREENS are small, tender leaves harvested from plants that have grown for 21+ days, before the leaves have reached full maturity.…

Zigi says… This project is nearly as easy as an openbook test. You won’t need any special tools and as long as you stay focused when you do the joining, you could finish the stand in a jiffy. We used ordinary pine, but if you want to bequeath your stand in your will you can use wood such as oak or any other special wood you have in your garage. Get ready SHOPPING LIST • 3 pine planks of 44mm x 22mm (length 1,8m) • one packet of wood screws, size 8 x 40mm • 2 wood screws, size 8 x 70mm TOOLS • measuring tape and a pencil • a saw • an electric drill with 3mm and 4mm drill bits • wood glue • screwdriver • 2 clamps…

Spring bulbs such as daffodils, tulips, freesias and ixias usually put on their best show from July to October before they go dormant again. Hadeco, South Africa’s oldest bulb distributor, shares a few tips for keeping them happy for years. • My belly is my pantry Bulbs enter a critical phase when they’re done flowering: enough food must be stored to sustain the bulb while it’s dormant. When the flowers begin to wane, give it special flower-bulb food every two weeks, but wait until all the leaves have died before you take it out. • To take out or not? If the soil where your bulbs are planted is well drained, you can leave them in the ground. In clay soil, however, they may rot. Flowering bulbs usually need to…

I remember the first time I saw a nasturtium flower on my plate at a fancy restaurant. I was told to eat it. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. It was like being told to boil a baby bunny. It was so delicate and soft. The acid in the vinaigrette was already beginning to erode its edges, turning them slimy. Who were these people? Were they just tired of life or did they also pull the wings off butterflies for fun? The eating world has changed. Type the hashtag #edibleflowers in Instagram and within minutes your mouth will be watering for lilac pavlova with elderflower cream and lemon-verbena custard. Lavender cupcakes with lemonflower frosting. Brassica-flower pasta. Watermelon gazpacho with borage flowers. Nasturtium ice cream. In the last year I have violated approximately…

SEED LOAF Sprout-and-nut bread Makes 1 loaf Preparation time 20 minutes plus resting time Baking time 30 minutes We sprouted lentils to use in this bread, which has a soft, spongy texture and a beautiful crust. It’s delicious with nasturtium butter (see below right). You need • 11/4 cups (310ml) lukewarm water • 2 teaspoons (10ml) instant yeast • 2 tablespoons (30ml) honey • 2 tablespoons (30ml) olive oil, plus extra • 2 cups (500ml) brown bread flour • 1 cup (250ml) cake wheat flour • 11/2 teaspoons (7,5ml) salt • 2 cups (500ml) bean and seed sprouts – we used lentils only but you could also try chickpeas and sunflower seeds • ½ cup (125ml) dry seeds – we used sunflower and pumpkin seeds This is how Whisk the…

SUPPER-CLUB HIT Crustless asparagus-and-onion quiche Serves 4-6 Preparation time 15 minutes Cooking time 35 minutes You need • softened butter • 1/2 cup (125ml) fresh breadcrumbs (1-2 slices of bread) • 200g fresh green asparagus • 1 tablespoon (15ml) olive oil • 2 onions, finely chopped • 1 teaspoon (5ml) Ina Paarman’s Green Onion Seasoning • 1 tablespoon (15ml) canola oil • 1 tablespoon (15ml) butter • 3 eggs • 1 cup (250ml) fresh cream • 2 tablespoons (30ml) Ina Paarman’s White Sauce Powder • 3/4 cup (180ml) grated Cheddar or Gouda • green salad and good-quality bread for serving This is how Butter a 22-24cm flan dish with softened butter and shake the breadcrumbs in the dish so that some of the crumbs adhere to the bottom and sides.…