Innehållsförteckning för Winter 2020 från go! Platteland

BREAD & OTHER BAKED GOODS Farm loaves (in three sizes); bread rolls; mosbrood; boerbeskuit as well as buttermilk, health and aniseed rusks; scones; koeksisters; Hertzoggies; fruitcake; custard slices; jam tarts; melkkos; milk tart; lemon-meringue tart; chocolate, vanilla and carrot cake; and pizza to order (on the day Platteland visited, they were baking 19 pizzas for the Voortrekkers). PIES “You don’t find pies like this in South Africa any more. We make everything from scratch and even put the Rennies in the dough!” Sarel jokes. You can buy the following varieties (cooked or uncooked, and in family size): plain beef, beef & onion, pepper steak, steak & kidney, beef sausage roll, chicken sausage roll, potjiekos/Cornish, chicken, chicken curry, venison, venison curry, spinach & feta, sweet & sour pork, mutton, and mutton…

Elize says she often gets calls from people who’ve read about her business and started to dream of making a fortune out of quails. She always advises them to be realistic: • Raising quails is not a get-rich-quick venture. Quail eggs and meat are niche products. • Know your market. Where will you sell your product? Who are the people who will buy your product? Are you far from your market? Know all the facts before you embark on this kind of business. • Don’t fall into debt. “It is easy to get into debt, but this can destroy a business. I am very conservative where this is concerned.” • Always have a back-up plan. If the market for quail meat is not big enough, consider quail eggs. If you…

You are increasingly becoming known as a contract producer who helps other entrepreneurs develop and produce their own spirits. Who is your typical client? We produce for two types of clients: One group of people is interested in distilling and may have experimented or developed their own recipes. They approach us because they possibly don’t have the capital or time to get a distillery off the ground. The second type of client typically has a background in marketing or branding. They have a number of interesting ideas and want to develop a product range around these ideas. Such clients are interested in the marketing and sale of the products, and don’t want to be involved with the practical aspects or daily administration that come with running your own distillery. In…

The easiest option is to ask your butcher about casings – they might even give you some for your first attempt, but subsequently it would only be polite of you to pay per metre. Freddy Hirsch, a company that has been in business since 1956, provides an online service offering a variety of sausage-making ingredients and essentials, including natural, collagen and cellulose casings – and it delivers countrywide. The “Long Short Hog Casing”, for example, costs R125 for a bundle of up to 65 strands, with a filling capacity of 49 kg. Natural casings can be stored in brine in the fridge for months. Rinse them with fresh water before use. Also make sure to let clean water flush all the way through inside the casings. freddyhirsch.co.za (click on “Shop”)…

It all started in what Eddie likes to call the Tarzan garden. “Our previous home here in Swellendam was on a large property of 2000m2 with many large old trees and shrubs – and creepers and poison rope in the trees. Pure Tarzan. All the trees meant that there were loads of birds to watch and photograph. I also like to spend time in nature, because there you find many birds you wouldn’t see in a town or city.” Do you have any tips for creating a bird-friendly garden? For the seed-eaters I have made a small feeder – I am not opposed to other feeders and I understand that some people have no other option, but I prefer it when the birds visit my garden because they find the…

Sweet potatoes are grown from slips – and it’s really easy to grow your own; in fact, simply leave several large, healthy tubers to sprout in a dark vegetable drawer! Most gardeners cover the tubers with about 5 cm of sandy soil until they start to sprout, and then cut the sprouts into lengths of 4cm–6cm before planting them at a 45-degree angle in moist soil. If you need only three or four slips, try the windowsill method… The windowsill method Slice healthy mature sweet potatoes in half and place each section half-submerged in a jar of water, cut-side down. Use toothpicks to suspend them in place. Place the jars on a sunny windowsill and change the water regularly. Sprouts will soon appear and some will develop roots – those…

All the books featured on these pages will be available at least in electronic format from June to August. Release dates for books in print format were not yet finalised at the time of going to press. Sasol Birds of Southern Africa by various authors Six of South Africa’s foremost ornithologists, birding guides and birders – Ian Sinclair (with more than 20 guides under his belt!), the late Phil Hockey, Warwick Tarboton, Peter Ryan, Niall Perrins and Dominic Rollinson – are the authors of the revised and fully updated fifth edition of this trusted field guide. It’s a paperback edition with more than 500 pages, 800 new illustrations, comprehensive coverage of the region’s birds, and revised distribution maps, as well as bird calls to scan and play using an app…

R820 000 Build your dream home in Wild Fig Country Estate, 8km from town. This 1ha stand offers security and privacy, and wildlife such as antelope and zebra roam freely on the estate. R2,495 million This four-bedroom, three-bathroom house is situated in a lovely part of White River, close to schools and the main road out of town. The area has lots of lush trees. R3,75 million Only 9km north-east of White River lies a 15,3ha smallholding with a thatched-roofed double-storey house. There are three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a garage. The property has roughly 10ha of arable land, with water rights and a borehole.…

Who would be crazy enough – or have strong enough faith, for that matter – to open a farm stall with a bakery and the promise of coffee (at a mere R5 per cup) on April Fool’s Day 2002 – and, at that, one with the tongue-in-cheek name of Broodblik en Koffiepit (Bread Bin and Coffee Bean)? Well, there are three “guilty parties” in this tale and, 18 years later, as they warmly welcomed Platteland, they could say it wasn’t such a crazy idea after all. One of them is the jovial Adéle Bester, a former SAA flight attendant who in 2005 joined the family business that her mother, Letitia van Schoor, had started with her husband, Sarel, an accountant who reminded us of the late storyteller Tolla van der…

• The Windpomp Handwerk Mark is held on the last Saturday of the month from 08:00 to 14:00 in front of the farm stall. Keep an eye on the Facebook page to find out when the market will resume after lockdown. Windpomp Handwerk Mark @Broodblik en Koffiepit Bapsfontein • The bakery is open Monday to Friday from 07:00 to 17:00 (the coffee shop closes an hour earlier on weekdays), and on Saturday and public holidays from 07:00 to 15:00. Broodblik en Koffiepit is closed on Sundays and on Christian holidays. Broodblik en Koffiepit adelekoffiepit@gmail.com 083 445 1608 (Adéle) or 079 882 5890 (Sarel)…

Do some tasting All the Incendo products are for sale in their online store (when alcohol sales are permitted again), or, once lockdown is over, visit the distillery on Saturdays between 11:00 and 17:00, where you will be able to enjoy various tasting and pairing sessions (with chocolate or macarons) and take a distillery tour. Francois discusses, among other things, the colourful history of gin, which has been distilled since the 12th century, along with the distilling process and the raw products and botanicals that are used. You can order an impressive variety of cocktails and a few snacks at the bar counter in the tasting room. Read more or order online at incendo.co.za (click on “Online Store”to order, and on “Unique Experiences” to find out about tasting sessions and…

It turns out the world of sausage is bigger than the world itself. Name any type of sausage and you are transported to another country. (For the foreseeable future, this will be the only kind of trip available. – Eds) Bangers immediately take you to a pub in the British countryside; bratwurst and knackwurst spirit you away to snow-covered Germany; and chorizo has the power to beam you to Spain, or to Mexico on the other side of the world. Then there’s salami and a range of other sausages from Italy, and more than one variety from every other European country. France has saucisson and andouillette; Hungary is known for its kolbász; Poland has swojska, szynkowa and krakowska (and many other sausages with names that English speakers battle with to…

A READER’S GARDEN An indigenous forest in my back yard Over the past eight years John Crain has planted nearly 300 species of indigenous tree as well as 600 aloes on his agricultural smallholding in North Riding on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Today, he has a very special forest in his back yard. John’s paradise is a 6700m2 indigenous garden comprising mostly trees and aloes. “The aloes provide colour in the cooler months, and in some places I have planted trees and shrubs in dense groups to create ‘rooms’ – this adds interest to the garden. The idea is to draw you deeper into the garden so you can explore it,” he says. The garden lies on a slope, so he built terraces that divide the large piece of land…

Each one of us who is privileged to have a home has a garden in some form, even if it is just a balcony or an alley alongside the house with a potplant or two. And where there are plants, says Jurg Reynders, who started the Facebook group “Voëls in my Suid-Afrikaanse Tuin” seven years ago, there are birds. “Thanks to modern technology, especially smartphones that are almost always at hand, many people have access to a camera these days. That is why we have two hobbies to boot on this group: birds and photography,” Jurg says. The group has 13 200 members, and this number grows by the day. It is a lovely socialising tool for bird lovers. “Some people are housebound because of illness or age, and this…

I grew up with a food library that contained just two-sweet-potato dishes: one of these was traditional sugary sweet potato, which remains my favourite side dish to this day, and the other was whole sweet potato baked in the oven or over the coals. Luckily I realised long ago that these root vegetables are capable of so much more. Sweet potato is in fact one of the most versatile vegetables and can be used for flavour and texture in anything from cake and dessert to bread, salad, fillings and spreads. Poet and food connoisseur C Louis Leipoldt’s stewed sweet potato Peel and cut four young, moderately sized tubers into slices and place them in salted water. Remove the slices from the water and dry them carefully. Heat a large lump…

In her first cookbook, Geure, Cullinan-based artist Lientjie Wessels uses all her favourite flavourful ingredients and intriguing flavour combinations to take you on an unforgettable international adventure of taste, aroma and colour. Or, as food writer Anna Trapido says in the foreword: “Lientjie’s food is Afrikaans through and through, but at the same time international. She is a citizen of the world and a woman of South Africa. Modern and old-world ingredients, recipes, cooking methods and flavours come together in ways that reflect heritage without ever being the cliché… Her art-school training is clear, not only in the way she serves every plate but also in the way she uses cooking – her artistic medium of choice – as a process for greater inspiration and self-discovery. What she does is…

Chicken manure. That’s what he farms with over there, beyond the blue mountains. At the turn-off from the main road to his farm gate, a hand-painted sign leans against bags filled with chicken manure: “Manure for sale/Mis te koop”. Next to it, attached to a wooden stand, is a steel box with a slot on which he has written, “Money/Geld”, and below it, “Honesty box”. The manure farmer trusts his customers; he leaves it to them to decide on the value of the manure they take. Like a dominee who trusts his congregation when the collection plate is passed around. He knows, however, that not everyone is a manure customer, so he secures the box to the wooden stand with a chain and a padlock. He has removed batteries, banana…

Double Mouth, Morgan Bay, Eastern Cape No other place resonates with my being like Double Mouth, where the Quko and KuMqotwane rivers converge and flow into the Indian Ocean. Ever since I was little, my heart would miss a beat whenever we’d take the twin track from Morgan Bay to Double Mouth, anticipating but never fully conceiving of the degrees of enchantment that would await: heavenly, heavenlier, Double Mouth! Time and again, once this paradise lies at my feet, no matter how many times I’d seen it before, I would stand amazed at the incomparable beauty surrounding me. At dusk, thick-knee musicians would arrive to soothe the soul. Two types, each on its own instrument. The one bird would draw these long melancholic violin lines; the other would complement them…

Many of use already doalot of things online, including searching for recipes and information about gardening, for example, ordering groceries you can’t find at your local supermarket, and watching new movies or TV shows. Perhaps it’s time to also get your copy of Platteland online, especially now that Covid-19 is keeping most of us trapped indoors. That’s why a digital subscription might be the answer for you. You’ll get the latest issue of Platteland without having to leave your living room. To subscribe to the digital edition, simply download a free app to your phone or open a browser window on your computer, and with the easy steps below you’ll soon be relaxing with a copy of Platteland. Happy reading! 1 DOWNLOAD THE APP Go to the App Store or Google…

Who remembers the typical doctor’s wife of the Seventies and Eighties? She tended to be this uppity woman with her nose in the air, not a hair out of place, wearing outfits few others could find, let alone afford. Her expensive German vehicle never had a speck of dust on it. Well, imagine a doctor’s wife who is the opposite of that image. Elize van Greunen may be married to Dr Andre van Greunen, but that’s where the similarity ends. And neither is she a farmer’s wife, despite living on a farm near Joubertina in the Langkloof, Eastern Cape. Elize is a farmer and entrepreneur. Someone who believes common sense is the main ingredient for a successful enterprise – and she is living proof that diversification in farming is neither…

Ansie de Beer Owner and founder of Melodramatic Craft Gin Ansie studied drama at the University of Pretoria and owns her own drama school in Centurion. She therefore didn’t have to think hard before coming up with a name for her craft gin business: Melodramatic and the payoff line “Passion and drama in every bottle” were obvious and absolutely apt choices. “I am a very creative person; at one point I dreamt of becoming a winemaker, but then I completed a beginner’s distilling course at Distillique (distillique.co.za) and began to experiment in the garage…” But owning a drama school and distillery, and creating and managing a new brand, would be difficult and expensive. So Ansie decided to approach Incendo to assist her with product development. First came The Phantom, a…

The word “sausage”is derived from “salsus”, the Latin word for “salted”. Which makes sense, as sausage-making was originally a method to preserve meats. It is said the first version of sausage was made in Mesopotamia around 3100BC. The Turks began to make their sujuk in 1000BC, and lap cheon appeared in China in 300 AD. The first known recipe for merguez from North Africa, a sausage made using mutton or beef, tinted red with chillies, appeared in a 13th-century book. The recipe also included sumac, garlic and harissa for extra kick. By about 1313, writes Samantha Castagnetti on theitalianbarrel.com, the Germans became the first Western Europeans to create a sausage: bratwurst. From there, of course, the craze spread across the continent and further afield.…

If you are interested in history, art and nature, Biodiversity Heritage Library is about to become your new favourite hangout. This website is the world’s largest digital archive of life on earth. Here, you can admire more than 150000 zoological and botanical illustrations with interesting and sometimes amusing captions. And you may download and use any of them. In an effort to raise awareness of climate change – and to make researchers’ work easier – libraries around the world have made available more than 55 million pages of information, some of which date back to the 15th century, for this biodiversity project. Various search options make it easier to find what you’re looking for. A highlight is the beautiful books, including titles that formed part of Charles Darwin’s personal collection,…

Make your own banana vinegar Banana skin is an excellent source of potassium, which stimulates flower development. But it is also rich in calcium, magnesium and phosphorus, which makes plants more disease-resistant. Here is how to make banana vinegar with which to spoil acid-lovers like azaleas and rhododendrons. Spring 2020 is set to be their prettiest season yet. What to do *Bury the banana skin – whole or chopped into pieces – 10cm below the soil surface before you plant seedlings. As the skin biodegrades, iron, calcium, potassium and phosphorus are slowly released into the soil. tip Make a trap for fruit flies by placing banana skins in a plastic container with a lid. Add enough apple cider vinegar to cover the skins. Pierce holes in the lid that are…