Innehållsförteckning för Summer 2020/21 från go! Platteland

Vloog Theron. Anyone who read a newspaper in the seventies and eighties will remember the name. Especially those who were looking to make a quick buck… Think of Vloog what you will and call him all the names you want – there’s no getting away from the fact that he was a fascinating character. The things he got up to had people talking. He was a flamboyant man with a singular lust for life. Something that never made the headlines was the fact that as a child he lived in a Swartland village, where he led a carefree life but also experienced great hardship. We’re talking about Koringberg, of course, the village where we have put down roots for the past 15 years and where Platteland magazine is put together.…

Brumilde & Mariette Joubert Joubert & Seuns Padstal “My father-in-law bought land here in 1966,” Mariette Joubert says. Her daughter, Brumilde, comes to sit beside her at this farm stall on the N4. “It was pristine here and the road was still narrow.” Joubert & Seuns is a well-known citrus producer in the Lowveld. They also manufacture solid-wood furniture and do excavation work. “My father-in-law did everything,” Mariette says. There was even a butchery on the farm – Belladonna Butchery in Nelspruit still uses his wors recipe.” Mariette’s mother-in-law ran four farm stalls in the Kloof. Initially fruit trees were planted to supply them. “My mother-in-law made dried fruit rolls and the children would have to stand and shoo away the flies. On Christmas Day they would be harvesting watermelon…

In a stone building resembling a traditional Provençal barn, some flour, water, yeast and salt are ready to be mixed into dough. “We will be baking two country loaves and paninis today,” Jeff Lawrence starts his introduction. “I’m not teaching you a recipe, but the interaction of ingredients. The most important thing is not to rush the process!” Jeff is about to teach his course called Bread Fundamentals: What a Difference the Water Makes. The barn, which was originally built as an entertainment room, as well as the house offer splendid views of Wakkerstroom Wetland Reserve. Every now and then a roaming cow has to be shooed out of the garden. JEFF AND SUE bought their 7500m2 property in 2004 for R180 000. “It was a weekend house, a place…

PHOTOGRAPHY Bitten by the bug… Insect photography has changed his outlook on life completely, says Mike Green. He shares tips for taking photographs and appreciating these little critters. Where did your interest in insect photography come from? This might sound strange but it didn’t start out as a love of insects. In 38 years as a photographer I had explored almost every genre except for macrophotography – until eight years ago, when I had to assist my mother, who has dementia, with full-time care on a farm. It was frustrating no longer being able to take photos of weddings and sports events. John Read, a good friend of mine, introduced me to macrophotography. And all of a sudden I had hundreds of subjects right under my nose to photograph! Why…

We are all searching for a Monomotapa – a city of gold – or a Canaan, even if the so-called “promise” is only one of peace and tranquillity, and the “gold” a vague yearning to live more slowly and quietly. When you move to the platteland, especially after a lifetime in the city, you soon learn that it’s not that simple at all. Things are just different in the platteland. And the “tranquillity” is rather like that of a duck gliding elegantly on a pond: below the surface no one sees it treading and kicking for dear life to keep going. To top it all, you’re an inkommer. If your folk have not been living in the area for generations, nothing else matters: you’re an inkommer and that’s it. How…

Retirement calls for a mind shift I never thought the adjustment would be so effortless. Suddenly retirement took on a special quality, and a kind of peacefulness characterised the philosophy of my expectations. Nothing, not even Covid-19, can change it. Retirement was never part of my vocabulary. But somehow it became a new life, a fresh start. I feel liberated! I am no longer caught up in the rush for money or status, and flashing lights, taxi hooters and sirens have reduced to a vague memory, the 5 o’clock traffic a mere ghost from my past. The platteland gives you a crash course in making the most of quality time. I am spellbound by my choice – let’s say I’m under the spell of the bush, because I have now…

Vanrhynsdorp lies in a hollow close to Gifberg, just beneath the illuminated cross on the N7 that overlooks the Knersvlakte. During the week, thousands of cars and trucks roar past the quiet town. Some of them turn off here to fuel up, others continue on to Nieuwoudtville or Calvinia, and others still press on to their final destination: Nuwerus, Garies, Kamieskroon and Springbok to the north… then Namibia. To the south lie Klawer, Clanwilliam, Citrusdal, Piketberg, Malmesbury and Cape Town. What happened in Vanrhynsdorp on Sunday, 26 September 2020? You guessed it: nothing much. A few truck drivers were stretching their legs at the Shell fuel stop, or Turcks Garage, in Van Riebeeck Street, just off the N7. There were also cars – many towing a caravan or bush trailer,…

Over the past few decades, feeding of dogs and cats has evolved largely to the benefit of the owner rather than the pet. Convenience has been the driving force – availability of cheap pet foods at supermarkets, ease and speed of feeding, as little preparation and mess as possible, and the requirement that the feed always be “balanced” to meet the animal’s total daily nutritional requirements. These have prompted pet owners to favour processed extruded pellets, or kibble products, many of which contain high levels of carbohydrates. The dramatic rise in dog and cat obesity, skin problems such as hair loss, smelly breath, tooth decay and many other common malaises can often be attributed to the increased use of processed products with a high carbohydrate content. The problems resulting from…

Fish parcels The double layer of baking paper allows the fish to steam, so make sure you secure the parcels tightly. And take care when you open them that the steam doesn’t burn you! Serves 4 Preparation time 20 minutes Cooking time 10–15 minutes YOU NEED • 200 g tagliatelle, cooked until al dente and drizzled with olive oil• 8 fish fillets of about 80 g each (we used trout)• ¼ cup (60 ml) chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley and coriander leaves• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) lemon juice• finely grated zest of 1 lemon• 2 garlic cloves, chopped coarsely• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) finely chopped fresh ginger• 3 red sweet peppers, seeds and membranes removed and sliced thinly• olive oil THIS IS HOW Preheat the oven to 200°C. Cut baking paper…

The Preekstoel, northern Roggeveld Is your mind at times so occupied and haunted by politics, WhatsApp group chats and YouTube videos that there is no space left to think of anything else? On such a day I hit the road from Calvinia to a farm in the mountains. At Nooiensrivier I turned off and took the gravel road, navigating several minor mountain passes until, after 45 minutes of inner turmoil, I found myself on a plateau. I noticed an escarpment on my right but did not stop, even though the view from there was clearly exceptional. Suddenly there was silence. It was so remarkable that I braked and came to a stop. It really was quiet – in my mind and in my heart. I was still sitting behind the…

When you’re heading to the Lowveld from Gauteng, past Machadodorp you’re faced with a choice of two routes: either turn right onto the N4 to Emgwenya (better known as Waterval Boven), entering the Elands Valley through the tunnel built by the Nederlandsche Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorwegmaatschappij, or keep left and take the R36 to Schoemanskloof. “The Kloof”, the locals call it, and there is in fact an Upper Kloof and a Lower Kloof. The dividing line is Patatanek, 12 km beyond the Viva service station and about 2 km from the painted rock known as Old Joe. Patatanek also forms the border between the Mbombela and Emakhazeni municipalities. From the Gauteng side, the Kloof officially starts at the De Beersnek Pass at Bambi Country Lodge, opposite the R36 turn-off to Lydenburg, and…

They say that during volatile times like these, we yearn to anchor ourselves. To find sturdy roots. Our own roots. This is why, at some point, nearly every one of us will try to retrace our steps. Most often such a “journey” would lead to the place of your youth – if not physically, then at least in a way that allows you to think deeply about how that environment shaped the person you became. In short: our origins are an important part of who we are – or were – and the context in which we grow up determines to a large extent how we view the world. Do we fit in? Do we feel we belong to a larger community? Or, as adults, are we simply overcome –…

It is mid-morning in late spring and you can smell fynbos and pine resin on the cool breeze. White clouds billow above the Western Cape’s Overberg region, yet the sunlight manages to pierce through and illuminate patches of the landscape. The only sound you hear is a whisper of wind through the brush as Chris Nicklin cuts a strip of hessian from a sack, lights it with a match and stuffs it into a bee smoker. Next he climbs into a white overall, pulls a veil over his head and puts on a pair of gloves. “Right, let’s have a look,” he says as he lifts the lid of a beehive. Although a collective buzz erupts from the hive as Chris pumps a puff of smoke over the colony of…

“Without heat – from a grill, an oven, a cast-iron pan blackened with age – there is little point to the pepper,” writes British cook and author Nigel Slater in the first volume of his vegetable tome Tender. “Raw, green and unripe, its waxy, plastic skin and lack of obvious juice offer little but crisp nothingness… Wherever it appears, the raw green pepper seems uncomfortable. But left to ripen to a sunset orange or scarlet (a few varieties remain green even when ripe), then blistered over a hot flame or baked in a scorching oven, the pepper will show us its true heart and soul. By roasting or grilling, we do more than soften it; we create sweet juice with notes of caramel, tomato, honey and smoke. The crisp shell…