Winter 2019

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The slow life is the good life

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People Of Flesh And Blood
Just like in 2014 when we had to deliver the third issue of Platteland to the printers, we are sending to print this 23rd issue you’re holding in your hands on the day that South Africa’s 26,7 million registered voters (hopefully) go to the polls. An
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Chitchat
Write to us and tell us about your move to the platteland, the characters in your town, the things that bug you… Send an email to helloplatteland@gmail.com or post your letter to Platteland Letters, PO Box 526, Moorreesburg 7310. We give preference t
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What’s Cooking?
Learn the fundamentals of sourdough, yeast and bread baking from Annelien Pienaar, and why stone-ground flour from Eureka Mills is better for you. Attendees will bake a low-hydration farm bread using sourdough and a high-hydration ciabatta using yeas
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News & diary
Were you among the readers who loved Sam Reinders’ wonderful photo essay in our previous issue (Platteland #22, Autumn 2019)? This long-term project, which she calls her “Love letter to the Karoo”, recently made the shortlist of 25 top portfolios of
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The High Price Of ROADWORKS
It is an age-old maxim: a good journey takes time. Because travelling slowly allows you to really take in your surroundings. Sometimes, through no choice of our own, roadworks bring home the concept of slow travel. In my part of the world this has be
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Beneath The Ribs Of The Dragon
There is a ubiquitous sense of a larger presence in Underberg, and it is not difficult to establish where it originates: to the west, uKhahlamba stabs holes in the clouds. A barrier of spiers, say the Zulus. A mountain of dragons (drake), said the Vo
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Meet The People
Owners of Heritage Plants The Jacksons are not happy with the state of their gardens and ask nicely that we don’t take any photos there. Recent hail and wind have damaged the plants. “It usually looks far more beautiful,” says Jack, and one has to wo
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Eat, Drink And Have Fun
In 1996, Karin and Punch Trollip bade farewell to the stock exchange and came to live on the farm River Glen, just outside Underberg. After Punch gave Karin five Jersey heifers, they realised they would have to do something with the milk. And so the
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A New Lease Of Life For Man And Machine
Few places are as spectacularly vast and still as the Springbok Flats north of Pretoria. Take the R516 from Bela-Bela on a sunny winter’s day and head east. Keep going, across the N1, and then pull off next to a cultivated field. Look ahead, to the l
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Echoes From The Free State Plains
Sometimes it’s a blessing in disguise when a publisher rejects a manuscript. The first five versions of my new novel, Smit Motors, fortunately never saw the light of day. Fortunately? It was aimed at taking on the supposed small-town mentality. I sen
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On The Road And The River
If you take the N12 from Joburg to the Kruger National Park, at first you’ll see only mine dumps and power stations (White elephants, much? – Eds.), surrounded by grassy plains and maize fields. Numerous trucks slowing down the traffic. Polluted air.
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Meet The People
PJ Sabbagha was the Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for Dance in 2005. He started The Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative in 1995, and it has been operating from his parents’ farm outside Machado since 2015. “When my parents bought the plac
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Look, Do, Eat And Sleep
This is accommodation with old-fashioned charm. Every cottage is equipped with a fireplace and firewood for chilly winter nights. There are expansive gardens, and you can buy organic vegetables from the staff gardening project. machadodorp.co.za 011
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The Boland’s Charcuterie King
During the turbulent eighties, the late Dr Matie Brink, an NG dominee in Paarl, converted many South Africans to the gospel of potjiekos. In the furthest corners of the country and in Namibia, he would cook for up to 3 000 people at a time. It was un
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“Google’s Grandma” Turns 90
Just like SAWAU (the South African Women’s Agricultural Union) in the rest of the country, there’s one abbreviation that Platteland always encounters on our trips through the towns of the Western, Eastern and Northern Cape: the WAA (Women’s Agricultu
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Traditional Hits
This is a Hantam speciality. Karien uses instant yeast in her short-cut recipe. Makes 5 dozen • 2 packets (10 g each) instant yeast• 1 kg cake wheat flour• 1 cup (210 g) sugar• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) aniseed• 5 teaspoons (25 ml)
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Take The Turn-off!
When I was growing up, we would regularly visit my aunt and her husband in Kestell in the Eastern Free State. This panorama on the road between Fouriesburg and Clarens reminds of those trips and my vantage point from the back seat of my dad’s Valiant
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The Day A Dairy’s Hearl Stops Beating
My father’s brother, Karel van der Berg, has been farming on the farm Charlottenburg between Bloemfontein and Verkeerdevlei for the past 45 years. On this very farm, among the red grass on the western side of a rocky ridge, lies my father’s grave. If
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Paws For thought
It is a privilege to share a house with pets while you are growing up. I remember every animal from my childhood years: my first dog, Woefie, was a brownish wirehaired mutt and we were inseparable. During the day we would tire each other out while pl
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8 Steps To Pet Health
1Annual examination and inoculations Your vet examines the animal and suggests how you could help it remain healthy. Inoculations prevent nasty diseases. 2 Deworming Worms can cause a variety of health issues. They steal the nutrients your pet needs,
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Train As A Field Guide At Shamwari
Whether you are looking to upskill yourself and take your hobby to the next level or are interested in a career as a field guide, this course will give you the practical and theoretical training to become a recognised professional field guide. Volunt
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Make A jigsaw-puzzle table
We used MDF board, namely SupaWood, to make this table because it is sturdy, smooth and much cheaper than solid wood. But it is fairly heavy and large pieces would be difficult to handle, so ask your wood supplier to cut it according to your measurem
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To The Garden
WE CHAT TO FILIPA DOMINGUES Cape-based film producer Filipa Domingues has always been fascinated by strange succulents. She told Maja Palm she just needed the encouragement of a friend to turn her passion into a popular Instagram account. Tell us whe
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A Fresh Herb Garden On The Windowsill
This perennial plant grows up to 40 cm in height and can be watered more frequently than the other herbs. Its subtle onion flavour is great in salads and pastas. Wait until the shoots are about 15 cm tall before you start to use the leaves. This herb
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A Tough Gardener With An Equally Tough Garden
Nothing stops retiree Sybil van Wyk from living out her love of gardening – not even a much smaller garden than she used to have, drought or backache. “We moved to Durbanville from Kuils River 12 years ago,” says Sybil. “Our previous house had a big
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Are There Pesticides On Your Fruit And Vegetables?
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is an American activist group that conducts annual tests of fruit and vegetables to analyse traces of insecticides and other pesticides in produce. It has found that strawberries are the biggest culprits (see the
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The Best Of Northern Botswana – And Neighbours
E xplore the Okavango Delta, the great rivers of the Zambezi Region and the mighty Victoria Falls while our experts make sure you’re safe, well fed and comfortable at all times. This self-drive tour is one of the most popular on the Bhejane itinerary
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Grow Your Own Water-blommetjies
Waterblommetjies are often described as a veld food delicacy confined to the dams, ponds, wayside pools, marshes and slow-flowing rivers of the Western Cape (as far east as Plettenberg Bay). Surprisingly, Aponogeton distachyos is in fact an adaptable
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Leipoldt Is Lekker
Wash the flower buds and remove the stalks; put them in a stew pot with a lump of fat or butter, as well as salt, pepper, a little chopped onion, a few thyme leaves, and a bay leaf. Simmer gently, then add a handful of chopped sorrel leaves and allow
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Waterblommetjies Flowers From A Pond
Most South Africans know Aponogeton distachyos by its Afrikaans common name, waterblommetjie. In English, this delicacy is called Cape pondweed or water hawthorn. You’ve probably had the traditional waterblommetjie bredie, or stew, but unfortunately
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Blooming Marvellous
My grandmother was a very good cook. She put a lot of heart and care into everything she made, and liked to use fresh ingredients. This dish bears her stamp. She never browned the meat beforehand for this simple bredie. Serves 4 Preparation time 15 m
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It’s A Day To Curry Favour!
Lentil soup and grain-free baby-marrow muffins Butter cauliflower Golden-milk potatoes Curried chakalaka Mandarin-and-thyme polenta cake Make this lentil soup as thin or thick as you like, and don’t be afraid to double the quantities, because the sou
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When A Prayer Is Answered
Somerset East, like the rest of the country, suffered growing pains in the early 1990s. White people who voted for opposing sides in the 1992 referendum nodded anxiously at one another behind family-sized bottles of Ponstan in McCoughey’s Pharmacy an
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The Hills Are Alive
When it’s green in the Overberg, to me there is no landscape more beautiful anywhere in the world. The hills are covered in green crops that dance in the slightest breeze. When you drive from Cape Town via Sir Lowry’s Pass, past Grabouw and on toward

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