Winter 2023

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The slow life is the good life

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Long Live Our Farmers
Farmers have always commanded our deepest respect: These are the people who put food on our tables year after year, in spite of onslaughts from the elements, politicians and other mobsters. We recall how the farmers of our town arrived one by one to
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Go! Platteland
EDITORS JOHAN VAN ZYL & PETER VAN NOORD helloplatteland@gmail.com ART DIRECTOR SEAN ROBERTSON COPY EDITOR CHRISTINE DE VILLIERS JOURNALIST ANRI MATTHEE PROOFREADER BARBARA MALAISÉ SOCIAL MEDIA VILIEN COETZEE CEO: MEDIA24 ISHMET DAVIDSON GM: MEDIA24 L
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News And Diary
When you’re born into an Italian family, you grow up in the kitchen, says Motherdough owner Lance Littlefield. “I grew up in South Africa and attended school here, but spent most of my adult life in Italy and India,” he says. “Wherever I ended up, fo
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Meet Alfonsina
The sourdough starter with which Lance started Motherdough began its life in the spring of 1919. Known as Alfonsina, she turned 104 this past autumn. Alfonsina is a world traveller who has regularly flown with Lance between Italy, South Africa and In
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Brewing With Bees
Honey wine, also known as mead, karri or nectar of the gods, is a mixture of fermented honey and water – and is said to be the oldest alcoholic beverage. “The problem is that the minute you say ‘honey wine’, most people immediately think it’s very sw
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Carmién Celebrates A Quarter Of A Century
Surviving in the rooibos tea industry has required much adaptability and development, but the founder and managing director of Carmién Tea, Mientjie Mouton, says their values are the same as they were in 1998: “Our clients are most important, our env
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Chitchat
Write to us and tell us about your move to the platteland or your dreams of doing so, the characters in your town, the things you love… or the things that bug you. Go to platteland.net and click on“Contact” to write your letter, or send an email to h
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Grace + Merci Goes Online
In October 2020, when many platteland restaurants went under during the Covid-19 pandemic, Bev Missing opened one in Swellendam in the Overberg and christened it Grace + Merci. This was out of gratitude, she says, because she had not only survived br
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Winter Fashion For Fido
“What would I want to wear if I were a dog?” This is what Louise Park-Ross asked herself when, one evening in 2018, she noticed that her Jack Russell, Lucky, was shivering. The existing options for dog jerseys definitely did not suit either of their
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Dates To Diarise
HARTSFELD FARM, WELVERDIEND, MIDVAAL 2–4 June South Africa’s biggest outdoor lifestyle and leisure expo boasts 450 top exhibitors showcasing the latest range of agricultural, hunting, watersport, travel, outdoor, 4x4, camping, solar, braaI and pet pr
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Time To read
Face the winter chill with two new books jam-packed with fragrant Cape Malay favourites. Fatima Sydow takes readers on a nostalgic journey through her memories of the food she grew up eating; Ramadan, Labarang, and many community weddings, before con
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Subscribe Now And Explore The slowlife!
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Graaf-Reinet More Than A Pretty Picture
Graaff-Reinet is one of the few places that are actually better in real life than in the photos you see on social media. Once you’ve turned off the thoroughfare and spent some time in this Eastern Cape town, it becomes hard to leave. Many of us have
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Let’s Go To Town
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Ballad Of The butter Farmer
For years you’ve been reading about how terribly little South African dairy farmers are paid for their milk and end up having to throw in the towel one after the other. Incontrovertible, hard facts. But then – at your yoga class, of all places! – you
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On Mountains And Moments
The way beyond Barkly East, leading onward to Moshoeshoe’s Drift and the village of Rhodes, was some-what problematic to negotiate – or, plainly said, just shitty. If it weren’t for the high mountains I could have been on some track in Equatorial Gui
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Groot-Marico The Small Village With The Big Heart
I leave Johannesburg at 06:30, heading west to Groot-Marico in North West, 210km away. Near Broederstroom I cross the provincial border, and then it’s Hartbeespoort and the dam wall, before the landscape along the N4 starts being dominated by mining
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Find wisdom In The Forest It All Starts With Soil
Exactly what is it about a forest that awakens that feeling of pure enchantment? The muffled silence, the coolness, the dampness, the light that is blocked and fragmented and softened… There is the life in the branches above you; the soft carpet unde
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The Head Hen Who Lays The Golden Eggs
On the button at dawn, almost like a hen that has just laid an egg – buk-bukbuk-bagawk! – Suzanne Smit happily posts on Facebook or Instagram about the fresh batch of chicken pies or milk tarts that have just been delivered to The Country Chic in Rie
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Ohrigstad’s Tiny big Farmer
The Ohrigstad valley is green and thriving after the good late-summer rains in February. Yet it is an area where the climate and rainfall vary dramatically, depending on how high up or low down you live: when 280mm fell in the upper reaches of the va
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Let’s Garden!
BOSJES Over the past six years, Bosjes lifestyle farm, situated between Wolseley and Worcester at the foot of the Waaihoek mountain range, has grown into one of the Boland’s most popular destinations for nature and food lovers. Bosjes has won several
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From Food Scraps To Compost In A Jiffy We Test The ICompost
At Platteland we are active proponents of composting, and over the years we have featured stories on everything from worm composting to bokashi. If you’re concerned about sustainability, making your own compost is the responsible thing to do. It does
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Lunar Planting: A 3-month Guide
As the moon’s gravitational pull causes tides to rise and fall, it also affects moisture in the soil. Therefore it is said that seeds will absorb more water during the full moon and the new moon, when more moisture is pulled to the surface. This caus
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Comfort Zone
Choose a main course and add a side dish if you like. Provence-style beef stew Braised oxtail with Parmesan maize rice Catherine’s whole stuffed cabbage Trussed butternut stuffed with cheesy buttered leeks Confit tomatoes Crème caramel malva pudding
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The Art Of Small Talk
I spent my childhood in a small and seemingly insignificant town in the middle of nowhere. But years of city living shrouded easy interaction with my fellow human beings in a stubborn layer of dust. Days, often weeks, may pass without a challenge to
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The Sound Of Music
– KwaNogqaza-Howick Falls, KwaZulu-Natal – People of many different backgrounds are awe-struck by this view. Howick Falls – also known by its Zulu name, KwaNogqaza (“place of the tall one”) – is about 95metres high. It forms part of the uMngeni River

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