Dassiesfontein on the N2 – if you visit one farmstall...

Dassiesfontein

Dassiesfontein is a smor­gas­bord of THINGS. We're talk­ing room after room of this and that – from antique fur­niture through kit­chen plates, cloth­ing and shoes, to Victorian fire­places. The venue is a ver­it­able collector's dream of kitsch and paraphenalia, so set aside at least an hour for your stop at this farmstall.

We piled out of the car, now des­per­ate for a breather, to stretch legs and maybe pick up a quick munch while we were at it. Immediately I sense that this farm­stall is not like any of the oth­ers we have vis­ited on the N2 (and there are numer­ous between Cape Town and Caledon).

Outside looks a little like a ram­shackle farm yard. There are chick­ens doing their thing, strut­ting around the car park as happy as muck, whilst a little fur­ther along vari­ous farm imple­ments and a lot of what looks like alu­minium pipes stand higgledy piggledy to one side.

Inside the farm store Tina and Francina are busy bak­ing bread. The huge farm­style brown bread dough stands in a large mix­ing bowl, whilst sev­eral tins stand rising above the old farm­style oven – dinkum, I think it's a regte egte Dover. Another series of breads have already made their way out of the oven and infuse the little room crammed with any­thing from bokkoms to jams, rusks and dried fruit with the pun­gence of yeast bread. Dassiesfontein grind their own flour and these loaves of farm bread are fam­ous. You can also pick up a bag of their flour here too.

I should warn you that they also bake pies that are ser­i­ously good, so don't have your lunch before­hand. I am not a pie fan – I think I've eaten one in my life — but these were worth sampling. It helped that someone else was intent on buy­ing up the entire sup­ply. Amazing what a little bit of com­pet­i­tion does to com­pel one into a buy­ing frenzy. We bought two imme­di­ately, just in case we missed out.

There is noth­ing so com­fort­ing as the smell of bak­ing bread. However, it does noth­ing to lessen the effects of tetchy whin­ing from my son, who takes it into his head to whinge for a chocol­ate when I've already laid down the law in the car about what he can and can't have! We find ourselves out­side hav­ing a typ­ical mother-wee-son con­front­a­tion just as another group of people arrive – spare me these debil­it­at­ing what­kin­dof­motheris­she  moments!

Back in the farm store, son safely ensconced with Dad, I head fur­ther into the Aladdin's cave – for there is no other way to describe how the rooms just seems to merge one into another. The store becomes a res­taur­ant area over­hung with light fit­tings. I pass through an area so dense with glass wear and crock­ery that it is dif­fi­cult to take note of everything, and I can ima­gine that given the time, one could pick up some real gems here. I over­hear Francina man­aging someone on the phone who wants to book a table. It seems the place is so pop­u­lar that they only oper­ate a first-come-first-served basis.

In the centre of the rather dark room I enter is the res­taur­ant. Pretty wooden chairs and tables dom­in­ate the room, but sur­round­ing them are stands filled with cloth­ing and jew­ellery as well as a selec­tion of can­de­labra that make the pulse begin to race (I feel the start of a secret fet­ish com­ing on). Overhead hang an end­less sup­ply of woven bas­kets and one wall is covered in second-hand books. To one side stands a chalk board filled with a list of local wines, which is why many people stop here, whilst the far wall is lined with an eclectic and attract­ive array of gift boxes.

The res­taur­ant serves tra­di­tional boerekos, seven days a week. The por­tions are lar­ger than large and include Sunday lunches that are three course affairs – good­ness knows, you bet­ter hope your des­tin­a­tion is not too far from here, or you'll fall asleep at the wheel after such a meal.

Down yet another cor­ridor, this one lined with a series of fire­place imple­ments, fresh flowers and a lot of bric-a-brac; I pass the dairy. I don't trust myself in here as I am a cheese addict, and we already have some delect­able items in our boot. But here you will find milk, yoghurt, fruit juice and a range of cheeses. The dairy guar­an­tees that its milk is hor­mone and addit­ive free, all their milk is sourced from cows that range freely, and all of their cheese is loc­ally produced.

On still fur­ther one enters a series of little shops, their shelves lined with things like vases, water­ing cans, coat hooks and spice racks, fol­lowed by a leather shoe and hand­bag area that would hold the atten­tion of the aver­age woman for at least half an hour. Home made women's bohemian style clothes, felt hand­bags and dec­or­at­ive items, and a little dress­ing room finally com­plete the pic­ture. This part of the farm­store is known as the boutique and includes vin­tage cloth­ing, jew­ellery and beauty products.

Other bits and bobs you can pick up here include a fine selec­tion of coal and wood stoves. In fact Dassiesfontein spe­cial­ise in a col­lec­tion of cast iron wood stoves that are prac­tical and beau­ti­ful to look at. Their antique sec­tion is a col­lec­tion of old kit­chen utensils, enamel ware, tins, por­cel­ain dolls, garden tools and Africana books, pic­tures and fur­niture. They also restore old fur­niture if you are interested.

We fall out of the farm­stall hav­ing under­gone some­thing of an exper­i­ence. As we leave, we spot a field to the left of the stall where there is an assort­ment of don­keys, great for chil­dren to pet and feed – make a note, in case you stop here too.

Address:
Dassiesfontein Farmstall on the N2 between Botriver and Caledon, Overberg, Western Cape

Useful Links:
Caledon Attractions
Caledon Accommodation
Western Cape Farm Stalls
Western Cape Accommodation