Lunch at Lanzerac

Lunch at Lanzerac

We spent the recent Heritage Day long week­end in the Cape Winelands and had lunch at Lanzerac on Friday.  I’d spent a few hours at the Spa and feel­ing a bit peck­ish we opted for what was close at hand – The Taphuis!  There was a fresh breeze blow­ing so we were happy to sit inside and the interior with its massive fire­place and long, wooden bar counter set a per­fect ambience.

There are only a few tables in The Taphuis but they are fairly large and I appre­ci­ated not hav­ing to rearrange the cut­lery, crock­ery and glass­ware to make enough space for the bread bas­ket! The ser­vice was good (although as we were one of two tables you would expect it to be!) and before long we were tuck­ing into a very sat­is­fy­ing lunch indeed ... Continued

Berried Treasure by Hillcrest Berry Orchards — Book Review

From the Foreword by Myrna Robin, Hillcrestberries.co.za is a gen­er­ous reflec­tion of Hillcrest’s irres­ist­ible recipes, com­plete with pearls of wis­dom about grow­ing, har­vest­ing and enjoy­ing young­ber­ries, black­ber­ries, rasp­ber­ries, tay­ber­ries, boysen­ber­ries, blue­ber­ries, goose­ber­ries, red and black­cur­rants and more… Strawberries have their chance to shine and there are sec­tions devoted to figs, which are also cul­tiv­ated at Hillcrest, as well as to impor­ted vari­et­ies like cran­ber­ries, cur­rants and black cherries ...

From the Publisher

This is one of my favour­ite books because it was a pleas­ure to work with the own­ers of Hillcrest Berry Orchards. We both wanted to pro­duce a col­our­ful, tempt-your-tastbuds exper­i­ence and we feel we did just that! This recipe book is full of deli­cious pho­to­graphy and the best of all – it’s all on ber­ries! Well, most of them ... Continued

Eight at Spier – a definite 'must' for brunch

Eight at Spier

Before the word gets out, I thought I'd share my addic­tion to the latest res­taur­ant to open on the Spier Wine Estate in Lyndedoch Road, Stellenbosch. Eight at Spier serves good whole­some break­fasts, brunches and lunches on the grounds of the pop­u­lar week­end destination.

The res­taur­ant is child-friendly, afford­able, and one of very few res­taur­ants with a green ethos where envir­on­mental con­scious­ness and com­mit­ment to the Earth is a high pri­or­ity. Most of all, the res­taur­ant lacks pre­ten­tious­ness, and eas­ily ranks as one of the best places to get  a decent, healthy break­fast over a week­end ... Continued

Joostenberg Deli – a stop worth making time for

Farm out­side Bloekomsbos

Saturday was a day filled with new dis­cov­er­ies and inter­est­ing stops. We vis­ited a local farmer, Erick, on his farm just out­side Bloekomsbos, acci­dent­ally dis­covered one of the Stellenbosch jew­els — Joostenberg Deli — and uncovered a gem of a garden centre just next door.

Erick Zenzele is the farmer that sends us a bag full of peas, cab­bage, mixed lettuce leaves, beet­root, broc­coli and spin­ach every week. His farm (his land has been loaned to him by a local farmer) just out­side Bellville in Cape Town is part of the local CSA (com­munity sup­por­ted agri­cul­ture) pro­ject sup­por­ted by Slow Food Cape Town together with the Sustainability Institute. A group of fam­il­ies in Cape Town help sup­port the farm­ers involved by pay­ing upfront for our bags of veg. But it's also a way of recon­nect­ing with our food. As 'con­sumers' we now know exactly where our veget­ables are grown, and after our visit on Saturday, by whom ... Continued

Simply Stunning Stellenbosch

Stellenbosch

Beautiful Stellenbosch lies just 55 kilo­metres east of Cape Town sheltered in a val­ley sur­roun­ded by moun­tains that include the Papegaaiberg - little more than a hill in real­ity - the Stellenbosch Mountain, Jonkershoek Mountains and the Great Drakenstein Mountains.

Stellenbosch is not only the second old­est European set­tle­ment in the Western Cape - it was foun­ded in 1697 by Simon van der Stel who promptly named it ‘Stel’s forest’ after him­self - but it is also steeped in his­tory. Its oak-lined streets, like Dorp Street, are bounded by typ­ical Cape Dutch-style build­ings that serve as the main thor­ough­fare of the local uni­ver­sity, where the con­ser­vatoire is the old­est music school in the coun­try. Continued

Stellenbosch Natural and Organic Farmers' Market

Farmers Market

Pick up freshly picked pro­duce at the Stellenbosch Natural and Organic Farmers' Market on the grounds of the Stellenbosch Waldorf School. The proven­ance of organic ingredi­ents sold at this intim­ate little farm mar­ket (trad­ing since 2001) adds sim­ul­tan­eously to the qual­ity of taste and life. The pas­sion­ate prac­tice of pure pleas­ures and plant­a­tions are sold stall­side by earth lov­ing purveyors.

A German bakery warms dreams with hot pret­zels and breads. Elgin apple juice takes the tex­ture of organic clouds in a glass. Organic dried fruit and nuts play 'eat-me' with free-roaming chil­dren. Unpasteurised jer­sey joghurt leaves an organic cream mous­tache on smil­ing faces. Little herb pots flour­ish under big leaf can­op­ies of trees. Proud pump­kins impress shop­pers with their giant form. Organic-lemon syr­ups along­side organic brown sugar inspires organic dessert ideas. Continued

Spectacular Stellenbosch

Stellenbosch

Stellenbosch is one of those unique places in South Africa. Known for its wine pro­duc­tion, as well as for the Stellenbosch University, one of the premier ter­tiary edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tions in Cape Town, Stellenbosch is in a class of its own. Stellenbosch offers many attrac­tions for leis­ure seekers and tour­ists. The his­tor­ical town is also known as Eikestad, lit­er­ally trans­lated as Oak City, and for good reason. Many of the streets are lined with Oak trees planted by early set­tlers to the area, com­pli­ment­ing the numer­ous his­tor­ical build­ings dot­ted through­out the town centre.

The Jonkershoek val­ley offers many hik­ing trails and nature reserve areas to explore, as well as pic­nic spots, some of which allow that typ­ic­ally South African past time. Quite unique among animal view­ing exper­i­ences in the area are the cro­codile park, but­ter­fly world, and the gir­affe house. Continued