When in Napier, do the farmstall

Napier is this won­der­ful little town in the middle of the Overberg at the foot of the Soetmuisberg. The unob­trus­ive town sign on the far side of the vil­lage proudly indic­ates that it's 266 feet in alti­tude. Until recently it was only a blip on the map and some­where I had heard was worth a visit.

It's funny how that alti­tude thing plays with the mind, because in hind­sight most of Napier rests on a slope. And the road through town has a rise and fall about it too. Put it this way, it def­in­itely isn't flat in Napier. Not that this unim­port­ant fact has any­thing to do with the lovely town, which has become pop­u­lar with artists and artis­ans who have moved here to escape city living ...

As far as geo­graphy goes, Napier lies really close to another Overberg town – Bredasdorp – they're about 20 kilo­metres apart. And both towns mar­ket them­selves as the 'gate­way to the south­ern­most tip of Africa'. They may as well get it in as soon as they can (and they do, with large ornate boards), because by the time you're in L'Agulhus, everything is 'south­ern­most' – be it a pizza joint, bakery, B&B or butchery – and they make no bones about claim­ing such. The town could rename itself 'Southernmost' and no-one would be surprised.

The rolling wheat and bar­ley fields that accom­pany one in and out of Napier, the old world charm of Napier itself com­plete with old style cot­tages, some of which have been restored, along the main road and above the town, the nar­row little lanes and pretty veget­able gar­dens, make it a won­der­ful space in which to be and hence a pop­u­lar town to visit. There is some­thing par­tic­u­larly invit­ing about Napier, espe­cially as it is only about two hours' drive from Cape Town.

As with many South African dorps the NG church is rather prom­in­ent, but this one has a dif­fer­ent style of archi­tec­ture, which I later learn is because it is built in the form of a Greek cross and its interior houses an excep­tion­ally beau­ti­ful pipe organ. It rests at a rather prom­in­ent spot in town in amongst other attrac­tions, like the gal­lery (look out for the baobab style tree out front) with an incred­ible second-hand book­store on its back ver­anda, Hero Stained Glass, the Toy Museum, the Instap Minimark and a few very bright and invit­ing res­taur­ants like the Good Food Café and Pascal's.

But we pull in at the Napier Farmstall, vir­tu­ally en route out of Napier. I've heard that  it is worth a visit, and I'm not dis­ap­poin­ted. The first thing I notice is the rather subtle-dig-in-the-ribs Spur menu as I ascend the stairs. But it takes me a while to decide whether the chain res­taur­ant is des­per­ate enough to advert­ise at Napier's farm­stall or whether owner Ilze Vos just has a rather wicked sense of humour.

I decide firmly on the lat­ter after meet­ing her, when I get the dis­tinct impres­sion that she thinks my snap­ping pho­to­graphs inside the stall means I'm try­ing to steal some of her sup­pli­ers. I can under­stand why. Ilze has run her farm­stall for thir­teen odd years. She has seen other farm­stalls come and go, and dis­tin­guishes her­self from many of them by the care with which she stocks her shelves – you won't find stuff here that you can buy at Pick n Pay. Ilza has hand-picked her sup­pli­ers, provid­ing space to local and unique products that you won't find here, there and everywhere.

The secret with the Napier Farmstall is to take the time to look around. Because it can feel a little like sens­ory over­load when you first walk in. The space in which you find your­self is small. Angularly arranged wooden tables, bicycles, shelves filled with enti­cing products, bread bas­kets over­flow­ing with just-baked in the oven out back sig­na­ture country-style loaves (one of which I quickly nab before they all dis­ap­pear), pitch forks, pic­ture frames, storm lan­terns and black­boards advert­ising today's fare all jostle for your attention.

And people keep pour­ing in. It's a rather windy, cold day for April, hence most of us are forced to sit inside. Usually the tables and benches out­side are more pop­u­lar, but I'm more than con­tent to savour my homemade chicken soup (lit­er­ally made for the soul) towards the back of the shop. There is still space in which to man­oeuvre and Ilza is a won­der­ful host­ess. People are seated eas­ily and quickly, food appears as if by magic, music plays softly in the back­ground, and everyone's happy.

Our chicken soup, served with homemade country-style bread, and the chicken pie are excep­tional food. It is not often that you taste real home-style food, so that when it comes to eat­ing it, it tastes as if your mother made it, but this food is exactly that. And on a cold autumn after­noon, there is noth­ing quite so good as chicken soup! And the bread is incred­ible. It's safe to say that I'm a bread fan­atic. I bake my own, and only buy from artisan baker­ies. But this bread, des­pite being totally unpre­ten­tious, is deli­cious. Ilza tells me that they've now set up a bakery in the barn out back.

“It used to func­tion as a theatre, for a while, but that didn't work, so now Daniel with a French sur­name, who is a pro­fes­sional patis­serie, is using the premises to bake for the Biscuit Mill in Cape Town where he has a stall, and for the farm­stall”. Although the bread is her ori­ginal recipe, one with which she's stayed, it's been so good.

As we chat the back­ground music subtly gives way to the day's live jazz per­form­ance, played on both a violin and a muted trum­pet, by a thor­oughly laid-back musi­cian with a hole in the knees of his jeans, who, when he catches your eye, mumbles the title of the tune he's about to play and smiles whim­sic­ally – it's rather endear­ing. You get a lot more than just a meal at the Napier Farmstall, that's for sure.

Other tempt­ing mouth­fuls you can find at the Napier Farmstall: jams, honey, vin­eg­ars, oils, any num­ber of pre­serves, home-made quiches, pies, meringues, and to-die-for eclairs sup­plied by someone local in town.

And if you ask her, Ilza might also have some­where you can stay overnight on her small­hold­ing, just out­side of town.

Useful Napier Links:

• Napier Attractions
• Things to Do in Napier
• Napier Photographs
• Napier Accommodation
• Cape Agulhas Accommodation