go! Platteland

The slow life is the good life: go! Platteland celebrates the rural lifestyle and the entrepreneurial spirit of people whose hearts are in the platteland – whether they grew up in the countryside or are already based there, are contemplating making the move or simply hankering after the rural life. Platteland offers articles that focus on entrepreneurs, DIY projects, animals, gardening, food, towns and people. It is both practical and inspiring – as much of a visual feast as it is a celebration of great writing.

By hand… and with love!

go! Platteland

Chitchat

News & diary • The trees are starting to bud, the days are getting longer and the mood is lighter. Celebrate spring with an open-garden experience or a wildflower show, treat your senses to the best cheese and wine in South Africa, or choose an activity from our action-packed diary.

Rent a castle! • The newly restored historic Dunn’s Castle outside Piketberg in the Swartland is the perfect destination for anyone who has ever wanted to spend the night or have a party in a Victorian castle.

KWV comes out tops

The gouda that lays the golden egg

Babylonstoren’s new book

Become a guide-dog foster parent

Dahlias from Dinokeng • Floral designer Teneale Coetzee, who says spring is her favourite time in the garden, has been growing organic flowers at the Femme Pétale flower farm at Intundla Game Lodge & Bush Spa in Dinokeng for the past three years (we wrote about her two years ago in Platteland #36 in our article about the Hort Couture Flower Collective). Teneale always wanted to cultivate flowers without the use of chemicals, and was especially interested in working with colours and species not readily available at markets.

Dates to diarise*

Open gardens by the dozen • Gardeners all over the country share their gardens with the public – the perfect way to find inspiration and enjoy the beauty of nature.

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Let’s go to town • As the weather was turning, we went browsing for spring fragrances and beautiful things in Bynespoort, Cape Town, Elgin, George, Gqeberha, Hopefield, Johannesburg, Malmesbury, Montagu, Oudtshoorn, Prieska and Simondium.

Return to life in 1897 • When you visit Soetmelksvlei museum farm on the slopes of the Simonsberg, you are transported back to the late 19th century, a time when life was much slower and simpler, but also more laborious – an era when everything was made by hand.

Bake your own ‘medicine’ • When Pretoria-based Dutch Reformed minister Janet Cruywagen discovered that sourdough bread is a medicine that can create miracles for your gut microbiome as well as your physical and mental health, she bade the pulpit goodbye and began her own ‘bread service’ called Grace and Crumbs.

Grown, ground and baked in the Swartland • The Swartland is known for its rolling wheat fields, and the mill in Moorreesburg produces enough stoneground flour each week for Carien Hugo Waring from Moorrees Artisan Bakery to bake the-place-specific sourdough bread that she sells in the town and its surrounds.

Manna for the masses • Countless numbers of roosterkoek and koeksisters are baked in South Africa every day – whether it’s to make ends meet or to fund a cause. But baker Flora Linnert from the Knersvlakte is truly in a league of her own.

Niekerkshoop’s desert rose • The expression“bloom where you are planted” is perhaps the last one you’d use when referring to Niekerkshoop. Here, the earth gives you very little and life gives you even less. If you choose to flower in this place, it will be at your own risk. But Zelna Barends not only blooms here, she also provides shade for her whole community.

Winds of change • Windmills have become ubiquitous emblems of South Africa’s dusty...