Neighbourhood Goods Market

If you like a combination of a bunfight* and creative parking this one is for you.

Be prepared to be bodyslammed several times during your circular creep in the human current that moves supersluggishly around the main hall. The slamming is usually from a woman who thinks she is still in the Constantia Village parking lot with hubby's platinum card in her purse and her foot on the floor of her Porsche 4 x 4. Inform her that she is not. I find her toes are especially vulnerable, and messing up a brand new pedicure scores big on one's personal retribution-satisfaction scale.

Ommmmmmmmmmmm.

..are you talkin to me?

That said. Some products are seriously good and worth the moshpit:

This pastry stall is beautiful and if I had a really sweet tooth I would get very stuck here. I know someone who might, soon.

Origin Coffee's espresso is Proper. In fact, perhaps I might start a blog list of Proper and Not Proper. Below, Honey, Bread, Espresso: proper.

Mark Farah's honey is exceptional. The only other honey I have tasted that comes close is the Italian organic chestnut honey purchased (in bulk after I tasted it) from the Deathstar on East Houston Street.

Mark had four honeys and I fell head over heels for the Mountain Fynbos: deep, dark colour with a hint of bitterness in the finish. Very special. He says that his favourite is the Cecilia, made from the nectar of trees and flowers that grow in and around Cecilia Gorge, but I found it sweeter and still prefered the Mountain Fynbos. Tasting the honeys back-to-back was very interesting and really showed instantly how unique each can be. Amanda, a friend of Marijke's, recently told me how some bees in China are fed sugar water and then produce...sugar honey.

...and the bread (no pictures, sorry) from the Worcester guy is very good. Sold from a trailer parked in the main hall, his ciabatta has a firm crust and completely inviting interior, at once soft and resistant, with decent holes. At home I had some of the rye ciabatta with butter and the Fynbos honey...Mmmmamma.

Then there is a pizza guy who is on his way to the best pizza I've seen in this country until he goes too far: put away the squeeze bottle with balsamic goo. It's over. Enough. Too much. The tomato sauce, very little, and spread on a wafer thin crust, followed by prosciutto, Parmesan and rocket leaves. Is proper. STOP there. No avocado. No squeeze bottle. No creamy stuff. Genius is knowing when to stop.

The little stall at the entrance that houses what is left of the old Salt River Market is lovely and sells seasonal fresh produce and then some interesting homemade chutneys and hot relishes with a Cape Malay flavour. And fresh curry leaves. And the lady next door, misleadingly blonde and Anglo, whose name I should have asked, who makes samosas...very proper and delicious and spicy enough. The samosas, I mean.

More pictures next time. I'll sharpen my flip flops and redden my nails for battle with the Porsche lady. Also to do next time: rent a glass and go wine tasting at various stalls. Prosecco for breakfast is my idea of a good start to a day.

* Bunfight. Online dictionaries are unsatisfactory. South Africans do not use it, to my knowledge, to refer to a grand occasion. We use it to refer to a chaotic occasion; an occasion for which fortitude is required. A free-for-all. Feel free to contribute better definitions...

Neighbourhood Goods Market
Old Biscuit Mill
373 - 375 Albert Road
Woodstock, Cape Town
South Africa

Cecilia Ravine

Another day, another walk, this time up the eastern flank of Table Mountain, in a loop dipping into two kloofs, Cecilia Ravine and Rooikatkloof, known collectively and simply to many people as "Cecilia"...

We didn't see half as much as we did on Silvermine, but it was good to visit an old haunt. Disa Falls, empty as it is of disas (which can be found on top of the Table at the Aqueduct), is still quietly beautiful - green, dripping with constant, clear, clean water.






Marijke and Micky took the lead while I lagged behind as usual, the corgis surging helpfully at my feet, Ben catching his breath and being patient while I took pictures.

Steep walk down to the waterfall with its tall ferns, emerald moss and fallen tree, new since I'd been there last.

Fern Buttress wrapped in cloud with Devil's Peak beyond.

Thanks, Marijke...

Cecilia crassulas and friends

Not roses. Locals.

Below, the twining, parasitic Dodder, Cuscuta nitida. I had never noticed its berries until Marijke asked me to photograph it.



Easy-peasy: Pelargonium cucullatum, the first pelargonium I learned to identify in the Cape.

Hm. Any ideas? Crassula...? Marijke spotted this tiny one beside the path just after Rooikatkloof.

Crassula coccinea, lit up from within, it seems; pollinated, she told me, by the Cape Monarch butterfly, attracted only to red flowers.

Crassula whatus? Scented at night but not when we passed at about 6pm.

Chart Farm

There's this prime real estate in Constantia where one can pick one's own roses. They cost R3/stem. I'm not sure - no: I have no idea - when the roses were planted. They seem stuck in the early 80's. Kind of neon when they aren't pastel. My two unfavourite colour-qualities. 

But! There are some redeeming rows: this is Rosa 'Janine Heroldt' (a popular, warbly Afrikaans singer in her day [Edited 2008 : as Guy has pointed out in the comments, Sonja Heroldt was the singer. So who was Janine Heroldt? Edited: 2012: see comments!], an appealing saturated apricot; Marijke pointed out 'Double Delight', a cream and magenta soft-serve number with a strong, delicious, lemony scent; and a very prickly lady, 'Elina', saucer-sized, and white with ideas about being pale yellow.

'Elina'

Rosa 'Marie' -  good for cutting, rather leggy, holds its scent, very thorny, so should be handled with gloves, must be fed well. 

Rosa 'Marijke'- long stems, excellent cut flower, responds poorly to over-feeding but is partial to liquid fertilizer, lasts very well in the vase, does not like to be crowded and is best planted with a carefully chosen companion.

Rose-picking tip: put straight into a bucket of water as each stem is cut at an angle from the shrub. At home immerse stems in 1-2 inches boiling water for ten minutes before putting them in their vase.

Bokramstrand

The corgis, the labrador and the picnic were packed...


Ben: Can we please leave already?

30 minutes later...

Ben and the corgis exercised like mad in the freezing water: Ben retrieving kelp, the corgis herding him. It was Maggie's first time swimming. The current pulled her backwards even though she was paddling forwards...

So she retreated to recover from the shock of being swept away...

While Ben kept hunting for his kelp

...where manly Ted soon joined him after a rest.

But Maggie can't keep her nose out of other peoples' business for long.




Action dogs:

Red Hill Old Year's Night

Marijke invited me to spend New Year's Eve (Oujaarsaand - Old Year's Night - in Afrikaans) with friends at their country place on Red Hill above Simonstown. Soon after arriving four us and two children took a walk to the reservoir.

Where the ladies promptly stripped naked and walked into the water. I wasn't quite psyched up enough for this so spent my time on a rock feeling vaguely voyeuristic.

The trek back through hipheight fynbos

...and the last sunset of 2007

Lunch Under the Tree

When we moved to Cape Town the plane tree planted at random on the lawn was a sapling that I could bend in half. Now I can't wrap arms around it. Two of me could. This week Clan Collins, Alistair, Katrine, Kerrie and Claire, and Katrine's mom - all on holiday from London and Ireland - joined us and Marijke for lunch under its cool branches on a meltingly hot day. Everyone wore white. We didn't mean to. When I was an elderly teenager I once babysat for Kerrie and Claire for a week, getting them up for school, boiling them eggs for breakfast, driving them to school. I can hardly believe that I or they survived the expwrience. They were very well behaved.  One of my brothers nicknamed them The Insects when they were very small. They were that spindly and reticent They are spindly no more - both very beautiful women.
KC Sauvignon blanc poured continuously, along with huge jugs of lime and mint water.
...the best gazpacho ever.
Beef fillet with ginger and cucumber. Good genes: Katrine, turning 60 next, er, this year); Pa, turning 77...this year. Jeepers. Katrine's mom, Ann - 80-something?

After dessert, my mom's home made limoncello cooling off Sweet, lemony, slightly bitter...