The Story of Fynbos

The farm saga began one Saturday afternoon in our small Observatory house. It was a warm lazy day and Johan and I were sitting in bed surrounded by newspapers. The phone rang. It was the excited voice of our friend Jinx. “Guess what?” she exclaimed, ”Shilo has gotten a scholarship to the architectural school in…

The morning of the 27th June dawned bright and early. It was a glorious day with glistening sunshine and cerulean blue skies. The pantechnicon arrived in park Villa Street, Observatory, at nine am, and by midday had loaded the possessions we had spent two weeks packing. This included amongst other things the giant elephant Johan…

Our first few months on the farm saw us excited and overwhelmed. It took quite a while for us to gather ourselves. Rubbish Our initial activity was to attend to the rubbish on the farm, and to this end we bought a bakkie – a Toyota diesel – and began carting rubbish to the Malmesbury…

We were pretty clueless that first harvest. We had close to thirty hectares of grapes – Chenin, Pinotage, Columbard, and Chardonnay – which we somehow had to get from our vines to the Swartland Co-op. Following the advice of our neighbours, we organized to pick up a group of harvesters from the `coloured’ township of…

It took us at least two years to become fully accustomed to living on the farm. And we were very busy. Johan was still doing some teaching at UWC, and I spent two days a week in Cape Town seeing clients and teaching. The rest of the time, we attended to the myriad of things…

Winemaking We made our first wine in two thousand and four with friends and much hilarity. We stamped the grapes in plastic buckets on the farmhouse stoep, and then transferred the buckets to a barrel, which after standing a year, produced surprisingly nice wine. The following year we insulated and kitted out a single garage…

The big fire of two thousand and eleven ravaged the Paardeberg for five days and five nights. It was reputed to have started on the north side of the mountain, but with twenty-five years of growth just waiting for fire, it quickly spread and consumed 75 percent of mountain vegetation before it was done. Everyone…

In 2013, I received a call from a Mrs. de Waal with an unusual request. She told me that she was the daughter–in-law of old man de Waal who had grown up on our farm. He was turning eighty, and the family thought it would be a treat for him to visit the farm. We…

In keeping with my dream of having animals on the farm, I started the farmyard with assorted ducks, geese, and chickens. These lived in the big hoenderhok, which eventually became our Pavilion. I must say we enjoyed this noisy unruly brood, and were especially happy to have fresh, daily eggs with bright yellow yolks. Next…

Luckily for me, Johan is not only a very good cook, but he also loves to cook. This is also lucky for everyone else, as I am truly lousy at it. For many years, where our bookings have included meals, Johan has made the food, while I have done service preparation and front of house.…

Staff at Fynbos have always played an important role in the running of the farm. We employ six or seven permanent farm workers (three or four men and three women), as well as an office manager. The women take care of laundry and cleaning, setting up the guest houses, and providing staff at our events.…

In the early years, once our staff was no longer drawn from local workers, we decided to put energy into the community of Joubertskloof in another way. The initial idea was to set up some kind of community development group and to this end, in 2008, I contacted Welgemeend Primêr, the local primary school. There,…

. . . in the air One day early in 2008, when Johan and I were drinking coffee in a Malmesbury coffee shop, he came upon an announcement of interest in the local newspaper. There was a presentation to be held at the Malmesbury library of a prospective aviation development to be built very close…

The years from two thousand and fourteen to two thousand and twenty-two were full of wonderful events, exciting processes and more expansion. The time has flown. Four New Spaces In this period we built two new houses, Caracal a one bedroomed cottage and Black Eagle, a four bedroomed house. We also renovated an old workers…