Swing Dancing Festival
Fynbos was in festive mood this weekend when 72 swing dancers came from all over the world to the farm for a swing dancing festival. They danced their hearts out, had a fabulous Saturday night party with a live jazz band and ate delicious meals from Lise Marie’s kitchen. Happily they are back in March…
Read More8. Snakes
Like many other city dwellers we arrived at the farm with what can only be described as a pathological fear of snakes. They were for us the archetypal embodiment of terror and evil, and we lived in heightened apprehension that we would encounter one in the garden, or worse, in the house. And quite soon…
Read MoreStaff Changes at Fynbos
Last year Virginia Nyamayenedenga, (featured in this post), left the farm. Replacement staff are Monet Goliath, Rowena Goliath and Vinnie Swarts. Monet and Rowena come from near us in Joubertskloof and Vinnie comes from Atlantis.
Read MoreThree Years of Workshops
We last posted workshops in 2019, and since then have had all kinds of workshops and events, including weekends of swing dancing, yoga, meditation and plant medicine, as well as numerous university workshops. Most recently we have had two workshops from Stellenbosch University, the first a SRC retreat and the second a workshop of post…
Read MorePriscilla Chigwedere and Charles Gondo
A discussion of `Our People’ would be incomplete without talking about Priscilla and Charlie. A husband and wife team, they have worked for us for over ten years, and their contribution is of such value, that we would not manage the farm without them. Charlie runs the men’s staff contingent and manages vineyard work, winemaking,…
Read More7. The Wild Land
The Paardeberg, some four thousand hectares in size, is a granite mountain range which is host to a unique biodiversity of flora and fauna. Botanically the Paardeberg is part of the smallest and richest plant kingdom on the planet, known as the Cape Floristic Region. Sadly, it is increasingly threatened, with close on two hundred…
Read More6. 2004 – 2012 Winemaking, Hospitality and the Nature reserve
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…
Read More5. The Early Years
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…
Read More4. The First Harvest
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…
Read More3. The First Year
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…
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