Summer 2018|2019

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The slow life is the good life

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Long Live Our Entrepreneurs!
Back in 2013, when we hit “send” on the last page of Platteland #1 to forward it to the printers, our small team looked at one another, overawed, and wondered out loud: How will we manage to gather enough stories to fill a magazine every three months
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Chitchat
Winning letter Thank you very much for Platteland – I enjoy every season’s issue full of advice and tips. On page 67 in your article “Herbal healers of the Karoo” (Platteland #20, Spring 2018), Antoinette Pienaar refers to the nest of a cisticola, bu
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Lekker Now And Later!
Nothing grows in the sandy soil of Port Nolloth (read our story on page 72), says Annetjie Nell from Bloemfontein, who own a house in this Northern Cape coastal town and plans to move there one of these days. But one can’t survive on bread and meat a
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News & diary
Here’s something you can hit back with when you next find yourself at the same table as an Afro-pessimist: have you ever heard of the Great Green Wall? It’s a massive project with the goal to plant a 16km-wide, 8 000km-long strip of indigenous trees
go: Platteland5 min readPopular Culture & Media Studies
The Dark Side Of The Digital Age
Are you tired of being phubbed? “Phubbing” is the act of snubbing someone you’re talking to in order to respond to a message on your cellphone or descending into a social-media black hole. Most of us are guilty of doing it and all of us have been phu
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Skukuza Noah’s park
It’s early evening in Skukuza on a weekday in early spring, yet it’s sweltering. The aroma of braai-vleis permeates the sultry air but it’s utterly quiet in Bosbok Street. And then the sounds of the night begin: cicadas chirp, a bushbaby scampers acr
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In A Nutshell
Distance from the big city? Hazyview, the nearest town, is 55km away but, because the speed limit in the park is 50km/h, it takes 60 to 90 minutes to get there. White River is 100km away and Nelspruit 120km. Facilities There is a staff shop in the vi
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Meet The People
Game ranger Kally has lived and worked in the Kruger National Park for 23 years – half of his life. His father also works here – he’s been a driver since the Fifties – and Kally grew up in neighbouring towns. As a field guide and game ranger in the a
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Eat, Drink, Enjoy
The nine-hole golf course was initially established as a recreational facility for the Skukuza personnel, but it is now open to park visitors, too. The clubhouse, which overlooks Lake Panic, has a restaurant and one of the most popular bars in the vi
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The Adventures Of Hendrieka IN WONDERLAND
This sovereign goddess of the senses does not live in a land far, far from here. Contrary to what fairy tales have lead us to expect, since the end of 1967 this livewire has made her home in an unremarkable street, behind an unremarkable wall, in an
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Upside-down Pear-and-cardamom Cake
Hendrieka treated Platteland to this delectable cake, which is featured in Hendrieka’s Favourite Recipes. Serves 6-8 Preparation time 30 minutes Baking time 25-30 minutes • 4 firm, ripe pears (Bosch or Forelle)• 1¼ cup (310ml) sugar• 150g butter• 8 w
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Travel Back In Time
Matjiesfontein, a tiny railway town between Touws River and Laingsburg in the Karoo, is the only settlement in South Africa that has been declared a national monutment in its entirety. And for good reason: this place is beautifully preserved as a rem
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Die Bloubakkie Has No Brakes!
When last did you find a snail in a bunch of fresh spinach? It’s quite something to behold: the slow yet determined grip-and-glide, grip-and-glide, tentacles-in-the air march deep into the folds of the green leaves. Behind the shell there’s the unmis
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Kleinmond’s Mixologist
Christo Bezuidenhout had a sticky upbringing. Literally. Because although his father’s real job was with the railways, he always had a number of beehives on farms around Oudtshoorn. Today, Christo doesn’t keep his own bees but he does live out his lo
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What Is Christo’s Secret?
• The face and the spirit Christo believes it’s important to entertain customers while you are introducing your product to them. Marni nods. “I don’t know anyone who loves people more, who always remains positive and who gets along with just about an
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Sparkling Stones, Beautiful Flowers & Sheep
The far northwest of the Northern Cape is where three distinct regions converge: Namaqualand, Bushmanland and the West Coast. Each region has its particular characteristics, landscape, people and stories. And each is knows for a special “talent”: Nam
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Botswana Magic
The tour will be led by an experienced conservationist and adventure guide who’ll be in radio contact with you on the road. DAY 1 We meet in Letlhakane and refuel before heading to the Makgadikgadi Pans to spend our first night on Kubu Island. DAY 2
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New Insights Step By Step
Des’s Walk is a private labyrinth on a farm outside Somerset West that Vivien Routledge built 11 years ago to deal with the death of someone close to her. “In the beginning I sometimes walked it simply to be ‘with him’, and on the first anniversary o
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Three Worth A Visit
Where? Rotary Youth Camp, Glencairn, Western Cape Material Indigenous fynbos, wooden bridges and earth pathways The story This labyrinth on the grounds of the Rotary Club is so large that, if you weren’t told about it, you won’t necessarily even know
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Build Your Own Labyrinth
Opinions differ over the requirements for building a labyrinth. Some maintain that, in order to find the ideal place, you should use copper dowsing rods that indicate where the earth’s energy lines run, much like water divining. And others believe an
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A Singular Garden
STAR NURSERY STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY BOTANICAL GARDEN Within only two hours of entering the gate of the oldest university garden in South Africa, you will have experienced a botanical cosmos – fynbos, desert plants, the tropics, a wetland, African bo
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Make A Christmas Gift From Your Herb Garden
• a glass bottle with a cork stopper (we used an empty gin bottle)• 2 cups packed with basil leaves• 1 cup olive oil• coarse salt• 1 garlic clove 1 Sterilise the glass bottle and stopper: Wash them in hot soapy water, rinse and dry them. Then immerse
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Forage In The Insta Forest
What made you start this Instagram account? Over weekends, I’m mostly in the forest looking for mushrooms, then I end up walking into a friend’s kitchen with a full basket and we cook something interesting. I share my hobbies on Instagram: my adventu
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The Slow Demise Of Poison
Chemical giant Monsanto was recently fined $289 million (more than R4 billion) after the revelation that its Roundup weedkiller is carcinogenic. What’s more, they neglected to inform consumers about this risk, although they were aware of it. Dewayne
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View Emily Dickinson’s Plant Collection!
Many works by beloved US poet Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) were inspired by nature – think of poems such as “Nature, the gentlest mother” and “‘Nature’ is what we see”. Her love of plants started very early: as a 14-year-old schoolgirl, Emily collecte
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Plant A Bee Buffet
There’s no better soundtrack for summer than the buzzing of bees as they dart from one flower to the next on their quest for nectar and pollen and – probably unwittingly – help to pollinate at least a third of the fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts and se
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They’ve Got It Waxed!
Seven years ago, before Facebook surpassed word-of-mouth as an effective marketing tool, Lulu Edy-Roderick had to help inform the public about an introductory beekeeping workshop presented at Durban Botanic Gardens, where she works as an administrati
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Lulu’s Top 6 Power Plants
1 CENTELLA ASIATICA is known as pennywort, bubbles or little pig’sears, and elsewhere in the world it’s mostly called gotu kola. It makes skin appear firmer and more youthful because it promotes collagen production, microcirculation and repair. Resea
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The Lulubee Product Range
lulubee.co.za INGREDIENTS Durable organic cotton; unbleached local beeswax with antibacterial properties; slash pine resin (Pinus elliottii, a Category 2 invasive species in South Africa), which is naturally sticky and makes the wrap mouldable; and a
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The Brundyns Join The Bee Farming Brigade
On 29 December 2017, slap bang in the middle of his family’s annual summer holiday, Marius Brundyn turned on his computer. The stream of emails that downloaded contained one that sent shivers down his spine: it was from the international agricultural
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How Do You Tell Whether Honey Is Pure?
People who produce fake (and diluted) honey are getting more wily, which means laboratory tests are really the only way to be 100% sure you haven’t bought “funny honey”. The best option is to set up your own beehive or to buy your honey from a small-
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Grow Your Own Green Beans
Growing your own green beans affords you the wonderful luxury of harvesting them young when they are still sweet and tender. This is particularly handy when you’re trying to get youngsters to eat more fresh vegetables or when trying to convince a gre
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Bean There, Done That?
The old folks used to call green beans string beans. It’s clear why, especially when you conjure up a memory of your mom in her kitchen, bowed over the large plastic bowl, with the sharp little knife in her hand… These days, supermarkets sell elegant
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A Rainbow Of Rest
Have you had it up to here with political antics and crime? Are you searching desperately for proof that the rainbow nation has life in it yet? Then you need to find your way to Fourways Farmers Market on a Sunday, where you’ll encounter just about e
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Orient Express
These bites are great as starters or as a tapa. There’s no cooking involved, so you can prepare them the day before your gathering. Serves 6 Preparation time 20 minutes • 100g pine nuts• 300g soft goat’s-milk cheese (chevin)• zest and juice of 2 lemo
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Charles And The Window Kids
Nearly 45 years ago, at an open-air concert in Los Angeles, Neil Diamond welcomed not only the 5 870 fans in the audience but also the “tree people”. He was referring to the pirate viewers who’d climbed the trees surrounding the Greek amphitheatre an
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Cliffhangers
Gert Smitskloof, Baviaanskloof As an explorer and admirer of nature I’m privileged to be a regular visitor to the Baviaanskloof, one of my favourite places on earth. The one outlook is as magnificent as the other here, yet at the same time it’s one o

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