UNFORTUNATELY, THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO LACK OF SUPPORT. WE WILL ARRANGE ANOTHER VISIT AT A LATER STAGE.

The Slow Food movement in Cape Town is delighted to enjoy a longstanding relationship with and appreciation for Buffalo Ridge and its award-winning cheeses. They are the only producer of buffalo milk cheeses in South Africa, and their buffalo mozzarella, yoghurt and fromage blanc can be found at select delis and stores around Cape Town.

Come with Slow Food Mother City to see where the cheese is made, meet the buffalo, and hear the farm’s story from farmer and cheese maker Wayne Rademeyer.

Included in your admin fee is a Buffalo Ridge sampler goodie bag, consisting of a mozzarella, fromage blanc and yoghurt – all at wholesale price. Additional cheese can be purchased on the day, with cash (no credit card facilities available).

IN A NUTSHELL:

Buffalo Ridge Farm, off the R44, 11km north of Wellington

Sunday, 30^th October at 10h30 for 11h00

Members price: R85.00

Guests price: R95.00

Children under 12: free of charge (but receive no goodie bag)

The visit should take 1 ½-2 hours. We recommend you book a table for lunch at one of Wellington’s charming restaurants.

Please note that we are test-driving our new online payment system. Please book and pay for your place through this booking system, and not through email/EFT. You should receive an email confirming your booking within one day. Please email us if you do not receive this! Thank you for your patience as we attempt to make our booking system easier for our volunteer committee, and our members.

Directions and further details will be emailed to you in the week before the event.

Bookings:

Please click on the relevant item below to add it to your cart. If you are a member, but plan to bring a guest, please click once on ‘Members’ and once on ‘Guests’.  To check out/proceed with your order and payment, click on the check out button in your shopping cart in the top right hand corner of this page.

To increase the number of tickets you wish to purchase, click on ‘view cart‘ in the top right hand corner of this page, and increase or decrease the number of tickets, before clicking on the checkout button to process your booking and payment. If you do not wish to change the number of tickets you are purchasing, simply press the checkout button to be taken straight to payment options.

It was a perfect, sunny day, and we all had a wonderful time.  We’ve posted new photos in our gallery – have a look!

[View with PicLens]

12►

And, the following are excerpts taken from two bloggers who came along with us and wrote about their experiences:

Food and the Fabulous – www.foodandthefabulous.com

A few Sundays ago, on the 28th of August, we headed off to Paternoster, a sleepy fishing village on the Cape West Coast just under two hours outside Cape Town to join Slow Food Mother City on a food forage in the local nature reserve in TietiesBaai (yes, you read the name correctly.)

What is Food Foraging?

Searching for wild plants, indigenous to an area for consumption, is as old as mankind. In the last decade, there has been a conscious reactivation of interest in foraging from dedicated foargers, freegans, chefs and curious individuals (like myself).

The closest I’ve come to foraging (apart from hopping from one stall holder to the next at some of the world’s loveliest farmer’s markets) is picking herbs and chilies from our garden. Though there were the times we picked mulberries and unripe guavas (worst tummy ache known to man) along the roadside walking home from school….

Cape Columbine Nature Reserve

Rupert, a botanist and friend of Kobus van der Merwe (Chef at Oep ve Koep, a family run business) guided us, a group of 20 through a small section of the Cape Columbine Nature Reserve, mere minutes out of the village. The reserve is unusual in that it is flanked by coastline, dotted with coves and covered in fynbos, succulents and wild flowers in season…

Oep Ve Koep

Kobus looks much younger than I expected and runs through the menu in his gentle, soft spoken manner, his eyes beaming as he brings out plates of food starkly in contrast with the modest surroundings. We start with bokkum (salted, dried fish) butter and a pickled waterblommetjie followed by a calamari bobotie (egg custard savoury crustless pie) with soutslaai. The main of sandveld potato dumplings, dune spinach, veldkool, soy butter, porcini and nasturtium is my favourite dish of the lunch.

Read more, and view Ishay’s fantastic photos here.

Cape Town By Mouth - www.capetownbymouth.com

Veldkos Ramble and Lunch at Oep ve Koep

Last weekend was just perfect. Sunshine, culinary treats and a trip to Paternoster, a foodie fishing village on the west coast. If you have read some of my blogposts you may already know that I love to forage (read about mushrooms here). Foraging is something that we grow up doing in Finland and it has even become somewhat of a trend spearheaded by Rene Redzepi from Noma in Copenhagen. I have hardly been able to contain myself since I first heard about Slowfood’s Veldkos ramble. The Cape Floral Kingdom is the smallest yet richest in the world and I have been dying to learn about local wild food.

20 slowfoodies pitched up at 11am on Sunday morning at Oep ve Koep in Paternoster and headed out to the veld with the enthusiastic, knowledgeable and very entertaining Rupert from Cape Nature.

We learned to identify sout slaai and veldkool (salty salad and field cabbage) as well as a prickly relative of asparagus that I can’t remember the name of (my brain switches off when plants are not highly tasty). Rupert also helped me identify sorrel. I have been happily eating it in Finland before (we call it fox bread) and some wild food enthusiasts use it in salads. Sorrel has crept into my salad pots uninvited in Cape Town and I have ignored it unsure of its edibility. I shall make sure it feels welcome from now on.

…

Lunch at Oep ve koep was an absolute treat. Kobus van de Merwe uses a lot of wild herbs and plants in his cooking. We started with bokkom butter and bread and a lightly pickled waterblommetjie. So pleased to see waterblommetjies outside of stews. These treats were followed by calamari bobotie, which was complemented by seaweed. Our palates were cleansed with pickled onion and salvia (sage related herb) soup poured from an enamel teapot. The main course was a highlight: potato dumplings with field cabbage and some dune spinach. Oep ve Koep is well worth a visit. Kobuses beautiful yet down to earth cooking is served in a cozy courtyard with missmatched tables and rambling herb bushes. His Sardines on Toast blog will have you salivating and planning a trip to Paternoster.

Read more, and view Marianna’s lovely photos here.

Dawn and Roger Jorgensen hand make a range of high quality spirits with love and passion, including brandy, vodka, limoncello and absinthe. By sourcing the finest quality raw materials, and using herbs that they grow in their own garden, they ensure a product that is far superior to what we buy in the shops. We will be given a tour of the distillery with an explanation of the process involved in creating the various spirits as well as a presentation of the herbs that are used.

We will finish our visit with a tasting of their spirits on the back porch of their home, overlooking the vineyards. Their products will also be available for purchase.

We can only accommodate 20 people at this event, with bookings on a first-come basis and limited to one guest per member. **UPDATE: 10/02/2011 there are only 2 spaces left**

Those who are keen are welcome to join us for lunch afterwards at the Stone Kitchen at Dunstone Estate nearby. Their casual café menu showcases produce from the Wellington valley. Please book your own table on 021-864-2451.

Other attractions in the area include the beautiful gardens at Klein Optenhorst, and wine tasting at Nabygelegen.

Event details
Date: 12th February 2011
Time: 11:30am
Venue: Jorgensen’s Distillery, Wellington (directions will be sent to attendees)
Cost: R20 administrative fee, payable on the day

Please click here to confirm your attendance.

The original event email is available for view here:

http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=0be4b0a1f897bd7c67805a3cd&id=ba1a927dc0

This is a brief notice to let Slow Food members and enthusiasts know that a few of us will be visiting the Paul Cluver ‘Garden of Elgin’ tomorrow morning (Tuesday 11 January 2011), and we invite anyone interested to come along.

The Garden of Elgin is a specialty vegetable and herb garden (and orchard) created by Dr Cluver and Norwegian celebrity chef, Andreas Viestad.

We are lucky to be able to have Andreas Viestad himself show us around, and share his enthusiasm for the many heirloom varieties cultivated in the garden.

Obviously, this is very short notice – the expedition is essentially a scouting mission, rather than an official Slow Food outing (we hope to organise a more structured visit later this year).

If, however, any of you are not yet back at work, and would like to join us,  please email events@slowfoodmothercity.co.za, and we will send you further details.

Fruit-gathering and picnic at ‘bio-logic’ Paarl wine farm

Saturday 4 December, 10am – 3pm

Christmas is plum pudding time – yet the dark, rich pudding (with its restorative brandy tang) has always felt too heavy for our sunshine-filled holiday. So, instead, Slow Food Mother City will be celebrating the season in the orchards, eating the juicy fruit fresh from the trees! On Saturday 4 December, we’ll be plum-picking in Paarl, at Avondale, a wine farm run on ‘bio-logic’ principles. You will be able to take some of the fruits of your labour home with you, for eating or jamming.

Avondale tasting room and cellar

As it is the start of the holidays, this will be a family-friendly day. We’ll be welcomed with a glass of Avondale’s famous MCC (and grape juice for the kids). Avondale owner and viticulturalist, Johnathan Grieve will chat to us about plum farming and the fruit itself as well as the nature-friendly farming methods used in the orchards and vineyards (including the famous snail-eating ducks!). We’ll then spend some time picking our own plums* – but don’t eat too many! After our hard work in the orchards, we’ll be served a picnic lunch of homemade breads, cheeses, preserves, salads and festive gammon. Those who are still feeling energetic are invited to taste a selection of Avondale’s award-winning wines. Or you can just doze under the plum trees.

Avondale's ducks clear the vineyards of snails

This is a unique opportunity, not available to the general public, to learn more about this fascinating farm and take home some very special, safe and tasty produce. The Farm Manager tells us the plums are going to be particularly good this year, so book now to join us!

* Each attendee will be able to take home a reasonable amount of plums – buying of additional plums, if available, will be negotiated on the day. Avondale wines will be available to purchase at cellar-door prices.

About Avondale

Avondale wines are highly regarded, with several Platter four-star wines among them. And they use no technological tricks to achieve this: “We’ve trusted the wisdom of nature to guide us. We use cover crops instead of fertiliser to restore the balance of the soil. We never use artificial sprays to control pests – ducks and wasps do that job for us.”

This philosophy extends to the Avondale cellars:

>     Wild yeast fermentation is allowed in most instances for all wines.

>       All wines are low in sulphur – less than half the norm.

>       No enzymes or any other regulators, catalysing agents, or softeners are used to prepare Avondale wines.

>        No synthetic cleaning materials are used in the cellar.

Details

Date: Saturday 4 December 2010

Time: 10am for the plum-picking (Lunch will be served at approximately 1pm).

Place: Avondale Wine Estate in Paarl (For more details, visit: www.avondalewine.co.za).

Price: R100 for members, R120 for guests*, and R60 for kids 4-12 years.

Parents are wholly responsible for their own children during the outing.

*Due to demand at recent events, we will initially limit places to one adult guest per member (all members may bring their children). If there are still places available after one week, we will give you the option of bringing more guests with you.

Bookings:

Given the popularity of this outing, we suggest you book and pay quickly. We have limited space! Click here to book.

First come, first served (members have gotten advance warning). If you have not made the deposit within four days of booking, and there are others waiting, we will make your space/s available to the next person in line. Please book by 20 November 2010.

African Relish (in the Karoo town of Prince Albert) is hosting a weekend course with Oded Schwartz, the master of preserving.  We visited Oded’s Kitchen back in April, and learnt the basics, but this course will give budding preservers out there quite a bit more detail!

It’s called ‘The Art of Preserving’ and runs from 22 – 24 October 2010.

Details:

“Preserving abundance is a prudent pastime so make hay while the sun shines, as the cliché goes. The art of preserving goes far beyond the humble jar of apricot jam. The world of preserving opens up an Aladdin’s Cave of treasures to fill up your pantry for the lean months, so come and learn how simple it is to master this craft. Oded Schwartz is the wizard who will guide us through the steps to bottled utopia”

Group bookings receive discounted rates. For more info, visit AfricanRelish.com.

As Slow Fooders we generally like to support the smaller producers who are more hands on and bring a little magic to their product which is often missing from the mass produced version. While these ‘artisanal’ products often end up costing more, they are definitely worth it. They usually taste better and are better for you.

In South Africa this principle applies when it comes to beer. Most of our beer is produced by SAB and while it is natural and without additives, it is made in very large quantities and designed to suit the palate of a wide audience. Artisanal beers from micro breweries on the other hand are produced in small quantities and each one has an individual personality and character.

The We love Real Beer initiative (a collaboration between Jack Black Beer and Collective São Gabriel) is organising a Craft Beer Festival on 23rd September (2010) at the Neighbourgoods Market at the Old Biscuit Mill in Salt River, Cape Town. This will be a fantastic opportunity for beer lovers and non beer lovers alike to experience a large selection of the craft beers which are being produced in South Africa. Non beer lovers will be pleasantly surprised to learn that craft beer doesn’t taste like the mass produced stuff we are used to, but has a much fuller and more interesting taste.

One of our Slow Food Mother City committee members, Dax Villanueva, will be a judge at the festival and we hope to see you there too.

Further details available on the website: www.weloverealbeer.com

Saturday 11 September, 2010

On Saturday 11th September our sister convivium, Slow Food Cape Town, will be visiting Solms Delta wine estate outside Franschhoek to tour their culinary veldkos (indigenous food) garden project. They have kindly invited us to come along. You can view their invitation here.

Now, here’s the complicated part.

They have also arranged a delicious two-course lunch at Fyndraai, the Solms Delta restaurant, as part of the outing. However, as we try to offer affordable events, we have arranged with them so that members can choose to either attend both the veldkos garden tour and the restaurant meal for R230 for members and R250 for guests, OR they can attend only the vegetable garden tour for R40.

If you wish to attend both the vegetable garden tour AND the restaurant meal, please book through Slow Food Cape Town, by emailing Adrian at: adrad@mweb.co.za. Please note booking closes on Monday 6 September.

If you wish only to attend the vegetable garden tour and then make your own plans for lunch, please book through Slow Food Mother City, by filling in our online booking form.

Members who choose not to attend the lunch at Fyndraai restaurant are welcome to make their own plans for lunch in the area. The Slow Food Mother City committee will be picnicking and viewing the plum blossoms at a neighbouring private farm, and you are also welcome to join us on our picnic for no extra cost (aside from your own food and drink!).

If you are confused or just wish to ask a question, please contact Kate at kate@slowfoodmothercity.co.za.