Thursday’s launch of the Dik Delta veld food garden and the Fyndraai Heritage Menu was a sequence of delightful events, starting with amusing stories about the early days of the project and ending with the fruits of the garden paired with some of Solms-Delta’s best wines.
The stories came thick and fast: Our plant fundi (and herd finder) Hein Joubert was told to shove his cattle up his proverbial arse by a farmer who got sick of his insistence on a verified (not anecdotal) blood line; the official matriarch at the event, food scientist and author Renata Coetzee said she would not follow Khoe tradition literally and ride an ox carrying burning coals to light the ceremonial fire, but lit the fire anyway – (we heard later that the ox crossed the bridge to inspect the site of the fire once we had all left. I wonder why?); and the Kweek Kraal farm children from Clanwilliam stole our hearts with their wonderful imitations of scratching baboons, wiley courting couples and fighting boys, in their Riel dances. The Riel dance, still performed around the fire by modern Khoe-khoen to inform and entertain each other, is a truly inspiring art form. These children had learned all the moves by watching their parents, and they had learned well. Their performance was riveting.
While we gathered for lunch and sipped bubbly Cape Jazz Shiraz, I met Elize Fortuin and Elize Anthony from the Afrikaans Taal en Kultuur Vereeniging. They have been in discussions with the farm to start a Riel group here. How lucky can you get?
I always enjoy Shaun Schoeman’s cooking and delight in the visual appeal of his dishes. He and Renata had come up with a menu that reflected the three main food cultures that once existed on this farm – the Khoe-khoen whose pantry was the veld and the sea; the Europeans (Dutch, French and German) who planted vineyards and orchards here; and the Malaysian and Madagascan slaves who worked in them. With each course we were given a taste of each food culture while magician and winemaker Hilko Hegewisch introduced the wines we were drinking. Shaun once told me how challenging it was to adapt the veld flavours to city palates, but the results are an unqualified success. His dishes are beguiling, unusual and a deep pleasure. His Khoe-khoen vegetable and goat’s cheese bake was a highlight with everyone, and we were all pleased to know that it is also available on the main Fyndraai menu.
I sat across the table from Joanne Gibson who won the first wine-writer’s award, based on an essay she wrote about a rather ordinary 1966 cabernet that was discovered, once it had matured a bit, by James Molesworth of the Wine Spectator in the United States, who gave it 95 points and declared it a masterpiece. Unfortunately for the wine maker it had been sold as a job lot to the bottlers who stuck their label onto it and got all the credit!
That’s another nice thing about these events at the farm, you get to chat to journalists who have the most fantastic collection of stories to draw on while you wine and dine like royalty.
View some photographs from the launch on our Facebook page. View the new Heritage Menu click here.
Patty Kolbe (A Solms-Delta employee who works with Richard Astor)
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