Solms Delta

Crush! Online: Gemoedsrus 2009

Solms-Delta — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:39:13 +0000

Click here to see Crush! Online and click through to page 15 Michael’s Wine Finds scroll into A Stunning local drop - to read his review on Gemoedsrus 2009. If you haven’t yet subscribed to your free issue of Crush! Online do so – it’s a truly delicious and inspiring read!

Smart Stone Age Artifact at The Museum de Caab

Solms-Delta — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:21:08 +0000

Visitors to the Museum de Caab at Solms-Delta usually start their exploration of the exhibits at the Stone Age implements display. These stone implements might seem a long way away from the slave history or the history of the Huguenots, but behind the seemingly crude lumps of stone lies an important lesson. Between 195 000 and 123 000 years ago Homo sapiens seemed doomed to extinction. Extreme cold and dry conditions prevailed across the globe, and only a handful of survivors managed to eke out an existence along the Cape coast southwards from the present Mossel Bay. As weather conditions over the millennia improved they moved inland again and dispersed over Southern Africa. But this original band of survivors was so small that everyone alive today is descended from them.
They harvested seafood from the rocks when the tide was low and they dug out geophytes from the earth. The seafood was rich in protein and could be made more palatable through cooking. The geophytes contained high amounts of carbohydrates and could be stored for long periods of time. Today we know the geophytes as the bulbs and corms of the Cape Floral Region that are low in fibre and highly nutritious. Besides, growing below ground, they were safe from predators other than smart Homo sapiens. These are the same herbs and bulbs that grow today in the Dik Delta Culinary Gardens.
The use of fire had interesting side-effects. Firstly, heat caused the rocks from which implements were made to scale off into thin slivers that could be attached to wooden handles for greater efficiency. And secondly, cooking made any basic foods much more easily digestible so that brains received far more nutrition than before. (Yes, fresh, uncooked food required a lot more energy to digest!)
Excavations on Solms-Delta started in 2005 when archaeologists uncovered the ruins of what is believed to be the original farm dwelling from 1690. This building started as a single room with a cobble floor and was extended to an L-shaped house with four rooms. Less than a metre from this ruin, trenches uncovered a wealth of small stone tools, together with the waste material from knapping them. This shows us that hunter-gatherers used this site some 6 000 years before the farm was granted to the first European settlers.
Given that prehistory, the Stone Age people that moved round Solms-Delta were a smart lot. And we are all related to them. What does that make us? I say it makes us Hiervandaan!
Thanks to Tracey Randle and to Scientific American, August 2010 “When the Sea Saved Humanity.” By Curtis W. Marean.

By John van Zyl

Ostriches added to Solms-Delta Ark

Solms-Delta — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:16:44 +0000

First there was old Noah in his Ark, preserving all the living creatures, great and small, against extinction through the Great Flood. Then there was Mark (Solms), with his Dik Delta heritage space, preserving all the ancestral creatures and traditional herbs of the Khoe and San cultures. This time against the great flood of Forgetting associated with the ‘arrogance of the present’ in the the Now Age of the Blackberry, the e-Book and the I-pod.
First to arrive in this modern version of the Ark was the herd of fat-tailed sheep, more goat than sheep and impossible to catch, that provided meat and wool and skins to the Khoe. Then came the herd of Sanga cattle, beloved by the Khoe nomadic herders, with their distinctive hide patterns and sweeping horns, not only as providers of nourishment but also as symbols of wealth. Now, with the arrival of two young ostriches, it is the turn of the heritage of the San to be honoured. In one of the San languages the male ostrich is called !amib and the female is called !amis. (“The symbol in front of the word sounds like tasting something with your tongue against your palate. The rest of the word is sounded as in Afrikaans,” says guardian of Khoe customs, Jenny Arrison.) The ostrich played an important role in the lives of the hunter-gatherers. The eggs were used as water containers and the broken shells were shaped into beads and ornaments. The meat was cured and dried and it sustained families for many weeks.
But the ostrich is perhaps best remembered from the Ostrich Dance, in which the San men and women danced round a ceremonial fire. They imitated the way that an ostrich runs, rocking from side and side, and kicking its legs wildly out in front. (Because, you see, an ostrich’s knees bend the wrong way!)
It is thought that the dance was partly sympathetic magic, giving the hunters power over the ostrich, and partly symbolically honouring the ostrich for its practical role in the lives of the hunter-gatherers.
This dance is preserved to this day in the Riel Dances of the Western Cape, in which the dancers still imitate the movements of a running ostrich. At the last Oesfees a group of colourfully dressed Riel dancers demonstrated the intricacies of this dance. Last week, the arrival of the ostriches was suitably celebrated by another group of young Riel Dancers from the Swartland, led by school principal Chester Davids.
Next time you visit Solms-Delta don’t forget to pay homage to the ostriches and to practice their San names.

Our People: Therese Willemse

Solms-Delta — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:11:05 +0000

Therese is our Museum & Tasting room Manager. Anyone who attended those magical Sunset musical concerts during the summer will remember the welcoming smile of the young lady with the green eyes that showed you to your table. Those same green eyes can be found in the Museum van de Caab Museum where she is in charge of the exhibits and the wine-tasting. She is, of course, Therese Willemse, who started work at Solms-Delta as a wine & Heritage Guide in 2006, and has been rising through the ranks through hard work and dedication for the past 4 years.
Therese, who turns 29 in October, lives in nearby Pniel, the village where freed slaves were able to own land for the first time in 1836. But she likes to say that she was born and bred in Ceres in the Kouebokkeveld, “not too far from famous rugby player, Breyton Paulse.” Obviously one of her local heroes!
When she looks back at the past she feels that Solms-Delta was her destiny, even before she knew it. ”When we moved from Ceres I was 8 years old and we came to live on this same farm, then owned by Wendy Pickstone, who currently owns the Lekkerwijn guesthouse. We first lived in the one-room house where the new clinic will be soon, and the huge coincidence is that my soon to become sister–in-law, Mercia, who is also currently a Wine and Heritage guide also used to live in that house, 3 years ago, before Solms-Delta provided her family with renovated new houses on Lubeck farm”
Before starting work at Solms-Delta, she gained her first experience of the hospitality sector by working as a waitress at the world-famous Reubens Restaurant in Franschhoek. There she developed an instinct and a love for the wine side of the business, and that attracted her to Solms-Delta.
Therese says with a big smile, “Two weeks before starting work here, I served Mark Solms in Reubens. He wanted to check me out before asking me to join the Solms-Delta team. I have never been so nervous in my life. Can you imagine such a job interview? What if I dropped a plate or poured the wine over his shirt? Luckily Fate was on my side, and I passed the test!”
The funny thing is now that I have as my email address museum@solms-delta.co.za, it has become a bit weird because my friends have started calling me “Museum” and not Therese anymore.
Therese has a 3-year old boy who attends the Klein Handjies crèche on the farm.

Franschhoek Uncorked pops out at Solms-Delta

Solms-Delta — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 08:30:14 +0000

Spring has been a little late coming to the Boland this year. The weather on the weekend of 4 September, date of the Franschhoek Uncorked Festival, started off looking threatening enough to pop the corks right back in the thousands of bottles of wine that awaited the festival-goers. So the staff at the Fyndraai restaurant stood about a bit nervously as the first musical act, the Klein Handjies mini-choir from the crèche, assembled on stage. By the time the ultra-cute choristers, all decked out in the blue and white klopse costumes, started to sing at 12.:30 a trickle of guests had started to come in. By 13:00 it was a stream, and at 13:30 Annelize, the manager of Fyndraai rallied her troops, “Get your takkies on, we’ve got a flood here!” Extra tables were set up on the lawn and a steady flow of Kaapse kos was soon issuing from chef Shaun Schoeman’s kitchen.

The music was also picking up speed. The Nick Turner Sextet provided a tuneful mix of reggae, Cape traditional music and Nick’s other original compositions. They were then joined by the Delta Soetstemme choir, who just keep getting better and better. They have been joined by several new members from Kylemore as a result of the expanded music development programme.

As the guests tucked into the food (the platter of 7 starter portions prepared with ingredients from the Dik Delta Culinary Garden was in huge demand) the performers were joined by the Delta Langbroek band. They were led by Adriaan Brand, with the participation of Les Javan, the artist-in-residence, and of Mandla Mlangeni, the new trumpet tutor.

By now the musical mood was Cape music in all its forms, traditional liedjies, gospel, and the instantly recognizable compositions of Les Javan. Every time I hear this group perform I am amazed at how professional they have become. And what a performance they provide! This is no concert put on by a bunch of amateurs, it’s a real show. And it’s a show based on the music of the Franschhoek Valley.

The afternoon was rounded off by a performance by Les Javan, singing his own songs in his inimitable way. No wonder his CD is selling so well, his songs range from those that reach into the depths of his experience to lyrical love-songs that charm “the birds from the trees” as one admirer puts it.

The final act was the Delta Valley Entertainers, consisting of the Langbroeke and the Pniel band. The many visitors that had stayed to the end agreed that the combination of local music, local food and local wine made the Solms-Delta Uncorked a real winner in the Valley.

Cape Argus Tonight: Fyndraai review

Solms-Delta — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:08:52 +0000

Click here to read a review of Fyndraai in the Cape Argus Tonight by Nettalie Viljoen.

RadioSonderGrense: Hein en Shaun - Dik Delta en Fyndraai

Solms-Delta — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 06:30:07 +0000

Fyndraai’s head Chef Shaun Schoeman and Hein Joubert, project manager of Dik Delta Fynbos Culinary Gardens and Park, chat in-studio to Martelize Brink on RSG - showing her some of the plants and herbs from the garden and they also taste some of Shaun’s veldkos - RSG Dik Delta 2010 Sept

Relax With Dax: Fyndraai review

Solms-Delta — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:58:28 +0000

Click here to read a review of Fyndraai restaurant and a wine tasting by Dax Villanueva on his blog Relax-With-Dax. Or click here to read a PDF version.

Hiervandaan CD launch a special affair

Solms-Delta — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:39:09 +0000

The setting for the launch of the new Les Javan CD could have been right out of a song itself. The Dorpstraat Teater is out of town, on the Stellenbosch- Klapmuts Road, and reminds me “Hernando’s Hideaway.” Remember the lines? “I know a dark secluded place….where no-one knows your face…it’s called Hernando’s Hideaway! Ole!”

In spite of appearing to be in the middle of nowhere, it’s a great music venue. The auditorium has a wide stage, excellent acoustics and a lot of space for candle-lit tables of food and wine. A good place to enjoy music. The warm-up acts reminded us all of the richness of rural music talent in the Franschhoek Valley. However a lot of this talent will never be heard if these musicians are not supported and given exposure by projects like the Solms-Delta music training programme and events like the Oesfees. Even the creation of the “Hiervandaan” CD has given much deserved publicity to local musicians.

First, Oom Frank Papier, leader of the well-known Franschhoek Papier family band, drew heartbreaking sounds from his piano accordion as he played some traditional Boeremusiek pieces. He was followed by the legendary Oom Seppie Andries and his daughter Priscilla, who live in Grabouw. Oom Seppie is the composer of the hit song “Franschhoek-toe vanaand,” which is featured on the CD. The couple followed with some more of Oom Seppie’s wise, and sometimes tragic, songs about life in the Boland.

Then, the “Hiervandaan” CD stars assembled on the stage. Adriaan Brand opened the show with his youthful Langbroek Band, bristling with trumpets, trombones, ghoema drums and a big, big tuba. It is still difficult to believe that they were just farm kids a short while ago. They lifted the roof with their sounds and got the audience onto their feet and dancing. Then they were joined by the Soetstemme choir, and for the first time, band and choir performed together. As someone said, “This is not just a konsert, this is a show!”
Then Les Javan came on and enchanted the crowd with his wonderful songs, from the hit love-song “Met jou aan my sy” to the slow waltz of “Gemoedsrus” by way of “Ouma se Kind” and the whimsical “Heuningkrans.” It is easy to see why Les has such a devoted following, his songs speak to the heart of his audience, and he has that wonderful laid-back delivery of a singer-composer who truly has lived the content of his songs.

It was a highly successful launch of an immensely popular CD. Click here for more details and for info on how to purchase.

By John van Zyl

Weekend Argus Saturday TGW: Dik Delta

Solms-Delta — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 20:13:26 +0000

Click here to read a feature by Tony Jackman on the new Dik Delta Fynbos Culinary Gardens and Park.