go! Platteland

It’s as if we’ve been retreating deeper and deeper into our shells over the past few years. Many people were forced to start working from home, and the distance between us just grew increasingly wider. Our homes have become our entire world. A part of this world is the greenery that you plant and nurture in order to make life more beautiful, and thus more enjoyable – even if it’s a fern suspended in a macramé plant holder in your living room. A garden is a living system, something that breathes and gives life and changes and dies. It is truly precious. It makes you move, bend, stretch and perspire – and clears the cobwebs from your mind. A garden with all the life forms it contains makes you cry…

Live the slow life… and have more fun winning letter We’re a family of plattelanders, and we are all avid readers of your magazine. By the way, I like the feel of the new paper – I think it was a good idea to change it. I’m sending you a story that I think aptly illustrates your motto, “The slow life is the good life.” We live in the beautiful Boland town of Wellington. But even here the pace of living has picked up considerably. When we bought our house with the deck that overlooks one of the large mountain peaks, we dreamt of often kicking back there with coffee or wine and good friends. Or even simply to light a fire by ourselves while we admire the natural beauty…

Taming dragons on a pitaya farm Although pitayas – better known as dragon fruit – can be found in most supermarkets these days, the cultivation of these bright-pink tropical fruit is still in its infancy in South Africa. One of the country’s first commercial producers, Jackye Riddle, unexpectedly found herself in the business of growing dragon fruit. She’d bought an Eastern Cape citrus farm and planned to retire there. Because there were citrus trees on the farm, she started farming citrus on a small scale as a hobby. By the time the trees were becoming old, Jackye had been bitten by the farming bug and was She started looking into niche fruit with which to experiment and soon spotted a strange-looking vine on a neighbouring farm. At that stage, there…

YOU’LL NEED • 300 g dark-red dragon fruit flesh, mashed (the dark-red flesh gives the buns their pretty pink colour)• 500 g white bread flour• 80 g white sugar• 5 g instant yeast• 40 g butter, cubed• 5 g salt METHOD Mix the dragon fruit and flour in an electric mixer using a dough hook. Combine the sugar and yeast and add it to the fruit mixture. When the mixture is 90% incorporated, add the butter and salt. Let the mixer run for 30 minutes – the dough will become very elastic. Roll the dough out and divide it into 10 portions – each portion should weigh just under 90 g. Roll the portions into balls and arrange them on a baking sheet or place them in the hollows of…

In February 2020, when Nannie de Villiers signed the rental contract for the site of her new doggie daycare, she–like all of us – was unaware of the challenges the Covid-19 pandemic would bring. Yet not only did her business survive, but it has also thrived. Thanks to its uniquely playful “personality”, Dogs Day Out stands head and shoulders above traditional dog kennels. “It’s like dropping your dog off with friends for the day,” Nannie describes her daycare in Strand, near Cape Town. Last year, the canine playschool was voted best small business by KFM’s popular Best of the Cape Awards. Nannie told us how her dream became a reality. Where did the idea for Dogs Day Out come from? From 2003 to 2006, I lived in Atlanta in the US,…

The cooler autumn months are a good time to get active in your garden if you’d like to welcome pops of colour during the cold of winter. Most bulbs can be divided into one of two groups: summer and winter bulbs. In nature, winter bulbs typically grow in winter-rainfall areas and go into hibernation during the summer months. In general, winter bulbs flower beautifully in early spring, but some types will start blooming in late winter. Regardless of their flowering season, all winter bulbs must be planted in late autumn so that the cooler soil temperatures can trigger the growth cycle. Hadeco is an online bulb and garden retailer that offers gardeners everything their hearts may desire. Hadeco’s experts have the following advice for preparing your winter garden: Start right…