Lifestyle
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He was just called 'P'
Book discussions are usually well attended in the platteland, but when a little old “P” causes a case of mistaken identity, it’s a story worth telling, says Nadine Petrick.
5 min |
Spring 2025
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A last refuge at the Gamsberg
A network of historical paths had to intersect before award-winning Afrikaans author and poet Piet van Rooyen and his wife, Annalie, put down roots at the Gamsberg in Namibia five years ago.
8 min |
Spring 2025
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Cooking with gas!
Celebrate spring – and Braai Day – with friends and family preparing and braaiing lamb sosaties or ribeye steak with an assortment of delicious vegetables. In his award winning book Food Trail South Africa, Warren Mendes spices things up with daring combinations. Here's a taste...
8 min |
Spring 2025
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Refuge of silence
When writer Zelda Nel Bezuidenhout and her husband, Izak, stumbled upon Skuilkrans Private Nature Reserve just outside McGregor, they knew they'd found it: the off-grid, eco-conscious, pet-friendly, writing and getaway retreat they'd long imagined.
6 min |
Spring 2025
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RIETBRON Wellspring of life
There's never been an abundance of people and businesses in Rietbron. But what you will find in abundance, aside from water, in this little town located in Die Vlak in the Great Karoo is blissful tranquillity. Just walk its dusty streets and you'll feel it...
9 min |
Spring 2025
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Start your own cut-flower garden
Even if you think you don't have green fingers, you can cultivate your own flowers for picking – and save a lot of money in the long run. Follow our expert advice on how to start your own cut-flower garden this spring. All you need is one small bed (or four to six large pots).
7 min |
Spring 2025
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Cherry picking in the Free State
Spring at the Ionia Cherry Farm between Fouriesburg and Ficksburg is a season of promise, according to one of the directors, Frieda Kruger. “The whole world around us is in bloom and the air smells like fresh beginnings – it’s like a fairytale!”
2 min |
Spring 2025
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New tricks for old (and young) dogs
Dogs and their owners can make the most of the longer days by signing up for a new team-building adventure.
2 min |
Spring 2025
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PROPOLIS: Nature's little miracle
Bees not only provide us with honey and wax, they also produce a third, powerful substance that humans have used for thousands of years. Yet, it's only recently that propolis has buzzed back into the spotlight.
7 min |
Spring 2025
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A perfect lookout
Macadamia and game farms, food gardens, horses... The blissful peace of the Uitkyk area, a stone's throw from Mpumalanga's capital, Mbombela, is why many former city slickers have carved out a new life for themselves here.
10+ min |
Spring 2025
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Finding Freedom in farming
As a child, former Paralympic athlete Sibusiso Mogale sowed seeds in his grandmother's vegetable garden. The magic of planting and watching crops grow was something that stayed with him. Now, he has his own land, and acknowledges that, despite its challenges, farming has afforded him the independence he'd always sought.
8 min |
Spring 2025
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Stanford blooms again!
South Africa won gold at the Chelsea Flower Show again this year, and the good news is that this impressive fynbos installation will be on show at the 2025 Stanford in Bloom festival.
1 min |
Spring 2025
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Quivers full of love in Kenhardt
Faith and hope are often what sustain those who live in the arid, remote areas of our country. But it's love that makes them stay. Love for the veld, the animals, the plants, the people. And Kenhardt is brimming with all of the above.
10 min |
Spring 2025
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Amaryllis for all
Early spring is the best time to get your summer bulbs into the soil so you can reap the reward of beautiful flowers a few months later. Hadeco, the country's leading supplier of flower bulbs, is once again kicking off the warmer season with orders for their trusted bulbs, and that includes an exciting new offering.
1 min |
Spring 2025
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There are few secrets in Verlorenvallei
All platteland towns have that one famous (or infamous) character who knows everyone's business. Meet Livia Hoogenboezem, the keeper of every piece of gossip in Verlorenvallei...
5 min |
Winter 2024
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Make magic with winter's abundance
This winter menu is our invitation to look beyond the bewildered herb garden, move out of your comfort zone and bake a loaf of bread, appreciate the beauty of a head of cabbage, and invite the rain gods to the table to feast with you on venison pie, pudding and cake.
5 min |
Winter 2024
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It takes a family
Christian Fry and his fiancé, Pippa de Lange, arrived at Dombeya with just a day to spare before the Covid-19 hard lockdown commenced in 2020. Their purpose was to save the Fry family farm from being sold. They've settled into life in their Elands River Valley haven now but continue to dream big and work hard.
10 min |
Winter 2024
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For the love of birds...
They may be called birdwatchers but they are in fact using their ears. As Johan van Zyl discovered on his maiden outing as an \"avian tourist\" with BirdLife South Africa to find the 450 bird species that live in the Garden Route and Little Karoo.
5 min |
Winter 2024
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To the babbling brooks of Sabie
Roughly every five years, Jaco and Jens Reverchon get itchy feet. They hopped around Cape Town, moved up north to the Greater Kruger and then, recently, put down roots next to the Sabie River where they live a peaceful life with their animals.
10 min |
Winter 2024
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Creativity & community in Dinokeng
The driving force behind the successful Makers Village in Irene has now implemented the same concept in Cullinan, creating an incubator and exhibition space for entrepreneurs and artists. Platteland dropped in at this budding creative hub to find out what it's all about and came away impressed.
4 min |
Winter 2024
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Willie Strauss Never an idle moment
A variety concert... that is how to approach your life and career when you want to survive as an artist living in the platteland. So says singer, lyricist and radio food expert Willie Strauss, who entices visitors to Die Sinkstoor in Cullinan with traditional offal and his mother's Bushmanland boerekos.
8 min |
Winter 2024
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To die for
How do you avoid the tourist avalanche if you live in an Afromontane forest where holidaymakers descend in December? You drive to lonely outposts in the mountains of the Cape, says photographer Obie Oberholzer, and you make pictures rather than take them.
6 min |
Winter 2024
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1 Fiat 500 2ha 4 boys...19000 miles!
When the go-cart that an engineer father had built for his four sons couldn't handle the tufty terrain on their 2-hectare plot in Montana, Pretoria, they hunted down a Fiat 500 in a salvage yard. They only wanted its suspension system, but Mom intervened, the car was saved, and those little daredevils clocked up an impressive 19000 miles - all without leaving the plot.
8 min |
Winter 2024
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SUTHERLAND Cold town, warm hearts
Life in Sutherland in the Northern Cape isn't always easy, but even those who leave tend to return. Come with us to find out why.
8 min |
Winter 2024
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The art of small talk
In the city, a glib smile suffices when it comes to interaction with any stranger that crosses her path. Yet a visit to Struisbaai taught Elizabeth Wasserman that small talk is no small matter
5 min |
Winter 2023
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From food scraps to compost in a jiffy: We test the iCompost
If turning kitchen waste into compost could be done at the touch of a button, more people would take it up, and much less waste would end up in landfills. That’s what Himkaar Singh, the man behind the innovative iCompost, believes. Platteland was keen to put this innovative appliance to the test
7 min |
Winter 2023
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Find wisdom in the forest: It all starts with soil
A tree is an investment in any garden, even though patience is required to pluck the (figurative) fruit. When you plant several trees together to create your own forest, the reward is much greater. They offer shade, they support life… and they improve your soil. We spent time reflecting in our white karee“forest”– and learnt a lot
10+ min |
Winter 2023
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Ohrigstad's tiny big farmer
Agriculture courses through the veins of the Els family, who have been farming in the Ohrigstad valley in Limpopo since the 1930s. And they are getting younger and younger: Grandfather Jan Els was 36 when he set out, father Dewald 27… and littleWaldo got behind the wheel of massive machines at the age of 6!
5 min |
Winter 2023
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The head hen who lays the golden eggs
The Country Chic is a delightful specialty store in the Swartland where small farmer and entrepreneur Suzanne Smit sells the organic free-range chicken eggs and poultry meat she produces – straight from her farm to the shelves of her own store
8 min |
Winter 2023
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On mountains and moments
On a trip in the southern Drakensberg, a torrential downpour and a field of prickly thistles got acclaimed photographer Obie Oberholzer thinking about the power of perspective
7 min |