11 Mar March 2024 Newsletter

Posted at 11:43h in Newsletter by

Paardekraal Produce March 2024

The only way to describe the Karoo at the moment, is dry.  It is bitterly, bitterly dry.  Despite all the rain we have had over the last few years the veld has taken a beating.  Thankfully the fountains are still holding up and that has kept one of our dams fill to the brim.  We have had so much heat, followed by wind that everything has just dried up.  I have heard of farmers selling livestock as they have no grazing, and this is causing the price of cattle to plummet.  Coupled with this game farms are culling on a large scale as again there is no grazing.  We have grazing and plenty of it, primarily because we are in the mountains but the grazing, we have is brown dry grass.  I will start to make lick freely available to the cattle as this will help them to unlock the energy matter within the dry grass.  Lick is a mix of salt, feed grade urea plus several ingredients containing minerals and micro-nutrients, that the cattle need to aid digestion.

In 2016, I got hit by a drought that was my alma mater.  I learnt a lot from that terribly event and this has all the hallmarks of that year.  Apart from making lick freely available I will also embark on a program of reducing the herd, especially the non-performing cattle (those that have taken a while to produce a calf and those that don’t put on weight like their peers).  But this will be later in the year when hopefully the price has changed for the better.

I thought I would rather write about the day in the life of a farmer instead of news of the farm.  In the summer we start work at 6:00am to try to utilise the coolness and the longer day light hours.  I get up early, in fact I literally get up with the chickens.  We have squads of hens with chicks and when they start mobilising (which is before 5:00am in the height of summer) I get up to let them out of the house quickly to prevent all the chicken crap from taking place that needs to be cleaned up.

When the staff start, the day begins with milking the goats.  On a Monday this can take a while as the goats were not milked over the weekend, so their udders are full of milk, and which makes milking difficult.  Once the milk comes into the kitchen it gets strained and I then start with the cheese making process.  As we get a lot of milk on Monday I make the hard cheese – Karoo Life, a cheese in the style of a Tomme de Chevre.  This cheese uses anything from 20litres and up but currently I get 30 litres.  The rest of the week what I make is mostly dependent on if I need to go to Graaff Reinet for various reasons.  If I am on the farm then its camembert and feta otherwise when I go into town in the morning, I only go after I have cooled the milk down and made chevre or ash crottin.

For the rest of the morning before we have breakfast, the staff need to feed the pigs, the goats, the sheep, the various poultry etc.  Each staff member is assigned a task or a group of animals but in their absence the others will cover.  Breakfast is at 9am and then after that other farming activities will commence.  The house water and stock waters need to be checked twice a week usually on a Monday and Friday and that is when lick will be put out as well.  If the cattle are in difficult camps where the water supply can be problematic, we check on a Wednesday as well.

About midday I go and collect the chicken and duck eggs from the coops and open the main coop so that the fowls can roam freely.  The reason for their containment up till then is that if they lay elsewhere in the garden the monkeys get the eggs and I get nothing.

Lunch is from 1:00 – 3:00pm, due to the heat we take an extended lunch hour when the day then finishes at 6:00pm.  Again, the feeding ritual begins about 5pm when all the animals are fed with the poultry being moved into the sheds or coops as they are locked up at night.  There are many predators roaming around the yard at night and if a chicken or duck does not get put away the chances of survival are slim.

Speaking of predators, we finally managed to catch the mongoose that was terrorizing the yard by day.  We used the live trap cage and caught one mongoose.  Up close its such a pretty creature I didn’t have the heart to kill it, so we loaded the cage on the bakkie and drove down the road to beyond the nearest automated gate, where he was released.  We put the cage out again to make sure that we had got all the culprits and low and behold we caught another, and then another and so it went on.  In the end a total of 7 were caught and released.  Now I don’t know if it’s the same 1 that kept on coming back as there is no way of telling them apart.  I definitely was not going to tag him as it would (I am sure) bite a finger off, if it can bite a chicken head off.  So now the yard is tranquil again.

We have been getting a nightly visitor the last few weeks, that is a kudu.  We are suspecting it’s a bull due to the large spoor he has left behind.  I guess its so dry that you can’t blame him.

The vegetable garden has been producing so much I can’t keep up with the harvesting.  Geoff has been flood irrigating this garden as well as the camps around the house using the water from the earthen dam.  I mentioned earlier that it was full to the brim and in fact it is overflowing so the flood irrigation is helping to prevent it from overflowing and that way we can utilise the water rather than our neighbours.

For this month I have the following on offer:

  • Karoo Gold – marinated chevre
  • Real Basil Pesto
  • Thai chillies
  • Preserved Green Beans Italian Style
  • Peppadews
  • Roast courgette soup
  • Roast tomato soup
  • Frozen organic spinach
  • Courgette and Tomato Bake
  • Courgette and Tomato Involtini
  • Courgette, Green Bean and Lentil curry
  • Green Bean Bredie

 

All produce is made from free-ranging animals.  We do not administer growth hormones or antibiotics on a routine basis.
Whilst every effort has been made to remove bones from the dishes, care should still be taken when consuming.

Many thanks for your continued support.

Paarderkraal Produce January 2024 Price List

  • Karoo Gold (marinated chevre in olive oil, vinegar & herbs from the garden) – R90.00
    Frozen organic spinach – grown in the Paardekraal vegetable patch 500g – R40.00
  • Real Basil Pesto – organically grown basil from Paardekraal, pinenuts, pecorino cheese, parmesan cheese, garlic, and olive oil – R80.00
  • Thai Chillies – Geoff’s farm grown Thai chillies preserved in olive oil and vinegar – R80.00
  • Peppadews – grown on the farm, Geoff preserved the peppadews in olive oil and vinegar – R80.00
  • Preserved Green Beans – snake or yard long beans, bottled with oregano, parsley, garlic, and chillies in olive oil (500ml) – R80.00
  • Roast Courgette Soup – made from organic courgette, grown on Paardekraal, with chicken stock (no cream) 600g – R50.00
  • Roast Tomato Soup – using organic grown tomatoes that have been roasted with olive oil and thyme, then adding sautéed onions and vegetable stock 600g – R50.00
  • Courgette & Tomato Bake – organic courgette and slow cooked rustic tomato sauce, layered with parmesan and mozzarella cheese – R120.00
  • Courgette & Tomato Involtini – slices of roast courgette stuffed with chevre then covered in a rich tomato sauce, and mozzarella & parmesan cheese on top 600g – R120.00
  • Courgette, Green Bean and Lentil Curry – organic courgette, green beans and tomatoes are used in this curry together with chillies, spices, and lentils. The curry is very mild 600g – R110.00
  • Farm Green Bean Bredie – farm reared mutton with organically grown red adzuki and black beans 600g – R160.00


Please note:

  • The vegetables and meat are sourced from Paardekraal.  The meat is free ranging and free of growth hormones and antibiotics.
  • All meals are frozen.
  • The dishes do not include rice or fillers
  • Whilst every effort has been made to remove bones, care should be taken when consuming
  • Portion sizes are minimum:  large 600gram of meat.

 

Thank you for your support!