There's more to the Karoo Food Festival than lamb
Fresh faces and a diverse offering of food meant this annual food event was well worth attending.
The Karoo has become a cliché of windmills, wide open spaces, sheep and a perception that the faster you travel through it, the better. Many small Karoo towns are in decay, so a visit to Cradock for the third annual Karoo Food Festival was undertaken with a measure of reservation.
What a pleasant surprise. Having visited a fair number of food shows with the same faces and the same suppliers, discovering a festival that offers something different was as refreshing as a Karoo morning. There were no TV celebs pulling the crowds - just farming families, people in touch with their passion. They impressed us with their integrity and gave us an appreciation of life in this harsh landscape.
The deli featured an array of local producers with products like pickled agave buds, prickly-pear syrup and Winterberg raspberries, pomegranates, biltong and venison salami.
A diverse offering of food kept us fed hour after hour. Marelise van Niekerk started her day at 2am, baking and cooking 10 dishes, each using craft beer. From beer-and-bacon jam to beer-poached pears with chocolate-stout fudge sauce, Van Niekerk wowed us with dish after dish of delectable food. Leani Loots served us an array of dishes using oyster mushrooms grown on her farm.
We nearly missed Louzel Lombard's "artisan biltong at home". Each couple were presented with a leg of venison and skilfully led through the dissection of the silverside, rump and topside. Spices came next and the meat was prepared for drying. Lombard was part of another workshop, joining forces with her mother Lani and her grandmother Dalene, deboning and stuffing chickens.
We had three Karoo dinners, each at a different venue. Victoria Manor laid on a farm kitchen heritage menu with dishes like marrow bones, vetderm and stertjies (intestine and tails) as a starter with smileys, ou vrou innie kombers (old woman in a blanket) and lamb shanks with roasted quince as mains. The second evening saw an array of potjies with sides of samp and rice.
The culmination was a gala evening, Fees van die baie bokke (Feast of the many antelope). The starters were smoked wildebees and springbok carpaccio served with pomegranate molasses and prickly-pear syrup, and mains included curried fallow deer with dumplings and spit-roasted goat. About 250 people thronged the venue.
It takes a few good people to rejuvenate a town; think of places like Prince Albert and Haenertsburg. Cradock has people like that, and a group of passionate foodies.
Brian Dick was a guest of Albert House B&B in Cradock.