A Day with Melissa

On Sunday, August 3^rd, I spent the day with Melissa travelling around Stellenbosch and her home town of Soneike, which means Sunny Oaks but is pronounced sun-acre. It was a breath of fresh air to be back in the suburbs and out of Cape Town. Finally a neighborhood with houses not barricaded by 15 foot walls, barbed wire, and security cameras. I met the family and received a tour of the house before settling down by the braai fire place and chatting with Mr. Van der Burg. I could tell it was going to be a good day when Melissa brought out a vetkoek (fet-cook) with mince which they had purchased from a vendor outside church.

Vetkoek is a South African dumpling. A fried roll, commonly stuffed with mince (ground beef) or other additives. Usually you can find these in the townships or sold by vendors near the taxi stations and they are ridiculously cheap for how filling they are. Anyone going to South Africa should make it a point to try vetkoek with mince if they are interested in trying local foods.

Afterwards, we went to the market and I saw a vendor outside the Pick’n’Pay selling pancakes. For two pancakes, it cost me eight rand which is equivalent to 80 cents back in the states. The pancakes here are different though. These pancakes are more like crepes which are then layered with a cinnamon-sugar blend. Very much a dessert and very much satisfying. I have yet to find a disappointing vendor.

We started the day’s adventures at Stellenbosch University Botanical Gardens. Stellenbosch is surrounded by winelands, but the central hub is your typical college town. Stellenbosch University is a prestigious institution in South Africa and is the only school where Afrikaans is the primary language. All the signs are written in Afrikaans then English, whereas everywhere else is the other way around.

The garden itself is located in the middle of town next to the university. When I first entered the premise, I noticed landscapes with large specimens and understory plants. Sizable cycads, giant ericas, tall aloes, and I even saw some massive trees like California’s very own coast redwood and giant sequoia. With those two examples given, it is obvious this garden does not focus on just native plants like Kirstenbosch. Instead, this garden provides a display of plants that could be used for a Mediterranean climate garden.

Then I spotted a variety of display beds. These beds are used for bulbs and flower display.

And these beds featured edible and medicinal plants for your landscape at home. They had a lot of plants commonly seen in California, including salvia. This section was recently replanted with the next season’s crops.

Amongst the plantings were a variety of artistic features such as fountains, ponds, or statues.

As you continue to walk the path around the restaurant, you end up in a display area where you can find the garden’s renowned water plant collection, glasshouse collections, and a bonsai lath house. Unfortunately, it was not the right time of year to observe some of the impressive water plants. I hear the collection is quite incredible and features the Victoria ‘Longwood Hybrid’.

There were three glasshouses open to the public concentrated on plants which are tropical, succulent, or xerophytes. We were only able to access the two arid houses. To enter the houses, you had to obtain the key and keep the door locked at all times. This silly policy was vindicated upon site of the invaluable lithops, welwitschias, and other rare succulents found in these collections.

Welwitschias are a living fossil and very difficult to grow. They possess two ever growing leaves twisting away from a prehistoric looking crown. Can you imagine if someone ran off with a sample of these?

These Lophophora williamsii of the Cactaceae family are the well-known Peyote succulents. The same succulents used by the Native American tribes to induce hallucinations.

The final section of the garden is the bonsai collection. Numerous tables with 300 specimens portraying all types, shapes, and sizes of bonsais. The type of plants used for these bonsais include: Ficus natalensis, Olea europa var. africana, Acer trifidum, Junipera spp., Sequoia sempervirens, Buxus spp., Acacia galpinii, Celtis africana, and more. Everything here was very much attention to detail. No weeds, precise pruning, and the overall facilities were very crisp and complimentary to the presentation. Bonsai trees are easily my favorite form of art, which explains why this was my favorite display at the Stellenbosch Botanical Garden.

I should add that there were plenty of other excellent collections, but unfortunately I do not have photos or much information to present. Although, here is a pretty awesome scaffold fern garden in which I do have a picture of Melissa lost in the ferns though…exhilarating.

Following our visit to the gardens in Stellenbosch, Melissa and I went wine tasting at Neethinshof winery. On our way there, we must have seen a winery every 2 minutes down the road. The wineries here typically have a dutch farmhouse theme with an English styled garden (formal or informal). I can’t say the exterior of Neethlinshof was compelling, but inside the tasting lounge was very nice.

I’m having a hard time deciding what the best part of South African wine tasting was. The fantastic taste and variety of wine itself, or the ridiculously cheap prices. For five tastes consisting of 4-6 sips, it cost me a mere 35 rand. This is $3.50 American dollars. Super cheap, super delicious, super drunk if you lose track of time.

Unfortunately, I cannot provide a list of the wines I tasted. I need to find them online when I have access to the winery’s site. I can say I tried a German inspired wine called Gewartztraminer. I enjoyed this enough for me to purchase a couple bottles for 85 rand.

To make sure we made it back to Melissa’s house safely, I gladly accepted a good portion of her tasting samples. When we arrived home, dinner was almost ready. Mr. Van der Burg was manning the Braai where he was cooking peri peri chicken, beef ribs, pork chops, and woerst. Alongside the meat we had homemade pasta salad and potato salad with good ol’ Heineken to wash it all down.

The Van der Burgs took care of me for the night and in the morning I experienced Cape Town traffic. Only two highways lead into Cape Town. Even at 5:45am, there were a quite a few patches bumper to bumper traffic.