farming

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Feeding sheep at Holmeleigh Farmyard

A think a lot of city kids would have benefited from growing up on a farm, being able to play outside all the time, help with the animals, ride on the tractor or the back of the bakkie and eat a lot more health rather than sit inside, watch television, play Playstation and eat junk food.  Ok, so its not that bad, but I for one think that my KidZ, and in particular Drama Princess, would have thrived on a…

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26/07/2013
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Rust in Peace

Next to The Ark in Joubertina in the Langkloof stands the rusty remains of a tractor. A very old tractor.  In actual fact a 1928 Wallis tractor.  The first tractor to be brought to the Langkloof and the first of many tractors to follow.  Seeing a sight like this as a monument could be a bit on the weird side anywhere else, but in the Langkloof where farming plays such an important part in everyday life this is a significant part of their…

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05/04/2013
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Future dairy cows

The area around Nanaga and eastwards is one of the biggest dairy producing districts in the province.  These calves will one day form part of the milk producing herds at Nanaga Dairy Farm.

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24/11/2012
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Citrus farm tour

While browsing around the stalls at the Patensie Citrus Festival on Saturday I heard the announcer say something about tractor trips to one of the citrus farms and I immediately went to enquire. Five minutes later the family was sitting in a trailer behind farmer Danie Malan's tractor in anticipation for the tour to his farm to start.Along the way Danie stopped to tell us about the young citrus trees that we saw and how the sun can easily burn their…

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20/06/2012
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Fresh fruit and veg

On Saturday morning I loaded the family into the car and headed out to the Gamtoos Valley west of Port Elizabeth for the annual Patensie Citrus Festival.  There were a couple of reasons for our little outing the first and foremost being the fact that I loaded a boot full of fresh fruit and vegetables for a fraction of what I would have paid for it in a supermarket in the city.  Plus it was absolutely farm fresh.  The Gamtoos Valley…

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18/06/2012
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Montagu Dried Fruit

I love summer fruits (well, any fruit actually) like peaches, plums and apricots.  That was one of the many reasons I looked forward to spending the first part of our summer holiday in the Klein Karoo town of Montagu.  The area has a rich soil and amazing micro climate and along with the fact that there is an abundance of water makes it ideal to farm summer fruits.On our first day in Montagu I discovered the Montagu Dried Fruit Factory Shop. …

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20/01/2012
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Foggy Farm

Travelling from Mossel Bay to Oudtshoorn a week or so ago, we made a quick stop at Eight Bells Mountain Inn for a site inspection. Although I haven't been to Eight Bells for a while, it used to be one of my regular overnight stops when I was a tourist guide. The morning of our visit there was quite a lot of fog on the mountains around the area and I got this shot looking from the hotel across to…

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11/04/2010
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Klein Karoo farm house

A farm house on one of the ostrich farms just outside Oudtshoorn on the road to Schoemanshoek. The mountain in the background is the Swartberg where the Swartberg Pass (read here and here) can be found.

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08/01/2010
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Ostrich Show Farm

There is an Afrikaans song that says "Oudtshoorn is 'n groot voël paradys..." (translates to Oudtshoorn is a big bird paradise). And that is so true. Oudtshoorn is called the ostrich capital of the world as 95% of the world's captive ostriches are found around the town. In the early days ostriches were farmed purely for their feathers, but today every single piece of the bird gets used. They are farmed primarily for their skin which produces the world's second…

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05/01/2010