Polokwane - When Nipper Thompson had a smelly blocked drain in his dairy, he didn’t call a plumber to sort it out. He rang the vet. It’s a true story and one of the fascinating tales that prove the benefits of organic farming.
The Thompson family have been farming in the Haenertsburg and Magoebaskloof area for at least three generations and now Nipper (yes, he must have got the nickname a long, long time ago) and his wife, Sylvia, are seeing their organic dairy, Wegraakbosch, going from strength to strength as consumers realise the positive health benefits of producing food the natural way.
Nipper gives daily tours of the dairy and never tires of explaining how he became hooked on organic. When he set up the dairy 20 years ago, a vet (“he was ahead of his time,” recalls Nipper) gave him advice about cleaning out the milking room. Don’t use any soap at all was the counter-intuitive suggestion.
“He told us that soap or detergent kills the good bacteria as well as the bad and that water would be good enough.”
It was and the dairy today doesn’t have the rancid stink you get in some places where cows are milked. But it was in the other rooms, where the cheese-making was carried out, said Nipper, that “Sylvia was getting unhappy”.
The drain there kept blocking and stank to high heaven. Nipper called the vet for tips about which would be the best, most organically friendly soap or disinfectant to use. None of them, was the answer. First clear the drain and then just wash it down with water and allow the good bacteria to do their work.
“So that’s what we did and, you know what, not only did it stop smelling, but it also doesn’t get blocked any more,” says Nipper.
Nipper’s farm was one of the stops on a tour of Haenertsburg and Magoebaskloof organised by Slow Food Johannesburg (slowfood.co.za), which is part of the international organisation dedicated to food that is seasonal and local and which is “good, clean and fair”.
Brian and Jo Dick, of the Cheese Gourmet in Linden, Johannesburg, are enthusiastic supporters of Wegraakbosch and other artisanal cheeses and food products.
The Slow Food tour coincided with the Haenertsburg Berry Festival, one of five festivals the village hosts each year and which is growing in popularity. This year, on the village green, an eclectic market offered everything from organic cheeses and jams, to craft beers and vetkoek, through to essential oil perfumes and pot plants, with a host of crafts in between.
The atmosphere was relaxed, although the small settlement (population 282, according to the 2011 census, the latest available – compared with 186 in the 1890 census) was bursting at the seams with bakkies and SUVs from Limpopo, Gauteng and North West, a clear indication of the area’s growing popularity as a weekend getaway for city folks.
And the area has an array of attractions: you can golf, mountain-bike, waterski, do a canopy tour, fish for trout, hike or just tour the roads (which are in good to excellent condition) and take in the forests (pine and indigenous) and mountains, as well as streams and rivers. That the area is a touring delight is evident from the regular visits by groups of motorcyclists who pop in for coffee at the restaurants in the village.
A wealth of accommodation is available – from five-star luxury to B&Bs, to self-catering and farm stays – in the Magoebaskloof area, and there are a number of restaurants in Haenertsburg and the surrounds, as well as further down the kloof and in the major town of Tzaneen, about 60km from Haenertsburg,
We were given a special treat by retired professor Louis Changuion, who has lived in the village for 35 years and knows its history backwards. A tall, striking man with a mane of white hair and a snow-white beard, he is an enthusiastic hiker and has laid out trails in and around the village.
But he is a prolific author of history books and has done a lot of work in uncovering the artefacts of the area. Not least of these are the remains of one of the “Long Tom” cannon used by the Boers during the 1899-1902 war. One was destroyed by the retreating Boers to prevent British troops capturing it. Changuion found pieces of the gun using a metal detector and then designed a war memorial, of which the cannon is the centrepiece, on a hill in the village.
Interestingly, he traced this particular cannon (another was destroyed by the Boers at the Letaba River, down one of valleys below Haenertsburg) to the siege of Ladysmith. One night during the siege, British troops sneaked up and tried to put it out of action by blowing it up with gun cotton.
They succeeded in mangling the tip of the barrel – but the Boers quickly brought the Long Tom back into action by cutting off 25cm of the barrel. Ever since the gun has been known as “The Jew” because of its engineering circumcision.
In 2001, after a visit to the Woolwich Arsenal in London, Changuion secured the missing 25cm – which had been taken back to England as spoils of war – and it now sits in pride of place at the monument. The partially reconstructed gun points exactly at the hill, about 10km distant, where its last rounds were fired.
Changuion is a fascinating guide – but emphasises that he is not an official tour guide and does not take any money. Perhaps, though, you could persuade him: pop into the town museum (which he set up) or pop into Pennefathers next door (self-catering, books and coffee) and ask for him (his wife, Debbie, set up the business there in 1980, erecting corrugated-iron buildings like those at the time the village was the scene of a gold rush in the late 1800s).
Haenertsburg and Magoebaskloof are a fascinating amalgam of beauty, action, food and relaxation. If you haven’t been there, you’re missing a wonderful South African travel experience.
l www.magoebasklooftourism.co.za
www.wegraakbosch.wix.com/wegraakbosch
www.slowfood.co.za
Brendan Seery, Saturday Star