At the foot of the Swellendam mountains in South Africa, you can pick as many berries as you want to. They give you a couple of buckets at tell you you can pick as many as you would like.
You pay about $1 (R20) to enter the farm, and you pay about $3 (R50) per kilogram for berries that you pick.
But you are frolicking in the sun with your loved ones, and you think about days long gone where technology did not exist. At least for me, the picking of berries reminded me of a nostalgia I have for times I was never part of.
On the farm, you cannot hear anything but the birds and the nearby river rolling over rocks. You are one your own. It is a little gem that no one has found yet. Or more specifically, it is too far away from everything commercial.
But the great thing, no one is watching you pick the berries.
Being the kid I am in this adult body, I picked some berries but I also ate a lot of them. You have to test them after all! Some of them are very ripe, so you cannot leave them in your bucket full of berries. Ripe berries spoil. So my brain said: Eat them!
Every now and then, I hear my girlfriend, @urban.scout, shout at me:
"Stop eating!"
Our bucket never filled up with berries because I wandered off taking photographs of the berries whilst eating them as well!
After all, can you not be tempted to eat them? Just see how beautiful and juicy they look. Inherently, we are hardwired to be lured to eat them!
But let me start over, the berries have already infested my mind with all their juicy wonderful deliciousness!
Getting Your Buckets
As you get your buckets from the friendly staff, you are greeted with the most beautiful views of the mountains. You are at the foot of the mountains and you cannot ask for anything better. (On a side note, the golf course is on the other side of this berry farm, so you are always encapsulated by mountains and this town is truly a gem!)
Anyways, you get your buckets and you walk to the berry farm or plantation which is on the otherside of the "Klip rivier" or Rock river. The water flowing down the river is weak, so you can stand with your feet in the water!
Walking to the Berries
As noted, you need to walk over the very small river to get to the berries. The views are spectacular.
As Swellendam is situated about two and a half hours away from Cape Town, few people venture to this side of the Western Cape. But it is surely one of the most beautiful places. The outlying farms are usually used for wheat and canola farming, but inside of the town, there are various berry farms.
But let us stop this talking and pick some berries!
Picking Berries
You have the choice between picking Young Berries (a cross breed between raspberry and black berries) and Black Berries. Both are amazing freshly picked from the vines. I cannot even begin to describe the flavor explosion in your mouth. You really need to taste for yourself to experience something as fresh as these berries.
All the whilst you are situated at the foot of the mountain. Your whole body experience of sensory overload is something that a price tag cannot even begin to justify.
Sensory overload is an understatement.
There are no noise besides the birds chattering and the water rolling over the rocks. The berries are insanely flavorful. The mountains are beautiful. The sun prickles your skin. It is really just perfect. And then after everything you still have buckets full of berries!
And I mean this when I say it, buckets full. I think we picked about 4 kilograms worth of berries.
The statement needs to be reitterated:
What would you do with unlimited berries?
At the end of the day, your fingers are stained with the berries you just picked, but for the whole day, you are reminded by the sweet smell and lingering taste in your mouth of the hard work!
And if you enjoy it with someone special, all the better!
Buy Some Jam
In the store, you can buy some of the berry jams that they make.
But I mean, after picking so many berries, you can make your own jam! In fact, I am thinking about making some fermented juices with all these berries. I am also thinking of growing some of these berries, but I do not have the space. I am already growing copious amounts of cape gooseberries.
Postscriptum, or Stained Fingers and Lingering Memories
In the end, you have fingers stained purple, sweetness that overwhelms you, but you feel like a kid again. You smell the berries, maybe already fermenting in the back of the car, driving home.
You have buckets full of berries, you have no idea what you are going to make with it. Recipes are flooding your mind, ideas are clouding rationality, and you think of yourself as a berry picker.
I hope you enjoyed this virtual tour with me picking berries. I know me and @urban.scout enjoyed it. If you ever find yourself close by, go get a bucket and pick some berries, fermented them, make jam, or just eat them straight from the bush! But most of all, enjoy life.
All of the photographs are my own, taken with either my Nikon D300 or iPhone. The musings are also my own. Happy travelling, and be safe!
What?!! You were around the corner? Almost...we're probably going through to Swellendam next week. And this will be the perfect stop to take the kids! Never been there before. Never mind that I haven't been in Swellendam for a couple years......we love berry picking. And our berry bushes don't exactly provide buckts full. So, how many buckets survived the trip? And apart from fermented berries, what are you two doing to do with all of your pickings?
Oh yes just around the corner! My mother still has her parents’ property there.
Oh yes it is a must to go and pick some! I hope there is still left!
I think we picket about 5 kgs! We ate so many and made so many smoothies, I am working on steak sauces with the berries and cheesecake! That is the best in my opinion.
These berries look so damn delicious! Great post, @fermentedphil.
Thank you so much! They were definitely. We could not stop eating whilst we picked!
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A nice harvest! They grow here abundantly in Ireland too in late summer.
You are lucky! Berries tend to suffer here in the summer heat. But places like that somehow manage to grow them. What grows in my garden is cape goose berries!
Daily Travel Digest #1760.
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Hiya, @LivingUKTaiwan here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Your post has been manually curated by the @pinmapple team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!eat as many of them as you can fresh and then freeze them! Those look a heck of a lot like mulberries. I picked a whole bunch about 3 months before Christmas last year, and ended up making the most ridiculous cheesecake with them. They're also lovely as a base for cocktails and (more healthily) smoothies. Bursting with flavour and goodness, it's easy to see why they're so expensive in shops. I'd love to take the kids berry picking. I know I'll explode though! I won't be able to stop eating them either!😅😅😅😅
I could not stop myself either! We ate so much, I think we had an overload of them!
For sure, they make the best cheesecake! I am craving a slice just thinking about it.
Still, the shops ask so much! I am growing my own cape gooseberries, and the shops also love to ask a boatload for them. It is so unfair! But the ones you grow at home just taste better than the store-bought ones, to be honest.
I hope you can pick some berries soon! Enjoy.
so true! We grow some of our own goodies in our garden now (as I'm sure you know) and there is really a massive difference in taste!!!
I think more and more people are going to realise that, hopefully there will be a foodie revolution soon!
And that is how we change the world! One veggie garden at a time 😊😊😊
That is true! It is amazing how much you can get from one veggie garden! Giving away food to others is the best feeling ever.
I'm hoping to help @therneau and @jussipassetti with their pizza making by growing herbs for them! We have a basil farm going now!
...even just freezing them (even though it isnt that exciting in the moment) but like that you have unlimited supply of berries forever:)
That is the goal yes! And they last forever in the freezer. You have an endless supply of berries for cheesecakes!
exactly:D