go! Platteland

The slow life is the good life: go! Platteland celebrates the rural lifestyle and the entrepreneurial spirit of people whose hearts are in the platteland – whether they grew up in the countryside or are already based there, are contemplating making the move or simply hankering after the rural life. Platteland offers articles that focus on entrepreneurs, DIY projects, animals, gardening, food, towns and people. It is both practical and inspiring – as much of a visual feast as it is a celebration of great writing.

Enough is enough

go! Platteland

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Chitchat

News & diary • When the cold creeps up on you, retreat indoors and take comfort in the sensuous richness of a soft down duvet, an exquisite perfume or a good red wine. Find out more about these luxuries as well as the host of festivals, bazaars and markets that are worth a day or weekend excursion in our winter diary.

Follow your nose…

Disappear under the feathers

Definitely not a pumpkin head!

Kanonkop comes out tops

Snap the Karoo!

Come celebrate an early Christmas

Dates to diarise*

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Let’s go to town • We’re embracing fireplace season with a selection of cosy finds from Burgersdorp, Cape Town, The Crags, Darling, George, Johannesburg, Paarl, Pretoria, Swellendam, Uniondale and Worcester.

HOOPSTAD Where community is family • Hoopstad, surrounded by maize and sunflower fields, with grain silos standing guard over its modest homes and sandstone church, initially looks and feels a lot like any other Northern Free State town. But once you start chatting to the residents, the spirit of this community will envelop you like a typical Free State dust storm.

Meet the people

Eat, drink, be merry!

Success, one stitch at a time • Nowadays, fewer and fewer people are tackling their own clothing repairs let alone making their own clothes. But for the past 12 years, the two merry widows of Die Naaldekokers in Moorreesburg have been harnessing this skills shortage as both a business opportunity and a pastime.

Guardians of the land • An unwavering dedication to the pursuit of a true American-frontier lifestyle might seem fanciful to some, but for John Mos and Zelda Lombard, the “mountain folk” of Kaapsche Hoop, a rustic cabin on the Northern Drakensberg escarpment has provided the freedom to live and grow the way they were destined to.

On a guest farm in the Bushmanland • During the terrible drought that gripped the Northern Cape between 2012 and 2022, several farmers realised that a guest farm stood more chance of surviving without rain than a sheep farm. Three Bushmanland accommodation venues opened their doors out of necessity, and now their guests leave feeling richer for the experience.

A story from Namaland • When your language and culture once lived in the expanses of the veld, found their voice amid the quiver trees and elephant’s trunk, celebrated feasts beneath the glittering Milky Way, they will be strangled in a world of borders and regulations. In the small town of Kuboes in the Richtersveld, Chalwyn Thomas tries his best to remain a Nam child.

Scat’s out of the bag • Most of us don’t give much thought to wild animal droppings. But these deposits are the subject of master’s and doctoral theses, and field guides and vets attend conferences covering the subject. It seems the experts are unanimous: every piece of animal waste has a story to tell. Sarie Marais-Nell sniffed around to find out more…

Truffle hunt “Black gold” for your plate • Chocolate is usually the first thing that comes to mind when South Africans hear the word “truffle”. But the sought-after Périgord black truffle, which grows underground and commands a price of up to R26 000 per kilogram from...