Introducing Celeste

Quite often, we find ourselves having to describe Platteland’s readers: Who are they? Where do they live? How old are they? We have even had to describe the typical Platteland reader as an individual, and he/she had to have a name, an age, an occupation, interests, children and an income. As we’ve racked our brains over who our reader is, we have joked and laughed but also quibbled, because we have never been in absolute agreement about the quintessential Platteland reader.

Recently, we were lucky enough to meet someone who makes things a little clearer. Her name is Celeste Burger and she lives just outside Worcester on the farm Kuruma. Here, together with Kobus Kritzinger, she has planted a vegetable garden based on permaculture principles that simply takes your breath away. (We are a little jealous of the pure water she gets straight out of Brandwacht Mountain.) Celeste is married and has two children, both students. She has a Weimaraner, Stoffel, and she and Stoffel are still in mourning for his sister, Eva, who died suddenly not long ago. Celeste has geese and ducks that graze on the green grass of the farm and are even allowed in the vegetable garden, because, yes, there’s enough for everyone, even after she herself has harvested and canned and processed and given away. (The geese for some reason suddenly became afraid of the lake, because something or someone had caught a few of their friends. Celeste set up a night vision camera and caught the villain in the act: a huge otter. She is still thinking of a plan to deal with him.)

We are pleased to introduce you to Celeste: she appears on the cover of this edition with Kobus Kritzinger (and Stoffel) in a corner of the magnificent vegetable garden.

Celeste is someone who can laugh and joke and engage in an engrossing conversation about what’s going on in the country (and she has hope for the future). She doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty and she is a wonderful hostess. She would never let you leave empty-handed. You go home with a loaf of bread, jam, a punnet of celeriac seedlings, a box of eggplants, or anything else that is in season. Jac, our cover photographer, even left with a bucketful of composting worms.

Celeste, we realised, is typical of the people we talk to when we gather stories for the magazine and of every one who regularly buys Platteland. They are the people – no, you are the people – who make it all worthwhile.

Until summer!