Cheese making in Harties and baking in Bloem

In September our readers were particularly industrious. First we learnt how to make feta and mozzarella in Hartbeespoort, then, the following week, we baked up a storm in Bloemfontein: croissants, paninis, foccacias…

Annelien Pienaar needs no introduction to Platteland readers: she has presented a bread-baking workshop before and taught Cape Town readers the art of cheese making. Recently she repeated the cheese-making course at Van Gaalen Kaasmakerij in Skeerpoort, Hartbeespoort. Workshop participants had their hands full with saucepans and thermometers, but there was time to socialise and sit down to a delicious lunch prepared by Annelien herself – yes, you guessed it: it involved bread and cheese.

In Bloemfontein it was a lovely spring day when 30 readers, some from as far afield as Cradock, Pretoria and Herolds Bay – gathered for Marcelle Botha’s advanced bread-baking workshop. Marcelle is an old hand at this and, as always, she had workshop participants hanging on to her every word. And then they were up to their elbows in flour. Marcelle also served a wonderful lunch from her own kitchen.

BELOW Feta requires concentration. You need to keep an eye on the temperature of the water in the bottom saucepan and that of the milk, and timing is critical. STANDING, FROM LEFT Yvette and Jurgens de Jager from Linden, Tersia Oosthuizen from Brits,...

BACK ROW, FROM LEFT Hendrik and Elizma Crafford from Bloemfontein; Lize-Mari Lombard, Cathy Moolman and Marie Janse van Rensburg, all from Cradock; Jenny and Ann Burnett from Westminster; René van Buuren and Marcelle Botha (presenter), both from...