Neighbourhood CT - 26 January 2020

Neighbourhood 26 JANUARY 2020

PROPERTY & LIFESTYLE

Midweek pleasures The Oranjezicht City Farm market added an extra edition on Wednesdays so Capetonians can have all the weekend goodness in the week as well, page 2

3

MORE FROM JAN HENDRIK

yourneighbourhood.co.za

4

PROPERTY FOCUS: HOUSES CLOSE TO SCHOOLS

Connecting homeowners with great communities

6

GREEN WALLS

2

NEWS & LIFESTYLE

26 JANUARY 2020

Editor’s exclusive CARLA REDELINGHUYS

In your hood:

Neighbourhood

Granger Bay

OZCF Market | facebook.com/OZCFarm | ozcf.co.za/market-day

Three times the fun Summer Wednesday nights now have a fresh locally-sourced highlight as the OZCF market brings together food shopping, gourmet eats and sunset views over the bay WORDS AND IMAGES: KIT HEATHCOCK

T

he Oranjezicht City Farm market at Granger Bay has long been the weekend go-to for fabulous local fresh produce and artisan food products. Now it has added a mid-week night market to Cape Town’s foodie diary.

When we visited soon after opening at 4pm it was relatively quiet, meaning that early birds could shop for fresh produce and artisan goodies without much in the way of a queue.

Fit for royalty I

think it’s safe to say most of us were feeling the pinch before payday came and put us out of our misery. But just because I’m not nervously anticipating a “Declined” message on the card terminal at the Kwikspar doesn’t mean that I can now go and drop cash like I’m some almost-bankrupt hip-hop star. That was one of my resolutions: frugality is the name of the game in 2020.

Luckily, though, spending like a church mouse doesn’t have to equal living like one. Or eating like one.

I’ve had the privilege of meeting and interacting with South Africa’s first Michelin-star chef, Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen, a few times (he is as lovely as he looks!) and am happy to announce that I have one of his ridiculously-easy-yet-downrightdelicious recipes – to help liven up any weeknight. (Read more about the second season of Jan’s show on page 3.)

Spaghetti puttanesca Prep time 30 minutes Serves 4 to 6

• • • • • • •

for beautiful farm-to-table veggies here on Saturday and Sunday and by Wednesday they’re out. So it made logical sense to open on a Wednesday.

And Cape Town needs a beautiful night market. In summer in a venue like this, what’s better than coming with your family, doing your shopping and enjoying your dinner with a bottle of wine and these beautiful views, so you don’t have to cook yourself.”

Once the after-work crowd arrives around 6pm the vibe gets buzzier, queues form for the new bar and favourite food stalls, and music plays as shadows lengthen and the bay reflects the pinks of sunset. Lights go on, friends and family hang out, and the crowd only reluctantly drifts away after closing time at 8pm.

Suppliers of the fresh produce at the heart of the market are mostly small urban farms, who have grown with the support of selling to the OZCF every week, and now have capacity to supply the market for its three days weekly trading. “It’s creating jobs, it’s about sourcing the best of the best,” Sheryl adds. “It’s exhilarating, exhausting and exciting!”

Market organizer Sheryl Ozinsky says, “Our customers told us that they shop

Perched at a repurposed pallet wood table, we sampled a fantastic soft

Another foray among the food stalls won us succulent samosas, and excellent Vietnamese stir-fried rice noodles from Yen’s Kitchen.

By now the sun was almost down. While I hung onto our new-found bean-bag real estate on a platform overlooking the bay, the girls took on the arduous task of deciding on dessert, returning with Hoghouse pastéis de nata and a generous slice of carrot cake.

Go for supper and take your shopping bags along too. It’s impossible to walk past the artisan food stalls and cornucopia still-life of fresh produce without discovering an urgent need for a sourdough loaf from Woodstock Bakery, some perfectly ripe mangos, the last porcini mushrooms of the season, or other food treasures.

about 20 capers 125g pitted black olives 5ml dried oregano 2 x 140g tins chopped tomatoes salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 x 500g spaghetti grated parmesan cheese

Here’s how 1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan.

Add the garlic, anchovies, capers, black olives and oregano and fry for a couple of minutes.

2. Add the chopped tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and let it cook uncovered for at least 20min.

3. While the sauce is cooking, cook the spaghetti according to the instructions on the back of the packet.

4. Drain the pasta and add it to the sauce. Toss it through till the pasta is covered in sauce. Serve with grated parmesan cheese.

Easy as pie. And equally perfect for a chilled weeknight meal or an impromptu mid-week get-together. Enjoy!

I’d go so far as to say this is the best market in the world

Ingredients • 30ml olive oil • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped • 10 anchovies

PUBLISHED BY TIMES MEDIA PROPERTY PUBLISHING

taco with seared tuna from Franck Dangereux’ Food Barn pop-up, and Flammkuchen from Piroshka’s.

BEEZY BAILEY, ARTIST, WHO VISITS EVERY WEEK FOR HIS FRESH PRODUCE

EDITORIAL TEAM:

ADVERTISING SALES:

Group Editor: Carla Redelinghuys carla@yourneighbourhood.co.za Senior Sub-Editor: Marana Brand Designers: Anja Bramley & Samantha Durand Visit yourneighbourhood.co.za

Call us for advertising opportunities on 087 828 0423 Production (Editorial & Property Advertising): Lucea Goosen capetown@yourneighbourhood.co.za Online coordinator: Chantelle Balsdon chantelle@augmentcreative.com

26 JANUARY 2020

Neighbourhood

In your hood:

NEWS & LIFESTYLE

3

Up close and personal

Countrywide

Kloof Street | 021 492 2455 | mlfwines.com/mullineux/our-wines AA Badenhorst Family Wines | christine@aabadenhorst.com | aabadenhorst.com Vilafonté | 021 886 4083 | vilafonte.com

The table is set for the second season of SA’s first Michelin-star chef Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen’s acclaimed TV show WORDS: CARLA REDELINGHUYS

IMAGE: SUPPLIED

J

an Hendrik has been a busy man since he last appeared on our TV screens in 2016. For starters, restaurant JAN’s Michelin star has been renewed four times. And then of course there’s the upcoming second season of JAN, which starts on 3 February on VIA (DStv channel 147) and Showmax.

“Season one showed viewers what happened after the Michelin star,” he says. “In season two, we take them back to where it all started,” explains Jan Hendrik.

The second season was shot over the course of two years in France, Italy and South Africa and continues to offer viewers a behind-the-scenes look at Jan Hendrik’s life in Nice, but this time around, they’ll also get to see a much more vulnerable side of the chef.

“My father and my grandmother passed away within three months of one another,” he says. “My grandmother was actually present at the opening of Restaurant Maria, which was named after her. A lot of the second season deals with me questioning why I do what I do.

The show’s director Carien Loubser has an amazing talent for getting me to open up in front of the camera, so you can expect a fair bit of tears from my side.”

Like season one, the second season of JAN will offer viewers a tour de force of breathtaking cinematography, especially when it comes to capturing the chef in his kitchen as he creates his exquisitely beautiful dishes that all have a bit of South Africa at their core. Think pap and snails, braaibroodjie macarons and blue cheese filled with moskonfyt.

Seconds anyone?

If your wine budget has a New Year’s hangover, look out for these second-label wines from some of the the county's leading producers WORDS: RICHARD HOLMES IMAGES: SUPPLIED & SHUTTERSTOCK

T

here are times to splurge on a great bottle, and there are times to treat your credit card with a little compassion.

January is one of the latter.

But that’s no reason to hold back on a great glass of wine, as many of the Cape’s award-winning producers offer superb “second-label” wines. They’re usually crafted from younger vineyards, or fruit that doesn’t quite make the cut for the flagship label, but in the hands of the same winemakers they over-deliver on value and quality.

The Kloof Street range is a fine example of just that. Acclaimed winemaker Andrea Mullineux is the talent behind this affordable selection, and while her flagship releases under the Mullineux & Leeu Family Wines label sell for north of R1,000, Kloof Street won’t leave a hole in you pocket.

The Kloof Street Swartland Rouge (R130) is drawn from eight vineyards across the region with tinta barocca, syrah, grenache, cinsault and carignan delivering perfume, fruit, spice and body. The Kloof

Street Chenin Blanc (R105) relies on the star grape of the Swartland, drawn from three old vineyards planted more than 38 years ago.

Just down the road, Adi Badenhorst is something of a cult figure in the Swartland, excelling at everything from fine wine to agave spirit. The AA Badenhorst Family Wines are a fine choice for special occasions, but his Secateurs range offers remarkable value for everyday drinking, with a red blend, chenin blanc and rosé, priced between R119 and R149. There’s the same skilled winemaking, at a fraction of the price.

That applies just as neatly to Seriously Old Dirt by Vilafonté, a Bordeaux-style blend of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot and malbec from vineyards on the border of Stellenbosch and Paarl.

Vilafonté’s flagship Series C and Series M have garnered global acclaim and rightly become local icons, but they come with a hefty price tag. A bottle of Seriously Old Dirt by Vilafonté, on the other hand, sells for around R250 a bottle. A fine addition to the wine rack to tide you over until payday.

“The dishes tie in with the emotional themes of each episode,” explains

Jan Hendrik. “When I pay homage to my father, for example, I create a dish that centres around Hansa – the only beer he ever drank – and another one that’s a tribute to his favourite pap tart, which turns out to be this fantastical sculptural creation.”

Travel will form a central theme of season two, specifically destinations that helped shape Jan Hendrik’s food philosophy during his early days in Europe. In France, he returns to the site of his first ever Michelin-restaurant dining experience, introduces viewers to traditional French delicacies like snails, frogs’ legs and pigs’ feet, and revisits the old chateau where he once lived.

His travels also include a pilgrimage to Italy’s Piedmont region, the home of world-renowned cheeses, wines, olives and Nutella.

The last leg of the journey takes place in South Africa, where the show visits the new JAN Innovation Studio in Cape Town and viewers get to meet Jan Hendrik’s mother. “There’s an episode where I’m driving in the car with her and we talk about things we’ve never discussed before; important things,” says Jan Hendrik. “We end up going to a restaurant where I have way too much wine and end up with a serious case of dronkverdriet. I’d definitely say this season is much more personal than the first.”

As a final treat, viewers will get a taster of what to expect from Jan Hendrik’s first South African restaurant Klein JAN, which is situated on a farm in the Kalahari and guaranteed to make jaws drop when it opens its doors later this year. “But that’ll be a whole season in itself!” he says, laughing.

4

PROPERTY NEWS

26 JANUARY 2020

Neighbourhood

Property focus

Schools score points Here’s how the presence of good schools in a neighbourhood impacts buyer choice and property price WORDS: KIT HEATHCOCK IMAGES: SUPPLIED & SHUTTERSTOCK

NEWLANDS

G

ood schools have always been the defining factor of a familyfriendly suburb. You only have to look at Cape Town’s Southern Suburbs with its preponderance of top schools to see the historic popularity of property within the catchment areas of those schools.

Today with growing populations and shortages of schools it’s even more important to choose the right area. “Competition for space in good schools is increasing annually and there’s usually a waiting list,” says Samuel Seeff, chairman, Seeff Property Group. “Proximity to schools has become one of the top drivers of property demand in most areas.”

And as traffic congestion rises together with petrol prices, the attraction of living within walking distance of the school of your choice, saving time on the school run and driving to afterschool activities, grows apace.

SILVER LAKES GOLF & WILDLIFE ESTATE, PRETORIA

“As a result of the demand, properties close to good schools generally achieved a premium of around 20% to 40% more compared to properties which are not close to schools,” says Seeff. “Interestingly, while schools are a great advantage and selling point for family buyers and people with children, they’re a deterrent and disadvantage for older buyers who don’t want to live close to school noise or traffic.”

Current property climate In a property market that is currently slow, the top school catchment areas are proving the most resilient.

“Homes close to good schools and universities have proven to be a good investment, tending to hold their value better in challenging economic times. School-belt suburbs are also popular for rentals and hence offer

good investment prospects, the same for university precincts. During an economic decline, rental demand tends to peak, so school areas are likely to currently experience high demand,” says Seeff.

In Rosebank, Joburg, Frikkie van Eeden, broker/owner of RE/MAX Advantage, is seeing this factor play out. “We’ve had a slowdown in the mid- to luxury segment of the market.

Anything above R3m has not been easy to sell. But we’ve seen that sales close to the top schools were the ones attracting the buyers. Anything within walking distance from Jan Cilliers, probably the most soughtafter Afrikaans primary school in Joburg, has been in great demand.”

New suburbs As suburbs grow and new lifestyle estates spread out from the fringes of cities, the addition of new schools is essential to creating new family-friendly property enclaves.

Des Hauser, sales manager, Pam Golding Properties Alberton and Johannesburg South, sees this happening with the proliferation of secure estates in his area.

“Johannesburg South is in essence a hub, with scholars commuting from far and wide and families relocating here for quality of life. The supply and demand for schools in these areas are in its infancy and corporate private schools not yet present are scouting and investing aggressively in our area.”

Gareth Bailey, Pam Golding Properties area principal, Durban Coastal, highlights the importance of schools in new development areas.

“While our North Coast property belt is developing at a relentless rate, fortunately there are sufficient plans in place to deliver quality schools and tertiary institutions to meet the educational needs of these suburbs. The establishment of quality schools and universities in areas such as these will have a significant effect on the strength of these property markets in the long run.”

Well-established estates are demonstrating the truth of this. Inge de Klerk, Pam Golding Properties Silver Lakes says, “Silver Lakes Golf and Wildlife Estate, one of Pretoria’s top-performing suburbs according to Lightstone, offers direct access to Curro Hazeldean. The estate is also located close to the German School, hence the area is popular with German clients. Information about schools is normally one of the first questions buyers ask. We find that there’s a price difference of between 10% to 15% of similar properties in and outside the school catchment.”

Long-term investment Whether you’re buying a home for a growing family or as an investment property, it’s the nearby schools that define that all-important location, location, location factor, and that’s not likely to change.

“Owing to entrance requirements based on proximity, many buyers with young families choose a suburb purely based on the schooling district they want to be in and will refuse to look at properties that lie outside of these areas,” says Adrian Goslett, regional director and CEO, RE/MAX of Southern Africa. “For this reason, those who are looking for properties purely based upon investment value ought to consider properties within one of the catchment areas of a reputable schooling district as the demand for these properties will always exist as long as the school maintains its reputation.”

26 JANUARY 2020

Neighbourhood

PROPERTY NEWS

5

In addition to the fabulous coastal location, Sunningdale and Parklands offer a familyfriendly environment with about 20 top schools including private schools such as Parklands College, CBD St John’s, Elkanah House, Curro (Parklands North) and a new Rallim. There’s also an international school in the area.

CLINTON MARTLE, SEEFF BLOUBERG

CLAREMONT UPPER

WOODHILL GOLF ESTATE, PRETORIA

Cape Town’s Southern Suburbs are home to about 160 schools and the highest concentration of topperforming schools in terms of matric pass rate. Newlands and Rondebosch offer access to 18 top schools including Bishops, Rondebosch Boys, Westerford High, SACS (South African College School) and Rustenburg Girls’ High School, Sans Souci Girls’ High, Westerford High, Herschel Girls’ School, Waldorf School, Reddam and more.

JAMES LEWIS, SEEFF SOUTHERN SUBURBS

HURLINGHAM, JOBURG

6

PROPERTY NEWS

26 JANUARY 2020

Neighbourhood

If these walls could talk If you’re short of garden space but keen on herbs, let them climb the wall – either DIY it or employ an expert WORDS: ANNE SCHAUFFER

IMAGE: SUPPLIED

T

here are a number of very nifty wall systems for planting, so if you’re not a handyman or even green fingered, listen to Sean O’Connor, director of Living Green Walls.

“It’s best to stick with a reliable ‘living green wall’ system that has been designed or engineered to sustain any plants, especially edibles (herbs and vegetables).

I would recommend using either the VertiPocket or the MVG plant wall system.”

Looking at the prices, these systems aren’t cheap, but if you’re committed to this for the long haul, it’s worth it. The VertiPocket is 1m long and 1,8m high, holds around 60 edible plants, and can be attached to almost any wall surface (starting retail price around R5,650).

The MVG system also attaches to most wall surfaces, is 1,2m long and 2,1m high, 60 pockets, and retails for around R8,700.

Care

“Edibles enjoy a lot of good natural light,” says Sean. Three to four hours a day of direct sunlight will suffice for their growth and flowering (fruiting). Watering is best done on a daily basis to keep the plants’ roots moist, especially if the plants are in direct sunlight.

Having said that, most living wall systems have built-in water reticulation systems.”

Functional and good looking?

Sean isn’t convinced about the goodlooking aspect. “You must decide for what purpose you want a planted wall.

If you want to feed a family of four, for example, then it’s going to be a ‘functional’ vegetable-producing machine, rather than a beautiful feature that fits into a garden design or interior design. If you’re looking to install a planted wall for beauty’s sake, think twice about planting edibles.”

Can we companion plant in this?

“Absolutely,” says Sean. “We often refer to that genre of planting as ‘herbaceous plants’ (some edible, some not). Companion planting is key to keeping pests away, but get the advice of your local nursery on what plants to use for specific herbs.”

Certain plants are really disliked by pests, and if you companion plant cleverly, you can end up with few invaders – the ideal solution for edible plants.

Keep the wall looking good

It’s not easy when you’re constantly picking for the table. Sean says if you’re creating an edible planted wall that really works for you, it’s best to get a good understanding of what grows best each season. “Then focus on replanting your living wall every season for best results and production. For example, basil grows well in the summer months, but after it has flowered and the cooler winter months kick in, most basil plants start to die back. It’s best at this point to remove the plants from the system, and plant a winter growing seeding like spring onions, kale or lemon thyme.”

He adds, “It’s best to avoid plants with deep root systems and bulbous plants (like onion, beetroot and potatoes). Herbs like sweet rocket, flat-leafed parsley and coriander, mint and strawberry are great options for living walls.”

EXPERIENCE IT FOR YOURSELF Living Green Walls 079 907 1521 livinggreenwalls.co.za

AGENTS ARE EXPERT PROBLEM SOLVERS Negotiating is a tricky business and contracts can be problematic.

Are you familiar with legalities or how to ensure that a contract protects you? Registered estate agents are licensed professionals with experience of moving transactions forward smoothly.

Another good reason why you should use an estate agent

www.rebosa.co.za

REAL ESTATE BUSINESS OWNERS OF SOUTH AFRICA

BASEMENT STOREROOMS INCLUDED IN THE PRICE FOR THE 1 BED, 2 BED & PENTHOUSE APARTMENTS

MONTESSORI SCHOOL COMING SOON

1 BED 1 BATH

2 BED 2 BATH

3 BED 2 BATH

R1 484 900

R1 969 900

R2 434 900

from

from

from