Tag Archives: Chrisna’s Olives

Kamers fills rooms with decor, food, music, and presents! Cape Town City Hall 7 – 10 May.

Kamers herfs-2015-flyer-vir-blogOver the years Kamers (vol Geskenke in the past) has established itself as a national pop-up treasure trove of handcrafted creativity, celebrating its 13th Kamers in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Organised in Cape Town in partnership with the Cape Craft & Design Initiative (CCDI), Kamers opens in the City Hall on Thursday, and runs until Sunday.  Last year the four Kamers shows jointly attracted 58000 visitors, and showcased about 250 invited exhibitors.  The organisers continuously look for new design talent, and display this in  a pop-up venue, often changing.  Last year I was impressed with the use of The Castle as the pop-up venue.  It is only the second year that Kamers is on show in Cape Town.

Some of the more than 100 Cape Town exhibitors include M Patisserie from Continue reading →

Kamers food and design market builds on history of The Castle of Good Hope, first time in Cape Town!

Kamers Cover picOn Thursday I was invited to the opening of the Kamers food and design pop-up event, which is being held inside and outside the extensive The Castle, an apt venue as The Castle  of Good Hope was home to the market in Cape Town in early days.

Kamers started off in Stellenbosch twelve years ago when a collection of friends organised it as Kamers vol Geskenke, and its timing was close to Christmas, allowing one to buy unusual, unique, and stylish presents to give as gifts.   At that time they started with 40 stands, now they have 140, chosen out of a list of 600 applicants, we were told by the founder of the event, Wanda du Toit.  Her official title is Creative Director. Other members of the organising team include Magdel Kemp, Amelia van Zyl, and Hesta du Plessis.  Kamers has never been held in Cape Town, so hosting it in the city as well as in The Castle is a double historic event.  Now Kamers is spread over four events throughout the year, in Stellenbosch, Pretoria, and for the first time in Johannesburg and Cape Town this year.  It is organised by a team of twelve, and no one ever leaves, said Wanda.   Unique to the Cape Town event is the collaboration with the Cape Craft & Design Initiative (CCDI), a collective of 5000 small design and craft enterprises, which are offered business and marketing support to assist them in growing their businesses, to help them grow, and to enable them to employ staff, said Erica Elk, its Executive Director. World Design Capital 2014 has endorsed Kamers.

On arrival at The Castle, we were guided to park furthest from The Castle building, and fill up the space in this way, not making sense at all, the latecomers being lucky enough to park closest to The Castle building!  It was difficult to find the venue for the media launch, a number of us entering the building housing the William Fehr Collection. An Iziko Museums staff member was unfriendly in pointing us generally down a passage with her walkie-talkie, without explanation. Kamers Calvyn Gilfellan Whale Cottage PortfolioShe had no clue about Kamers taking place on the property, or where the media function was, and fortunately a colleague could guide us to a completely different building.  In the launch address Wanda hinted at some of the issues they had in using The Castle buildings, being a Military-owned property with rules and regulations, which created some challenges for the organisers, but these were not visible to us, other than the attitude of the Iziko staff and the parking ‘organisation’.  I fed back the problem with the Iziko Museums staff to Calvyn Gilfellan, the CEO of The Castle, who told me immediately that the Iziko Continue reading →

Good Food & Co Deli opens in Franschhoek!

Good Food & Co Michelle and Kim Whale Cottage Portfolio

The Franschhoek Food Emporium was a favourite stop in Franschhoek, until it closed down a year ago.  Fortunately it has just re-opened as Good Food & Co, with a new owner Johanita Henning and Chef Kim Cox, and does not look very different to its past interior.  It was a delight to see Michelle van Sittert again, who was at Sacred Ground when it opened, and was a fantastic asset for the bakery/coffee shop.

Kim is the chef, whom I have met twice already, and she prepares the cooked foods, and orders the stock from the best suppliers.  Her meat comes from Ryan Boon, for example, who distributes Spier’s Farmer Angus’ beef.  Her lamb comes from Fairview.  In her display cabinet Continue reading →

V&A Market on the Wharf opens at the V&A Waterfront!

The long awaited V&A Market on the Wharf has opened in the historic building near the V&A Hotel in the V&A Waterfront, which once housed Planet Hollywood, David Kramer’s Theatre, and Musica, with more than fifty vendors displaying their food and beverage offerings. It is Cape Town’s first permanent market, operating from Wednesdays to Sundays, from 9h30 – 19h30.

Owned by Greg Anderson, or ‘Bubbles’ as Vaughn Johnson informed me, who took over the management of the Market when the previous operators pulled out, the Market offers a kosher deli, fresh seafood, meat, fruit and vegetables, baked ware and delicacies.  Greg impressed with his passion, and kindly offered me a V&A Market on the Wharf branded shopping bag, to ‘hide’ my Woolworths bag!  Greg is proud of the large number of new business owners that have joined as vendors, very few having been seen at any other markets in Cape Town.  V&A Waterfront tenants Vaughn Johnson and Ian Halfon had come to have a look, and we had coffee and tea together.

A last-minute building regulation hitch saw the opening of the Market delayed by two days to last Friday. The space is large, one main hall with an upstairs section housing the craft beer bar and seating for Continue reading →