Liesel van der Walt | WhaleTales Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein

The Sweet Service Award goes to Babylonstoren for the special care they took in the tour of their gardens when I brought my elderly parents. Head gardener Liesel van der Walt was very knowledgeable, made regular stops at points of interest, brought berries and edible flowers for us to taste, and she radiated the love for her job. We were also lucky to be able to book a table for inside Babel Restaurant, which is difficult to do, as they are so busy. The very busy Babylonstoren GM Terry de Waal made time to greet us as we were leaving, and to check if all had been in order, an impressive touch. Babylonstoren went more than the extra mile to accommodate our visit.

The Sour Service Award goes to Café Arts at Artscape, which is operated by contract caterers Fedics. It was packed with patrons before the start of the shows, and all tables had been taken, no wonder as the prices look unbelievably low. I was told that I could come back at interval for drinks, so I went across then for a cappuccino and a slice of cake. When I arrived at interval, almost all the restaurant tables had been stacked on top of each other, and it looked uninviting. The Manager could not understand that I took offence to this, pointing to the bar chairs at the counter. I asked for a packet for the take-away cake, and the chef was quite aggressive about saying that they did not have one, yet her staff managed to find one after she had left. One of the Café Arts staff sneaked into the ballet during the show, causing a disturbance to the audience when the door opened.

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog. Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com. Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.

I have previously written about the new Babel Tea House and also about Babel Restaurant at Babylonstoren. On each of these visits I did not fully comprehend the wealth of work that has gone into planning, developing and maintaining the extensive 3,5 ha fruit and vegetable garden, with 350 edible fruit and vegetable varieties.

Wishing to spoil my parents, I invited them for a visit to the wine estate, and we were taken around by head gardener Liesel van der Walt, a charming and passionate ambassador for the garden, providing lots of information, and picking edible flowers (Day lilies) and berries for us to eat, and vegetable flowers (carrot and onion) for us to keep. Liesel was at Kirstenbosch for 20 years, and originally did some contract gardening on the estate before joining Babylonstoren a year ago, managing a team of 15 gardeners. She showed us the Babylonstoren, a hill after which the estate has been named, and laughingly said that soon they too can have the ‘Hanging Gardens of Babylon’! There are three ponds closest to the shop, and we started the garden tour here. A dam each contains waterblommetjies, tilapia fish, and rainbow trout. Continue reading →