Photographic Competition Closing Date Extended To 31 July 2009

Just under a month to get your entries in, no more pushing back of the closing date. The deadline is the end of July. The promises of entries have been earnest and there is almost a month to live up to to those promises. This is Philadelphia - creative hub of the Koeberg/Swartland region - not a suburban void of imagination like Hout Bay.

Now, get out your Kodak Brownies, Polaroids, Hasseblads and Samsungs and do the right thing.

More Nuwedorp plots on the way:? NG Kerk ponders latest offer.

Philadelphia is a unique and desirable place to live in, ask the residents. And judging by the frequent interest shown in the region, developers feel the same way. The most recent overture toward the NG Kerk, owner of the farmland surrounding the village, is an offer to purchase 3 to 3.5ha adjacent to and directly above the “Nuwedorp” for the purpose of residential development.

The Kerk has started to put out feelers to gauge the response to such a proposal. As in any property deal the owner can sell it to any buyer willing to pay the price. Community comment is called upon where there is an application to change the existing zoning or usage of the land in question: in this case converting agricultural land to residential erven. Always a controversial issue in a small town where development of any kind is felt all the more acutely; it is encouraging that the Kerk has sought the input of the residents at this early stage.

"Gedeelte A" depicts the land discussed.

Make your thoughts and ideas known by publishing your comments below.

Health, Herbs and Hints from The Philadelphia Village Grasshopper: Beat The Winter Blues

Anecdotes and Antidotes from our natural health specialist.

Beat the Winter Blues

The beauty of winter is in being able to snuggle up to the one you love and enjoy the warmth of each other and that of your home. Cold nights together with the extended darkness generally help promote deep sleep and if, like me you enjoy winter then you will spend time outside at play or work. Others, not as fortunate as to be blessed with my lust for life, may become stricken by the ‘winter blues’ as this time of the year places heavy demands on our immune system. Temperature changes from indoors to outdoors; vehicle, building ventilation and heating systems all foster a breeding ground for those intrepid germs and viruses. As a young man, I was a chef in the SANDF and whenever I felt a cold coming on, I would walk into the freezer room at a temperature of -17 degrees and I would breathe so deeply my lungs would burn from the cold. Then I would run to the oven and breathe the hot air and after doing this for most of the day, my fellow comrades would insist I was quite loopy. I never did establish if this was an effective treatment of the common cold but it made me feel quite resilient to colds or just full of hot air. As Pooh Bear said to Piglet one cold winter morning: “Sneeze on me and you’re dead”. It’s never more appropriate than now to practice preventative health and to build your immunity with supplementation to combat viral infections naturally. One point of view is that God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and not in a pharmacy, to be healthy and prosper, and it will serve us well to remember that the body needs good nutrition to heal and maintain good health.

Avoiding the Winter Blues is easier than you think if we just take the time to enjoy herbal tea made from simple home grown or acquired produce every morning or whenever it suits us. Here is an easy tea recipe that works for me:

Immune tea

· 1 Fresh slice of lemon 2mm thick.

· 1 tsp raw honey . See footnote (1)

· 4 Pelargonium pieces4 fresh mint leaves. See footnote (2)

· 10 drops of olive leaf tincture. See footnote (2)

Make this tea and drink it whenever you like and reap the benefit of good health. Then there is the more conventional but natural approach which involves taking supplements that are designed and bought over the counter at your favorite health store, SoWell, of course. Visit us and we will be able to advise you on products that not only suit your budget but also deliver great results.

Until next time, be healthy and stay So Well. Tel: 021 5566200 or 021 9818035

Grasshopper

Footnotes:

(1) Get the best raw honey on the planet right here in Philadelphia from the Dehning Apiary, Ou Pastorie, 0836986306, dehningc@gmail.com or from So Well, see (2) below.

(2) So Well Health Shop- Quality, owner-run health shop. Table View or CapeGate Centre. Tel: 021 5566200 or 021 9818035, juicer@telkomsa.net

Philadelphia Photographic Contest- Update

So far the response has been large in enthusiasm yet initially small in number. The Dehnings of the Ou Pastorie are certain to give us a pastoral peek at life on a small Philadelphia farm. And Neil Smith of the Nuwe Dorp to astound us with some slick pixel pushing.

The stakes are high: a bottle of highly unobtainable Baken St Beaujoulais, the entry deadline has been pushed back to the 15th of July 2009. Such indulgence will not be granted another time. Take heed, take pictures and send them to: greg@rentalscapetown.com

Epilogue: Comments, descriptions, background stories or original verse may accompany the photographic entries.

Published from my Nokia E71

Philadelphia Bugle Photographic Contest

No longer autumn, not quite the depths of winter. It seems that in the time it takes to pull a woolly jumper over your head that the rich brown freshly ploughed fields have turned green with young crop shootlets. Puddles to splosh through and the smell of wood fires in the early evening air are still a novelty, not the norm.

 

Get out your camera and capture your version of this transient time in Philadelphia in pixels (or on paper). The choice is yours: still life, scenery, an owl at 5am, laundry day, a face, a place, a hobby, a house, a visual ode to the cauliflower patch in your garden. The time has come to push the button.

 

The Rules:

 

2 photos per entrant.

Email entries to gargoyle@iafrica.com

Keep files below 1Mb per picture. If the file is large or the photo is on paper drop it off at The Klipdakhuis, 23 Baken St or at P. O. Box 88, Philadelphia.

You have a month, until the 30th of June 2009, to submit your efforts. 

 

The Prize:

 

A bottle of very limited edition 2009 Baken St Beaujolais. 

The Klipdakhuis Kombuis brings you Philadelphia Sourdough

40% Rye/60% Wheat Sourdough Bread

Makes 2 loaves weighing roughly 750g each.

Here is a recipe for a traditional sourdough bread whose biggest ingredients are time and patience. You will be rewarded by a dark, crusty loaf with an interior that has a wonderful mix of airy bounce, satisfying chewiness and  creamy, tangy  yeasty flavours.

And the thing about a bread made only with quality flour, natural yeasts, a bit of salt, water, time and heat is that living processes transform these simple substances into a nutritious, easy-to-digest wholefood.

Some special equipment and preparation is required for this bread; nothing fancy or expensive but essential to getting a perfect finished product.

A baking stone- the bread stands on this in the oven. Options available are natural terra cotta, granite or quartzite. It is important that no chemical sealants or lead-based glazes have been used on your stone.

• A water bottle with fine sprayer.
  
• A piece of stiff cardboard to assist in sliding the loaves into the oven.

INGREDIENTS

Flour- Use the best flour you can get, this is the very substance of the bread. I use Eureka Stone Ground rye and white bread flour. You can get their flour at the outlets shown here: http://www.eurekamills.co.za/distributors.php

Water- the other main ingredient. Not much you can do if you don't have a fresh mountain stream nearby but running it through a basic commercial filter should at least get the chlorine taint out of it.

Salt- Not just to release the flavour of the finished loaf but to condition the mix and provide some mineral nutrients for the fermentation. The dead white iodated crystals that take up shelf space in the supermarkets work but you are making something special here. Get a real unprocessed sea salt like Khoisan or similar.

Starter:

The engine that will drive your bread's rising process. Get this done a couple of days before you start baking.

50g rye flour

80ml tepid water

1/2 teaspoon yeast

1/2 teaspoon sugar or honey

 

Put the ingredients in a jam jar, mix together thoroughly. You should end up with a fairly runny paste rather than a dough. Cover with a loose fitting lid or piece of cloth and leave in a warm area. After about 12 hours the starter should be showing signs of life: slow bubbles followed by rising. Depending on temperature and time left to stand it can get a life of its own and climb out over the edges of the jar.

I took this one step further where I wanted to exclude commercial yeast from the process and create a wild yeast starter. Not only would I save a whole Rand spent on a yeast sachet but have the satisfaction that I had harnessed free-floating little organisms to work expertly on my bread.

 

If you want to go all primitive and do it this way then leave the yeast out of the above mix and catch some wild yeast.

 Leave the cover off the jar and let it stand for half a day or add a slice of unpeeled onion or potato to the mix. Be patient and don't get despondent; this is a slow and  suspense-filled waiting game.

After a 4 to 7 days the yeasts should be making their presence known. Congratulate yourself and take out the piece of potato or onion.  

*****

Sourdough:

Here we make the sourdough by adding the starter to the freshly made rye dough and allowing it to get this larger dough mass seething and rising.

480g rye flour

400ml water

80ml of starter as above

In some recipes for Italian breads this dough is known as the "biga". Add ingredients to a deep mixing bowl and mix using a mixer with dough hook or by hand with a strong spoon/paddle. Be thorough, making sure any dry flour at the base of the mix isn't left out.

Mix for about 6 to 10 minutes. The finished mix will be an almost runny batter rather than a solid, stretchy dough ball because of the lower gluten content of the rye.

Leave the mix in the bowl, cover and leave for 8 to 12 hours. The dough should rise to at least one and a half times its original height. Time taken is temperature dependent. At 25C and above it will bubble up steadily under its own steam. In winter you can help it along by placing it near the fire or other heat source or putting it in an oven that can be manipulated to maintain a low temperature. Don't let the mix get higher than about 35C- it could stress or kill the yeasts and dry out the dough.

 

The biga or sourdough

Important: make more starter using the residue of the old one and the same quantities of flour and water.

*****

The Final Dough

The addition of the wheat flour, last mix, and final maturation is carried out in this final stage before baking.

720g white bread flour

 400ml water

2 rounded teaspoonfuls of salt

80-100ml of starter

Add all of the ingredients to the sourdough and mix. If using a mixing machine us a dough hook. Most models of mixer will be operating at maximum capacity with this recipe. I'm not fond of electric kitchen appliances anyway and a better result is obtained by throwing the dough onto a well-floured surface once the ingredients have had an initial mixing by machine or spoon in the bowl. You will also get an arm and shoulder workout and develop a righteous appetite for the end product.

So, mixing or kneading, the idea is to get a stretchy, springy and creamy dough. Use flour generously on the counter and hands and fold, stretch and pummel your way through the metamorphosis.

Shape the dough into a round, sprinkle with flour, cover and leave to rise for 45min to 1hr. It should be about one and a half times its starting size.

Place the baking stone in the oven on a rack set in the middle of the oven. Turn on your oven to 240C. If you have a thermofan or other mechanism to speed and hotten up the heating process then turn it on. This bread needs to be cooked hot.

Divide the dough into two, Knock it down. In other words, knead and fold so that more air is introduced but the outer surface is never broken thereby conserving the gas bubbles within the mass.

Shape each dough portion. I make them round but you could do longer ovals. Place them on the cardboard (heavily floured) in such a way that you will easily be able to slide each of them from cardboard onto the baking stone inside the oven.  Cover.

Whilst the oven gets close to 240C let the dough rise again for 30 - 45min in a warm place.

Ready to go into the oven

****

Getting it Baked:

This is the easy bit. Quickly sprinkle some flour onto the baking stone. Now slide the dough onto the stone, one at a time. It gets easier with practice. Spray about 20 squirts of misted water over the bread.

Total baking time is about 40 to 50min; it will depend on your mix and oven.

 The bread will rise and darken quite dramatically in the first 15 to 20 min. Open the door and let off another 20 squirts over the bread and all over the oven.

After 20 - 25 min of baking the temperature can be decreased to 220C. Turn the loaves if they are cooking unevenly or spots are darkening excessively. The crust becomes a very dark brown almost rusty chocolate in hue. After 40 min the loaves will be nearing readiness: tap the crust and it should ring hard and hollowish. The base will do the same to a lesser extent.  Rather opt for a longer bake the first time around. A thicker, harder crust is the worst result of this bread being a bit overdone and you can cut the baking time to suit your precise taste next time.

A handsome pair of Philadelphia Sourdoughs

Remove the loaves and allow to cool for at least one-and-a-half hours.

I usually freeze one of the loaves once it has been left to cool for 6 hours and after wrapping in up well in a plastic bag. Or be generous and give the second loaf to a friend or relative. Only a deserving one, mind you.

Final word: look after your starter. Use the residue from your last mix, add flour and water, cover loosely and put in the fridge. You can safely leave it in cool hibernation for a couple of weeks. It may form a skin on its surface which can easily be lifted off. Take it out of the fridge the day before baking and re-energise with a bit of flour and water.

 Sunday, 17 May 2009

Waiter, there’s a fly in my soup….another, and another…

Philadelphia’s fly plague is relentless. No amount of flytraps hanging in the garden, Coopermatic devices, industrial grade electrical shockers, citronella candles and rolled up newspapers seems to diminish their numbers.

Municipal sewerage being used on fields near town appears to be the primary cause of this abnormal proliferation of pests.

The PBV’s corresepondence to the Health Department follows:

PHILADELPHIA BELASTINGBETALERSVERENIGING

PHILADELPHIA RATE PAYERS ASSOCIATION

 

PO Box/Posbus 62, Philadelphia, 7304

 6 Gerf Street, Philadelphia, 7304 / Gerfstraat 6, Philadelphia, 7304

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Per e-pos aan: reinhardt.avenant@capetown.gov.za.

 

Mnr Reinhardt Avenant

Brackenfell Gesondheidsentrum

Posbus 35

Brackenfell

7561

 

15 Mei 2009

 

Geagte Meneer Avenant

 

Insake storting van riool en vlieëprobleem Philadelphia

 

Namens die Philadelphia Belastingbetalers-Vereniging (PBV) stel ons hiermee op rekord dat die storting van riool op die omliggende landerye steeds ‘n ernstige vlieëprobleem vir die dorp en gemeenskap skep. Op Woensdag 6 Mei 2009 het die dagbestuur van die PBV ‘n vergadering met Subraad 7 se raadslid en bestuurder, mnre Claude Ipser en Dennis Smit, ter plaatse gehad en is die probleem weereens aan hulle uitgewys.

 

Desnieteenstaande bogenoemde vergadering wil ons die volgende punte direk onder die gesondheidsdepartement se aandag bring: 

 

1. Ons is van mening dat daar ‘n onbetwiste verband tussen die storting van die riool en die vlieëplaag is.  Hoewel daar al vir baie jare melk- en varkboerderye in die Koeberg bedryf word, was daar nooit ‘n vlieëplaag soos wat sedert die aanvang van die rioolstorting ondervind word nie.

 

2. Ons is van mening dat dit ernstige gesondheidsgevare vir die gemeenskap inhou. Buiten die private huishoudings ( huiseienaars sê hulle kan nie meer gaste vir ‘n buitebraai nooi nie), is hier openbare restaurante, soos die Wimpy, die Meul en Peppertree. Dié sake-ondernemings en ander wat in die toerismebedryf werk, word ernstig benadeel.  Eienaars ondervind ook weerstand met die verkoop van eiendomme.

 

3. Die vlieëplaag kos inwoners honderde rande per maand aan gifbespuiting en teenmaatreëls. Aangesien die eiers nou in die grond is, gaan die probleem nog vir jare voortduur selfs nadat die rioolstorting gestop is.  Hoewel die stadsraad bewus is van die gesondheidsprobleem, het hy die gemeenskap van geen raad voorsien vir die beheer nie en ook geen finansiële bydrae tot ons eie pogings gemaak nie.

 

4. Ons is teleurgesteld dat klagtes van inwoners nie na behore ondersoek en hulle deurlopend op hoogte van sake gehou word nie. Met ons vorige korrespondensie van Februarie tot Mei 2008 het ons verstaan dat die Stadsraad ons op hoogte sal hou van verdere stappe wat u neem om die probleem op te los.

 

5. Die oorsprong van die probleem is ons insiens dat die Stadsraad nie betyds beplan het vir die bou van rioolverwerkingsaanlegte nie, en dat dié swak beplanning op die landelike gemeenskappe afgelaai word sonder dat die verpligte gesondheidsregulasies behoorlik nagekom en gemoniteer word.  (Boubedrywighede is bv in Table View stopgesit omdat die rioolvoorsiening onvoldoende was.)

 

6.  Ons kan tot geen ander gevolgtrekking kom as dat die bepalings van die kontrak tussen die stadsraad en die kontrakteur (wat die riool op die lande gooi) a) gebrekkig is, b) dit ook nie na behore nagekom word nie, c)  en dat die voorwaardes ten opsigte van die monitering nie volgens die voorgeskrewe standaarde geskied nie. 

(Ons het talle ooggetuienis van hoe rou riool (nie verwerkte riool nie, maar nat, pap en stinkende menslike uitskeiding) op die R304 van die vragmotor afval en motors en die omgewing besoedel. Ons het ook van plaaswerkers verneem dat hierdie rou riool op die (Mesech-) landerye gegooi word sonder om verwerk of ingeploeg te word. Dat dit onverwerkte riool is, het ek persoonlik waargeneem Dinsdagnamiddag12 Mei toe die vragmotor dit op die R304 gestort het - en ek  hou dit steeds in ‘n plastieksak as u dit wil sien.)

 

7. Gevolglik versoek ons die Stadsraad om die onderhawige kontrak aan ons beskikbaar te stel, tesame met die moniteringsverslae sedert die kontrak in werking getree het.  Sou dit blyk dat die kontrakvoorwaardes en gesondheidsregulasies nie nagekom word nie, sal ons verplig wees om ons te beywer dat die kontrak opgeskort word.

 

Die uwe

 

Gerrit Boonstra

Voorsitter PBV

 

Gerfstraat 6

Philadelphia 7304

Kontak: (021) 9721326, 084-2054315, gboonstra@theweb.co.za

 

A.a.            Mnr. Deon Carstens, Philadelphia Boerevereniging

                  Prof. HC de Kock, KSKL, NG Kerk, Philadelphia

                  Mnr. Dennis Smit, Bestuurder, subraad 7

                  Mnr. Claude Ipser, raadslid,  subraad 7