On Friday we had a pretty busy day with regards our reptilian friends in the Valley. One Olive House Snake, and then this bugger.

Quite annoyed at the treatment it received from a few farm workers, fortunately it appears that there was no major damage to the snake and I managed to snap these few pics while the better snake handler in the valley, Richard, was in the process of releasing said snake.

A thing of immense beauty, they still manage to scare the living daylights out of me but boy these are stunning creatures. The thing with snakes is just remember they want to get out of there alive just as you do. Mutual respect. This really was a magnificent specimen.

And it’s a clear marker summers now here when we start seeing these big boys out and about..

Last week we had the King Protea, a magnificent part of the Fynbos family.

This week we move onto The Protea Scabra, which is possibly one of the most fantastic looking plants I have ever seen. So we turn our attention to the man with the knowledge, Rob…

This week’s installment takes a quick turn away from the medicinal fynbos aspects (although I am serious need of a few buchu brandies to help the babelas today)

This week we are looking at Protea scabra, from a group called the Dwarf-tufted sugarbushes, we have a very nice stand of the scabra flowering after a fire which ravaged the area almost two years ago.  What is interesting or unique about this group of proteas  is that they have underground stems, tufts of leaves sprout around where a flower head will come up, so not your typical flowering protea head.  As you can see quite distinctive.

These two flowering now look pretty different to the pics I have online and those in my books, what I think has happened is that mice have gone in and ruffled the feathers ( so to speak).  I can’t for the life of me find where I read it but these are pollinated by rodents as far as I can remember.   What is surprising to me is that the reference books I have refer to the habitat as montane, which we are certainly nowhere near.   It has been great to see the response this stand has had after the fire, they are flowering like crazy at the moment and putting on quite a show.  Which is also quite rare, as we are used to seeing them flowering around July to October.  Testament to the wet and cold winter we have had that they are flowering later than usual.

http://www.livingfynbos.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=3294

http://fernkloof.com/species.mv?146

When we talk business at the farm, there is usually a glass of wine involved. Two weeks ago was just such an occasion. Rob and myself were talking about the Fynbos Walks he wants to do more of in summer.

Rob is passionate about fynbos like Riaan Cruywagen is passionate about the news. Testament to this is the fresh approach we are taking with Fynbos Fridays. Another is the Fynbos Walks he arranges on the farm, and we wanted to talk about this quite soon.

Surfing around tonight (on the interwebs) I came across just such an experience, on Tripadvisor. Here is what they had to say:

“We recently had our semi-annual “wine vacation” in Franschoek and this time did something REALLY different; we booked a guided fynbos walk with Rob Armstrong, managing director at Haut Espoir wine estate. It is such a unique and refreshing thing to do in the valley and we hope more people will take advantage of this resource in the future. Lest you think Franschoek is “only” about good food and drink, think again …

After the walk, Rob does a lovely wine tasting in their beautifully appointed facilities. Please note that the length and level of difficulty of the walk can be adjusted. Our walk was about 1.5 hours long and quite strenuous, but Rob can tailor this to individual needs.”

The entire article can be found here.

To contact Rob, please go across to our Contact Page and book your trip today…

Haut Espoir has recently upgraded our daily look into farm life. Whilst our website is now a little more corporate (with Rob and Mom keeping an eye over the new web guy) we still want to offer you a daily look into the farm and what goes on here, and some interesting articles we find around the internet.

So, we have created an account with Posterous, a simple tumble blog, and you can find it HERE.

There are even rumor spreading around The Hoek that we might get our winemaker to contribute, but they are rumors and we cannot confirm that any of this is actually true.

Have a surf across and keep a daily eye out for changes…

Naturally, a good way to find this out would be to follow us on Twitter on our page, HERE. You know we gave away some Gentle Giant on twitter last week, right?

You missed out?

Shame.

Keep watching….

Protea Cynaroides

King Protea

Instead of one image today, we have an entire gallery, so please click through the pictures to your right…

Apart from being our national flower, and on the chests of our sporting heroes, this is one of my personal favourites on the farm, certainly when flowering this species has the most awesome display of colour and sheer magnificence out of the protea family.    The sugarbirds look particularly regal when perched on top one of these thrones, and they make such a nice home for all the beetles and ants coming to collect pollen.

All in all one of the more prolific flowering proteas, and very easy to grow and cultivate.

“Possible the most spectacular flower in the world” says Sima Eliovson.  And this from the inside cover of her book- Proteas for Pleasure  (note from Rob – I love collecting old fynbos books)

Lure of the Protea

Where silver rocks reflect the mountain streams,

The Protea holds aloft its stately head-

Majestic flower to prompt the thoughts of men,

According to their nature and their dreaming.

To some it seems a giant artichoke,

While others link it to the ancient god

For whom ‘tis named-

The ruby glow and allied silky beard

Evoke the mystery of primeval days;

A traveler, who ranges far from home,

Will quicken at its sight and yearn

And envy the sugarbirds,

That dip into the gleaming cup,

While swaying gently in the wind.

Sima Eliovson.

Click here for some information from the PlantzAfrica web page about this amazing plant.

And a link to an extensive protea database:

The Database. As a South African, you should know more about this plant. Its such a part of our heritage.

Continuation of the theme from last week, Fynbos Friday returns this week, on a special day, being Friday the 13th.

Things often go pear shaped on a Friday the 13th, there have been numerous reasons to celebrate (birthdays, shiraz showcases, life in general). On top of the celebrations its also been a pretty stressful week (foul weather, heavy rain and murderous winds have pretty much eradicated any hopes of a bumper Shiraz harvest). And when this combination of ups and downs comes along, the body usually fights back by getting man flu. There is no better Fynbos magic to combat this scourge than the Sour Fig. If I’m ever feeling a little down health wise, I go and chew on a few of the fresh leaves. It carries a caution..it tastes pretty vile. Unless you have the constitution of an ox or are big into extremely bitter tastes, then find some honey before attempting this home remedy.

This amazing plant has many helpful benefits agriculture wise, it is a very vigorous growing plant, we use it for settling any areas on the farm affected by run off, it holds back the force of the water remarkably well. And on the health side, as you will see from the link, it has many helpful internal uses to boot.

When I was a ranger at Bushmanskloof up in the Cederberg, one of the old farmers told me how he uses it successfully for removing hair from pelts. Also, whenever we had fires up there, if we ever wanted to find tortoises or snakes, we would go hunting for the thick patches of the Suurvy, as you were guaranteed to find some reptilian action happening on the fire resistant leaf mass.

It really is an all round wonder plant. Kind of like the aspirin of the fynbos.

And its so easy to grow from cutting. Like falling off a horse.

To quote Jeremy Clarkson… “And on that bombshell, its time to say goodnight”.

Shiraz South Africa announces first Shiraz Showcase

This thursday, at the CTICC on 12 November 2009, Shiraz SA, the recently formed organization for all producers of Shiraz, are having a very unique tasting, and Haut Espoir are proud to be a part of the experience.

Shiraz SA have just announced their presentation of the first ever Shiraz Showcase where approximately 60 winemakers from South Africa will be exhibiting their best Shiraz wines.

The event will take place on Thursday 12 November 2009 in the Jasminum Restaurant at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Tickets will be limited to 300. Wine lovers and enthusiasts will not only be able to taste the best wines showcased by local producers but also some imported Shiraz products as well as the latest winners from national and international wine competitions.

The Shiraz Showcase will be presented between 17:30 and 20:30. This gives all lovers of Shiraz an excellent opportunity to pop in after work and taste this very exciting line-up of local and overseas wines.

Tickets, at R100.00 per person include a glass and catalogue of all the wines on show, and can be booked through Computicket, Shoprite Checkers or Checkers Hyper. It is advisable to purchase tickets prior to the event as no collection facilities will be available at the venue. More information can be obtained from http://www.computicket.com/

According to Edmund Terblanche, Chairman of Shiraz SA, the association’s mission is to focus on the promotion of the image of South African Shiraz. “In our pursuit of this we want to create a sustainable culture of acceptance and enjoyment around the world for South African Shiraz as well as maintain an organization that will fulfill the needs of its members.

Shiraz SA recently staged a most successful technical workshop and tasting which was attended by more than 100 winemakers and viticulturists. International as well as local producers took part in panel discussions that covered a number of topics.

We will be doing our tasting with our Shiraz 2005 and the Syrah 2006, two wines we are extremely proud of. There is a difference between Shiraz and Syrah and Rob will be more than willing to explain if you attend. Hope to see you there.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Elsabé Ferreira at 083 309 7621 or Sandra Lotz at 082 924 7254

As a part of the new look and feel web presence to Haut Espoir, we are going to focus our biodiversity initiative with a weekly look at something new in Fynbos.

First off, maybe we should do a quick recap on what fynbos is. Defined on the Fynbos.co.za web page as:

Fynbos is the term given to a collection of plants (a vegetation type) that is dominated by shrubs and comprises species peculiar to South Africa’s southwestern and southern Cape. Fynbos is characterised by four growth forms : tall protea shrubs with large leaves (proteoids); heath-like shrubs (ericoids); wiry reed-like plants (restioids); and bulbous herbs (geophytes). When the Dutch arrived at the Cape in the mid 17th century they required timber for building. The Cape offered little exploitable forest, although there were a few patches near Kirstenbosch and at Hout Bay. Remnants of these forests can still be seen today. The predominant vegetation had timber too slender or fine for harvesting, and was thus apparently given the name ‘fijnbosch’. Restioids, all members of the southern hemisphere family Restionaceae make up the growth form which uniquely characterises fynbos.

With more than 7000 species crammed into 46,000 square kilometres, biodiversity at the species level is the highest in the world. The Cape Peninsula alone hosts 2285 plant species in an area less than a hundredth of the size of the British Isles, in which only 1500 different plant species occur.

Now that we have all that cleared up, we are going to do a weekly posting, always on a friday, on a species of fynbos. The aim is education of something which we should all be proud of, something completely unique to the Western Cape, and something you should know more about.

This week we are talking about the Wachendorfia. It’s probably one of the more striking flowering plants we have in our fynbos area right now. When it opens up as it is doing here, the spray of yellow is remarkably dazzling. Known by its Afrikaans name, the spinnekopblom, this is one of the fynbos friends we will be using in our soon to be commissioned wetland effluent plant. In its natural environment it favours the riverine areas and wetlands a great deal. And adds such amazing colour at this time of year when the fynbos tends to start losing colour before the dry season.

This taken from South African Wild Flower Guide 5, Anne Bean and Amida Johns.

Wachendorfia paniculata

A slender more or less hairy perennial, to 70cm high, with reddish, tuberous roots and a fan of pleated leaves up to 40cm long, as long as or shorter than the flowering stem. The yellow flowers are up to 25mm long and often have dark markings. Bracts are papery. One of the 3 stamens grows in a direction opposite from the off centre syle, which is possibly an arrangement to reduce self pollination. The 3-chambered ovary has one seed per chamber. Flowering abundantly after fire. It is recorded in well drained sands and coarse gravels from Clanwilliam to Port Elizabeth. (Sept – Oct)