Saturday, 21 March, was a successful last day of the Karoo Food Festival held in Cradock for the 3rd annual time, in more than one way. Not only did the festival-goers get to experience a taste of real Karoo food, they also got to take some generational knowledge away from Cradock.
The last workshop at the Karoo Food Festival saw Lani from True Living host a three-generational food workshop along with her daughter, Louzel, and mother-in-law, Delene Lombard.
Lani demonstrated making artisanal ciabatta to the guests, while Delene taught them how to debone a chicken. Louzel then lastly took these two elements and combined them to create a final dish composed of both ladies’ skills.
Afterwards guests could taste the end product, a deboned, bread-crumb stuffed chicken roulade, paired with good Pinot Noir wine.
What made the event even more special than anyone – even Lani and Louzel – had anticipated, was the moment Louzel’s grandmother awarded her with a knife that has been in the Lombard family since the dawn of the 20th century. The knife had originally belonged to Delene’s mother-in-law, the Cradock food legend, ouma Tok.
Holding back the tears, Delene gave the sentimental gift to Louzel reciting the following poem by Will Allen Dromgoole:
The Bridge Builder
An old man going a lone highway,
Came at the evening, cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast, and deep and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim;
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned, when safe on the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.
“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim, near,
“You are wasting strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again will pass this way;
You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide-
Why build you this bridge at the evening tide?”
The builder lifted his old gray head:
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There followeth after me today,
A youth, whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm, that has been naught to me,
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him.”
