Through personal reflections and family tales, Palmer weaves their farm-life experience, South African traditional farm cooking and her specialist botanical knowledge together to cultivate a book that is as tasty as the fruits of Cranemere farm.
Through personal reflections and family tales, Palmer weaves their farm-life experience, South African traditional farm cooking and her specialist botanical knowledge together to cultivate a book that is as tasty as the fruits of Cranemere farm.
Return to Camdeboo By Eve Palmer
Published by Penguin Books
ISBN: 978-0-14-352803-6
Price: R150
Reviewer: Sarah Cohen
Rating: 4/5
Eve Palmer’s family has lived on the Karoo farm of Cranemere on the Plains of Camdeboo for five generations. The book is divided into two parts and although not strictly a cookbook will make you salivate and want to cook up a traditional farm-style spread for your family.
Throughout all farm hardships and triumphs, the heart of Cranemere farm lies within the kitchen. The kitchen, the pantry, Aga stove and scullery are central to the beauty of this book. It will nourish your soul.
Palmer takes the reader on a journey of many of the day-to-day farm activities in the first half of her book and often uses her descriptive wit to keep the reader intrigued. She speaks of pumpkins so large a cook often needs a helper to lift one on to a table. Oh, and the various varieties of apples and peaches – there I was thinking apples were limited to Golden Delicious and Granny Smiths. Boy, was I wrong!
Return to Camdeboo describes Cranemere lovingly. In the first part of the book the pages unfold tales that speak true to the climates of the Eastern Cape even after five generations. You’ll read about how food is collected off the lands, the many celebrations on Cranemere and farm visitors as diverse as Cecil John Rhodes and the fossil finding guru, James Kitching.
One of my favourite, but simpler tales of this book is Palmer’s description of sheep that stumbled upon oranges. The sheep realise that with their noses down the juice would run out of their mouths so they had to learn to tip their heads back so the juice would run down their throats. Picturing this made me smile.
The second half of the book includes recipes which range from peanut butter biscuits, bobotie, Cranemere sausages and lemon chiffon cake. You’ll want to try them all. Written in their traditional style, for many of the recipes you will need a conversion table and you’ll conveniently find one at the end of the book.
From lands and orchards, ostrich and sheep and insects and flowers, if you are a lover of the Karoo, good food and traditional recipes you will adore this memoir of the Eastern Cape.
Read more about Return to Camdeboo on the Penguin Books website.
