Babylonstoren, a three-hundred-year-old farm, first established to grow fruit and vegetables for the Dutch Spice Traders, was purchased in 2007 from a Dutch family that had owned it for over 160 years by a South African billionaire, by the name of Koos Bekker. He and his wife invested hundreds of millions to make it a modern, self sufficient farm and tourist attraction. What brings people here from Cape Town and all over the world, is one of the largest public gardens anywhere.
They also refurbished the original farm house next door and restored it to how it looked in 1893 even though constructed in the 1850s. On site they grind their own flour at a water wheel mill, make bread, butter, preserves and herbal teas. In the old barn they have people repairing farm implements forging steel and doing woodworking. They also have a person working with leather. This is all for the tourism and is apart from the production farm.
The restaurant, Babel, serves only foods grown or produced on the farm. Everything was incredibly fresh and the portions made the meals unfinishable. I was ready to throw in the towel after the second massive portion of fresh vegetables, but persevered through a well spiced chicken dish. Dessert consisted of several cheeses and a scoop of gelato made from their own Water Buffalo milk.
The Old Bakery restaurant had an Italian night. On the opposite nights it is a carnivore feast. But since we eat little red meat, we chose not to partake that night. The problem we encountered with Italian night was the same as the Babel conundrum. The vegetable appetizers and salads filled us up. Luckily this night the entrée was pizza. We were able to watch the chefs make each pizza individually, with an assortment of toppings. Each was worth the attempt to cram a few slices into the last stomach share not already claimed.
During our stay we did an olive oil tasting, a wine tasting and a bread making class. The unexpected champion was the five different types of olive oils they produce. We learned about the differences in olive oils, toured the production facility where they showed us the centrifuge they use to crush the olives, as opposed to the grindstones usually used, and paired different foods with the different oils. We brought back small amounts of two.
The wine tasting consisted of the eleven wines produced only since 2011. We had tried their Babel blend, but it did not match our pallets though it has a 93-point rating by Robert Parker and is available in our local Central Market. Several of the whites were nice, including their Viognier and Chenin Blanc. Their sparkling was also interesting. Unusual for us, we did not bring any back.
The bread making class was really limited to shaping the sourdough and adding fillings. One was Rosemary Garlic and the second Scallion Cheese. Karen obtained several of their recipes. Both loaves were baked after the class and delivered warm to our room.
We bought fresh garden ingredients and made a big salad for our last night. We had eaten so much we wanted to go lighter. We found a bottle of Viognier in the refrigerator in our room and had a nice meal with some of the bread we made.
During our time at Babylonstoren, we did a tour of wineries in Franschhoek and Stellenbosch as well as drove through the two towns. Learned that the Stellenbosch university taught all classes in Afrikaans until just a couple years ago. Now classes are also taught in English and the enrollment has dramatically increased. Of the three wineries we visited, two were just okay, but we bought wines from Anthonij Rupert. The interesting thing is the guide was going to take us elsewhere, but I mentioned we had found a Protea Chenin Blanc at Central Market and liked it. We looked up who produced it and it was this winery. The guide had never been there. During our tasting we found a Chenin Blanc they only made eleven barrels of we liked and bought several bottles. We also liked their Syrah and Cabernet Franc, both of which they make in relatively small quantities. The winery was beautiful along with the grounds, which had two bronze cheetahs as you approach the door.
We thoroughly enjoyed our garden, farm and vista tours, the food itself and the activities. Koos Bekker has projects in the Cotswold in England (The Newt) and Tuscany in Italy (Vignomaggio). Both may be visited by us in the near future.
