Schoon De Companje Newsletter '14

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A quick look at what's happening in here;

We already have a stack of memories from this short, but dynamic, year.

People getting married, a bread science department, dragon fruit ice cream, chicken pies and boerewors, Cherry Blossom coffee beans from China, Valiant and Koos were in the house and we have enjoyed some beautiful sunsets on the "Stoep".... Did I mention that we made our own wine?

Oh yes,and Hayden Quinn from Masterchef Australia was here for a baking class. LekkerMosbolletjies.

It has been intense fun!

We welcome back Mr & Mrs Nortier(baker and chef) from their honeymoon on the West Coast as well as the Painters; the butchers in love.

You would have seen them if you have ever stopped to pick up some ethically farmed meats from Nice to Meat You. They would be the two with the permanent grins on their faces.

We bless you guys and your lives together. What an exciting journey!

It really has been a great year so far and we cannot but be excited about what is to follow. We are slowly building up great team for the future and we have more than enough vision to keep us going.

Hope you are ready Stellenbosch!

Herewith a short summary from some of the producers:

For the last three and a half years, life moved very quickly.. We were 4 people working here in 2010, 2 years later we were 20 and today we are a team of 60. I met the most beautiful human-being ever created by God, and I married her. We bought our first car. Its a bread van, but still. Life is exciting, but in the bakery we have not experienced any real change since day one. Except for addition of our beautiful patisserie. I am talking about bread..and Brett. (What a champion)

The last two years have been a slow process of research. Focusing on older grains and most importantly, nutrition. Bread used to be a staple food. Sure there are a lot of artisan bakeries now and everybody is using stone ground flour. But just because there are no chemicals in our flour and it hasnt been bleached like commercial flour, how healthy is it? how tasty is it? We are privileged and honoured to be creating many jobs here at Schoon de

Companje(SdC), but one of my favourite is the latest addition to the team, Lezanie. (What a biscuit)

She helps out in the bakery in the early mornings and for the rest of the day she studies bread. We have come to realize that we have been holding out on you, the bread lover. The only reason why bread used to be a staple food is because of the following statement: "Of the 44 known essential nutrients needed by our bodies and naturally obtained from foods, only 4 are missing from wheat-- vitamin A, B12, and C, and the mineral iodine." Bread, made with freshly milled wheat, contains almost all of your daily essential nutrients needed. This is only applicable when using the whole grain..

Now we are really starting to feed people! Except for our much stronger focus on maintaining the bran and the germ, and thus the nutrients, in our breads, whats more, is the effect of a sprouted grain!

"Sprouted grains are rich in natural vitamins and enzymes, and more and more people are starting to eat sprouted grains in an effort to incorporate beneficial food into their daily meals:

1. Sprouting your grains will neutralise phytic acid and other antinutrients which prevent you from fully absorbing the minerals in the food you eat.

2. The vitamin content is increased when you sprout your grain and the act of

sprouting will activate the food enzymes found in grains. A sprouted grain contains double the amount of foliate and vitamin B6 than an unsproutedgrain and has four times the amount of niacin with a lower glycemic index."

So, now that we understand the value of using the whole grain, and we understand the effect of sprouting the grain, what about the type of grain? Todays modern wheat has been cultivated for yield and for pest resistance. Where is the stuff they used before man had this capability? We found some.and the Ancient Grain Series was born.

Why go through all that effort? "Often described as "super grains", ancient grains offer us much in the way of natural nutrition and positive health benefits." To sum up guys, we at De Oude Bakkerij at SdC, are so happy to be offering a range of ancient-, whole- and sprouted grain breads. This is what you can pick up at the moment: Tues: Sprouted Rye & Spelt Bread - Sprouted Organic Rye grains and Spelt flour

"Dark rye bread became a staple which lasted to the Middle Ages whole-grain rye has more soluble fiber than wheat flour making whole-grain rye more effective for controlling the cholestrol level in the blood." Wed: Ezekiel Bread - I believe this is the only recipe in the Bible. Ezekiel was instructed by God to prepare this bread, because a famine was coming but they could survive on this bread. Contains: (All organic ingredients) Kamut, Spelt, Barley, Millet, Chick pea flour, sprouted lentils and sprouted beans. Thu: Sprouted Kamut - Some believe it to be the grain that Noah planted, kamut is two to three times the size of common wheat and has 20-40 percent more protein and 65 percent more amino acids. Kamut is also high in essential fatty acids and particularly good source for thiamin, niacin, folate, riboflavin, vitamin B6, vitamin E, phosphorus, magnesium, zinc, and complex carbohydrates. Fri: Sprouted Spelt & Honey - Spelt is an ancient grain that was commonly eaten in medieval times. While it's part of the wheat family, people with wheat intolerances are often able to eat spelt Sat: Sprouted Quinoa &Kamut - Quinoa is a complete protein, meaning it has all nine essential amino acids, which have been shown to boost immunity, improve muscle quality, and regulate hormone production.

Enjoy! With much love, Fritz Schoon

2014 up until now has been quite a rush, personally and with Schoon de Companje. One thing is for sure, the rest of the year holds so many new adventures.

It was so lovely to see all our loyal customers from abroad. They had not been here for the opening of the new extension. We are ever thankful for their kind remarks along with some guiding words of wisdom to follow. We look forward to seeing them again next year in the summertime!

On the kitchen side of things; we are still experimenting with the menu and have already started making some changes, so by winter there will be an entire new menu. But we also know that not everyone likes change, in saying this; Creamy Scrambled eggs will forever and always be on the menu! It is too good if I may say so myself! We have been making our own almond milk to accompany the chocolate muesli, (it

was amazing) unfortunately the milk goes off way too quickly so we scratched that idea. Look out for some homemade baked beans on the menu with boereworsand Nice to Meat You will also be smoking some pastrami for the best sarmie you will ever have! We are so excited to be offering some new goodies and hope it will be received with smiles and satisfied tummies. I have been so impressed with our local Stellenbosch residents, and am also grateful; our fresh produce has really been doing well. It is amazing to know that people support the local farmers; we have over time found very cool ethical farmers and absolutely love what they are doing!

We are still improving all our other retail items, but I do feel we are on the right track. We are introducing a new range of plants, but you can keep your eye out for that, I cannot give away all our secrets! New on our shelves are bottle peaches from Wabooms valley family farm in Montagu, homemade salted caramel (perfect for the cold monthsahead, a dollop in your coffee or in your pancakes for the rainy days options are endless). We will be introducing some new recipes you can take home with you,this way you can experiment with some amazing products; like the very versatile and wonderful Verjuice, which not everyone is familiar with, we shall show you the way.

Lastly, on the ice-cream front, Summer has been amazing to say the least. Not only am I making a lot of ice-cream daily, but the fresh fruits summer has to offer, makes playing around so much more interesting and fun. Dragon fruit has been a hit, Turkish plum is something else and I like to describe it as "cute". I love that people are coming in to buy my cones to take home. This is wonderful. It is perfect as part of your desserts at a Sunday braai. So I would like to thank summer for how beautiful it is.

For the winter months we will have waffles. Yes waffles!! Waffles with, as we call it, our winter flavours; think salted caramel, dark chocolate and praline, sweet stout, you get the idea. We are looking forward to winter and all the comfort food that goes with it. Thank you for all the support with new part of the shop and supporting what we do

here! **Chanelle Schoon the ice-cream maker -

Time is such a beautiful thing. One can never get it back, win it, or make it, so rather just embrace every second. Seasons are a product of time. It is nature's way of showing off. Summer ended in one week; vine leaves changed from evergreen to a red -orange "fire" in the vineyards. Our garments exchange the summer breeze and cool aromas for the warmer, deep ruby smells. It sure has been an exciting season. Stellenbosch was packed with tourists, wine festivals, beautiful weather and winemaking, yes.Plenty of it. It has been a strange harvest. The weather was crazy, and it is in years like these, we are reminded that we have absolutely no control, what so ever. An update from the winemakers themselves. It was/is a long harvest and the weather surely did throw some curve balls. Yet, that is all part of the game, playing with the hand you are dealt and making the best of it. Happeningsin Het Wijnwinkeltjie; -we have had a few tastings, -we have some new wines on our shelves; and -we are busy with our own wine project.

We had a Lemberg tasting last year, it really set the standard, and we could not wait for the next one. (David Sadie really has raised the bar of making wine in the Tulbagh region.) It was followed by the stunning Remhoogte Food and Wine Feast;

a six course food and wine pairing. What a feast!! Imagine, a 2011 Honeybunch Cheninblanc paired with an Avocado Ritz (Japanese mayo, with a good amount of lemon accompanied with herby prawns) or.. 2010 Honeybunch Cheninblanc paired with bottled peaches (straight from Montagu) with a thick homemade vanilla custard. The Boustred family sure did an amazing job with the wines from their estate. Make sure not to miss the next tasting. Pop me a mail to receive more regular info or go onto our facebook page for updates.

We also made a few barrels of our own. WOW, what a mind-blowing experience. We were advised by the man himself, Chris Alheit, to use this block. Nestled in between the beautiful mountains of Montagu, a small farm is situated. Producing mostly peaches and breeding horses, you find the most beautiful farm in the valley;Patatsfontein. On this farm sits a small (1ha) block, of old Chenin Blanc. We took the opportunity to use the beautiful fruit and express what beauty lies within them, by creating a

wine. What an amazing experience this was, not to mention the hard work going into it.

Thank you to everyone who pulled in; Reenen Borman from Boschkloof wines and his family, they were so helpful with all the resources . Oom Johan and Tannie Kathleen (Chanelle's parents) who heartily received us on their farm with open arms, plates full of potjie and literally just allowing us to do our thing. We picked the block in three different sessions. Sun pick, shade pick and a riper pick- this makes farming so rewarding.

Our first pick occurred at 00:00am.We geared up with some headlamps, shears, long pants and a lot of "gees". All the grapes were handled with care and we manually processed all the grapes. Foot stomp and old basket press. Two of us were holding on to the legs of the press the other one walking in circles using all that lies within man to present some juice. We did everything naturally; no yeast, no sulphur, no nothing. Just love, optimism and good tunes. They are currently chilling" in old barrels, going through the motions of the ageing process, and we cannot wait to taste the final product in 8 months from now.

Soon you will be able to get all our wines online, but for now you can order directly from me. Pick your wine of choice from the regions below, mail me your order and send me your delivery address. Done and dusted. Het Wijnwinkeltje is devided into 7 intimate sections. It represents the different wine regions of the Western Cape: Stellenbosch, Swartland, Hemel -en -aarde, Tulbach , Montagu/Robertson, Constantia and Otherwines. Don't hesitate to mail me with your order. We will also be sending you some info on new stock arriving and other wine info so you can always be the coolest guy at the braai. Have a blessed day and make many memorable moments.

Remember: "Wine is only a vehicle that transports an event into a memorable one"

The wine lover Charla Haasbroek

So thats all from us here at Schoon De Companje. Our trading hours for this month: Tuesday-Friday 07:00 am- 21:00pm Saturday: 08:30-18:00 Saturday evening: De brasserij Music 19:00-23:00Sunday:08:30-13:30 View our line-up and book tickets to our De Brasserij music evenings on Quicket. For all the social-lites, be sure to visit our website, facebook, twitter and Instagram Let the good times keep on rolling.

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