Chart Farm, Wynberg, 09.04.12

What the hell is a chart farm? I have no idea! But it’s been there for years. I know this because my Granny used to take me to the Chart Farm after church on Sunday mornings. Yes, I used to pretend to be a good child once upon a time. We’d drive along Wynberg Hill in her little old Opel Cadette, chugging up n down the hills under the highway. Situated off Travato Link on the M3 (towards Constantia), I’m not sure how popular the Chart Farm really is but it’s silly that it’s so close and so under marketed so I was glad to visit again.

We arrived, parked and immediately took in the beautiful view over the Constantia valley. With the clouds creating dark and light patches on the valley above oak trees, horse paddocks and mountains, it truly is magnificent. After staring, we collected our bucket and sheers, for no cost, and ventured into the garden. There definitely is something special about walking along damp earthy paths, towered above by rose bush upon rose bush, picking which flower faces were more beautiful that the last. One’s curiousity definitely peeks and all those old feelings of ‘maybe faeries do exist’, ‘maybe I will find a secret garden’, ‘maybe there is a pot of gold around here somewhere’ start bubbling to the surface.

For only R4 a rose and R1 for rose food, the flowers I bought at the Chart Farm lasted over a week. Something my Woolies roses (and florist roses) have not recently been doing. Apparently they have the same stockists – really. They have so many different colours in the garden and it really is a unique and fun, random thing to do on a weekend morning.

After rose picking we headed to the tea garden. I can’t say much for the service sadly. Tables had not been cleared and our waiter only visited us twice. Once to take our order and once to deliver the food. We visited over the long weekend so the scones tasted like they had been frozen and unfrozen, or baked a few days ago because they were really crumbly. The strawberry jam, cream and butter were lovely and it was still fun even thought it’s not the greatest food in the world. A milkshake, hot chocolate and scones (2) all totalled R78.00.

Although service on the farm seems to be slow, the staff were all very pleasant none the less. I think they’re living in a time before internet whilst the rest of us are buzzing around on high speed. So if you want to take the tempo down and have a little farm visit in the middle of the city, visit the Chart Farm. Maybe you can take YOUR Granny there 😉