Hilda's diary of a Cape housekeeper

We were a large family. The girls were educated by governesses at home — and my brothers had tutors to begin with, and then were sent to school or college — but all the boys chose to be farmers. the two elder settled near the old home, William at Karnmelkfontyn (i.e. Buttermilk-spring, from the white colour of the waterbefore they sunk the deep well), and Fred at Orangefontyn — and they came over on Sundays, when the family generally gathered in time for Sunday service, which was always conducted by my father according to the Church of England Prayer-book ; or if they went instead to service at Darling in the morning, they would turn up in the afternoon for tea at Groote Poste. January, though the beginning of the year in diaries, is the middle of summer at the Cape. It was a busy month, the threshing of the grain took up some time ; later on steam threshing-machines were introduced, and what took a month to thresh out in my young days is quite finished in a week now by the machine. The grain, when threshed, was carted to Malmesbury, the nearest railway-station, the empty wagons bringing back supplies of groceries for the year, as well as whatever was required on the farm — guano for fertilizing the soil, etc. The sheep would be “ dipped ” this month,^ and there were ^ Sheep have to be dipped three times a year. Now a special “ Scab Act” makes dipping compulsory, and special officers under Government travel about the country to see it is done. a hundred and one things which daily turned up to do on the farm. We had a mill worked by horses for grinding our corn — for, as there were always an average of twenty men to feed, baking and cooking were no sinecure. We had a man cook, who was an East Coast negro, rescued from a slave dhow. Many of these negroes, both men and women, were at that time indentured on farms, and made excellent servants. In February the grapes began to ripen, and about the middle of the month some of the muscatel, and green grape, would be ready for pressing • the large vats would now be cleaned out, the cellars or building where the wine was made all swept and garnished, and got ready for the wine-making. Some of the wagons might still be carting grain, if the harvest was a good one. These months every one would be very busy, and, as the weather was too hot for shooting, few visitors would turn up. We kept indoors during the hottest part of the day, and never found it unpleasantly warm in the early morning, when we helped to gather the ripe melons, figs, and vegetables. Tomato sauce was made, and all the different jams and preserves, so the days would pass happily and busily. The wine-making would still go on in March, as the different varieties of grapes ripen in succession. The red French makes excellent “ Hermitage.” Then, too, we made “ Moss Bolletjes,” a delicious bun which every housekeeper prides herself on making a good supply of, as the rusks made by cutting the bun in slices and drying it in the oven are so much appreciated by every one with their early coffee. In making “ Moss Bolletjes” (for which there is a very good recipe in Hilda's Where is it, p. 143), substitute the fermented juice of the fresh “ Steen ” grape, or “ Hanepot,” for the yeast made of raisins.