Cooking the Karoo...Cooking Vacations...Culinary Getaways...Cooking Classes!
Cooking the Karoo
1-800-405-0313
Cooking Adventure in the Great Karoo!
8 days | 7 nights
Pricing: $2,998 (For One Person, Double Occupancy)
Availability: Year Round Based on Your Travel Dates
Package includes:
- 7 Nights, Prince Albert Guesthouse - The Cottages - For One (Dbl Occ)
- Arrival and Welcome Dinner
- All-Inclusive Meals
- Excursion to Bergwater Vineyards, Museum Tour and Cooking Class
- Farmers Market Tour, Cooking Classes and Ghost Walk
- Weltevrede Fig Farm, Jam Making and Olive Oil Pressing
- Botanical Tour, Bread Baking Class and Potjiekos Cooking Class
- Excursion to Gamkaskloof and Traditional Braai
- Cheese Making, Paleontology Lecture and Karoo Cooking Class
Cooking & Cultural Adventure in the Great Karoo!
The magical and mysterious Karoo is home to some of the most intriguing culinary secrets of South Africa’s history. Every dish has an interesting story to tell, and the characters of the Karoo make the experience complete. A true melting pot of culinary cultures and heritage has resulted in South African cuisine as it is known today. An eclectic mix of traditional cuisines from faraway lands which have been ‘nationalized’ and given a new identity. Prince Albert is a delightful village at the foot of the Swartberg Pass which forms a part of the Karoo, and taking up a large area of central South Africa. The village boasts many beautifully preserved Cape Dutch, Karoo Victorian and Georgian buildings, and still uses the age-old water furrow systems along its streets to irrigate gardens and small town farms. This cooking vacation explores the traditions, cultures and cuisine of the Great Karoo – creating memories that are sure to last a lifetime!
Prince Albert Guesthouse - The Cottages - For One (Dbl Occ) map
Your accommodations consist of handpicked and renovated cottages in this charming Karoo town of Prince Albert. With traditional irrigation canals running along the streets, this combination of well-appointed and luxurious living spaces coupled with the sound of trickling water is a haven in which to unwind. All guesthouses offer luxury bedrooms, air conditioning, heating and spacious garden privacy.
Arrival and Welcome Dinner
After you have checked in and made yourself comfortable, you will be given a tour of the facilities and your cottage accommodations. This evening you will enjoy an authentic South African dinner at the restaurant where you join other visitors to this quaint village. Be prepared for an invitation into the kitchen for one-on-one interaction with the culinary team, and a discussion of the evening’s menu. Between courses, you may also lend a hand, and observe the efficiency of this tranquil kitchen at work.
All-Inclusive Meals
Each morning you will rise to the excitement of the day’s adventures that lie ahead, and the aroma of a traditional Karoo breakfast made from seasonal produce, with an emphasis on Prince Albert and Karoo flavors. Your package includes all meals during your tour, some at the conclusion of your cooking classes, some during your excursions (such as picnic lunches), and a few designed to expose you to authentic flavors and customs of South Africa and the Great Karoo.
Excursion to Bergwater Vineyards, Museum Tour and Cooking Class
Enjoy a guided walk and orientation of the village, then it is off to Fransie Pienaar Museum. Fransie Pienaar was born in 1897 in Prince Albert, but left after school to study music at Sullivan College in Cape Town. Upon her return, she spent a lifetime collecting antiques which continues to grow even today. Mid-day you are off to visit Bergwater Vineyards, the only wine estate in the arid region of the Great Karoo. Here you will enjoy a wine tasting and gourmet picnic lunch. This evening you may assist the kitchen staff in preparing yet another wonderful dinner using indigenous ingredients.
Farmers Market Tour, Cooking Classes and Ghost Walk
What better way to get your motor running first thing in the morning than a brisk bicycle ride through the village. Later in the morning, you will have a guided tour of the Prince Albert Farmers Market where locals gather to sell their produce and catch up on the week’s news. On sale will by anything from fresh veggies, seasonal produce, cheeses and local meats. Also on the agenda today is your first “official” cooking class that will provide an introduction to South African culinary heritage. Knife skills and basic kitchen prep and menu planning will be the focus. This is a busy day for cooking, since you will also take those new found skills and help prepare dinner for the restaurant. Karoo classics and some regional favorites will be on the menu, and you will also dine on what you helped prepare. As if this day wasn’t full enough, you will also take a guided village ramble with Ailsa Tudhope, historian and story teller, as you walk the streets in the company of Prince Albert ghosts. Set out at dusk and hear tales of characters who have lived in the village over the centuries – and their ghosts who don’t want to leave!
Weltevrede Fig Farm, Jam Making and Olive Oil Pressing
A tour of Weltevrede Fig Farm isn’t just a fig tour, but a game drive as well. This is the largest working fig farm in South Africa (over a thousand fig trees), and has been family-owned for six generations. Adams, White Genoa and Cape Brown Figs are all grown on the farm and sold around the world. You will learn how to use these small luscious orbs to create jams and preserves using tradition techniques that are centuries old. You’ll also see wild game as you tour the farm, and then settle into a comfortable patch for a delicious picnic lunch in the fig orchards. Today’s excursion will also include a trip to Prince Albert Olives to learn about harvesting and pressing extra virgin oils…as well as plenty of tastings! You will complete the day with another traditional dinner, and a lesson in southern hemisphere astrology – or star gazing as they like to call it in the Karoo.
Botanical Tour, Bread Baking Class and Potjiekos Cooking Class
Start your day by becoming enlightened in conservation ecology, arid zone vegetation dynamics and restoration by noted lecturer Dr. Sue Milton. Dr. Milton is the driving force behind RenuKaroo Veld Restoration, an initiative to educate and assist in the rehabilitation of wilderness and overgrazed pasture lands. In the afternoon you will get up close and personal with traditional bread making. Bread making is as ancient as the culinary arts themselves, and making your own is hugely rewarding. You will learn the art of Sourdough, from starters to end product. This evening the class will focus on Potjiekos, a traditional South African pioneer’s one-pot meal.
Excursion to Gamkaskloof and Traditional Braai
Also known as “the Hell”, Gamkaskloof is a fascinating valley near Prince Albert where a small, proud community lived in isolation for more than 100 years. Access was on foot and horseback and harvests of dried fruit and wild honey were carried out by pack animals. Now that a modern road provides access to the valley, you will enjoy a picnic veldkos (open air) lunch in this significant and historical community. Upon returning to Prince Albert, you will enjoy a traditional Braai (African barbeque), and storytelling around the fire.
Cheese Making, Paleontology Lecture and Karoo Cooking Class
Gay’s Guernsey Dairy team have won many South African awards for their delectable cheeses. In the cheese room you can taste samples whose names reflect the local heritage. You will take a course in cheese making, and enjoy the product of your adventure in a Karoo Brunch. In the afternoon you will enjoy a geological exploration lecture with Dr. Judy Maguire, Geologist and Paleontologist. On your final evening in Prince Albert, you will learn to cook famous Karoo lamb and venison dishes, as well as summer soups that are popular during this time of year.