This is me
Cook, traveller, father, husband, filmmaker, urban farmer, custodian… and not particularly in that order. I cook. I make television. I love the outdoors. I’m earning my green fingers and the open road is where I find my sanity. I was born in Durban, South Africa, grew up in Cape Town and have been burning my, Read More
Whenever you’re making dough from scratch, there are a couple of very important tricks to remember. The first? Keep it cold. Cold hands, cold butter, cold liquid … you get the picture. The second? Rest the dough. You do this to relax the gluten (the protein in flour which gives dough its elasticity) and to let the yeast do it’s job – that is, letting it be the driving force in fermentation, allowing the dough to double in size. And the last important trick? To lightly grease and cover the dough while it’s resting – this way you prevent the dough from drying out.
You’ll Need:
- 4 ml sugar
- 100 ml lukewarm water
- 10 ml dried yeast
- 400 g flour
- 4 ml salt
- 60 g butter
- 2 eggs
- Sunflower oil
First you need to activate the yeast. Mix the sugar, yeast and lukewarm water together, then sprinkle a tablespoon of flour on top (this prevents the yeast mixture from getting a dry crust) and leave in a warm spot for 10 minutes or until frothy. Sieve the flour into a bowl, add the salt and, using your finger-tips, rub in the butter.
Next, beat the eggs lightly with a fork and add to the yeast mixture. Make a hollow in the flour, pour in the yeast-and-egg mixture and knead it well into a soft, pliable dough. Brush the dough with sunflower oil, place in big bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and let it rise in a warm spot for about 40 minutes, or until it has doubled in size.
Knead the dough one more time (this step is called knocking it down) and then you’re ready to bake bread.
It looks like there’s some really good news about leopards for a change!
This leopard cub was spotted in the Baviaanskloof!
This project is something that I’ve wanted to do for very many years ever since I first met Dr. Bool Smuts of the Landmark Foundation when he introduced me to a farmer called Roy Heindrich on a farm near Jansenville. Roy ended up being a great character and we made some of the best goat sausage that I’ve ever eaten. He became the star of the fourth episode in my latest series entitled Karoo: Land of Thirst, introducing me to the idea of predator-friendly farming methods where he was having great success with Anatolian Dogs to protect his livestock.
Landmark Foundation has been at the forefront of this issue that has become known as the leopard-farmer conflict in the Cape Fold Mountain Belt for over 10 years. Under their leadership they have pioneered the most comprehensive research on this fragmented population of leopards that is on the brink of extinctions, and saved countless innocent lives from barbaric methods of ‘predator control’, but more than that they have begun teaching people at the source of this conflict how to effectively deal with this ever prevalent problem.
So this year is going to be crucial for these leopards and it’s up to all of us to make the change or we will see these beautiful creatures go for good – and once they’ve gone, there’s no coming back.
Let’s hope that this is a good omen for the Leopards in 2015 and the future beyond that!
Worms are one of the major players in the decomposition of organic matter. A worm farm is practically odour and fly free and compact. What it produces though is where the real magic happens…I call it agricultural gold.
- You need to score three wooden or plastic containers that fit into one another – they can be bins, buckets or crates and one lid.
- Drill about 50 very small holes in the bottom of two of the containers. Place a piece of cardboard snugly in the bottom of one an put some shredded newspaper soaked in water on top as bedding for your worms.
- Now you’re ready for some composters. Worms thrive in a rich, heavily mulched environment where moisture and food is supplied. Most popular are red wigglers and red earthworms. You can get them from local produce markets and certain nurseries.
- Place the worms on the bedding and cover with shredded kitchen waste and some sheets of wet newspaper and then place this container on top of the one with no holes. Put the third container on top and close with the lid. The worms will eat their way to the top of the middle container and when this one is filled with ‘processed’ food they will start moving up into the crate above into which you must now put the food. The middle container is now full of compost so empty it out into your garden and place it on top.
- In the bottom container you’ll now be gathering the liquid fertiliser which drips through. use this on your pot plants and watch them turn into superplants.
You can also buy your own! I bought mine from www.fullcycle.co.za
Keep feeding and repeating this cycle and in no time whatsoever you’ll see the benefit in your garden.
Copyright © 2026 · All Rights Reserved · Justin Bonello
All photography courtesy of Louis Hiemstra
