BOOK EXCERPT: Kitchens of the Karoo – how cooks of old mastered stone, sourdough and coffee
A hundred years ago, people had elegant little devices to peel peaches, grind coffee and sieve their flour. And weren’t those peach pip floors something?
In the Karoo region, elegant devices such as peach peelers, coffee roasters, and candle moulds were commonly found in old kitchens. These kitchens, often embedded with peach pips to strengthen the clay floors, showcased the resourcefulness of Karoo cooks. The first settlers in the Karoo, trekboere, built corbelled houses from stone and cooked outside in kookskerms.
As time progressed, they constructed clay ovens for baking and roasting. The Boers, who developed a strong fondness for coffee, improvised by roasting the shepherd's tree root and using roasted peas, peaches, or prickly pear peels in their coffee. Kitchens were typically located off the main lounge area, with massive hearths for cooking and smoking.
To deter pests, walls were painted blue-green with arsenic. To maintain a cool environment during hot summers, evaporative fridges were placed outside.
Written by urgent.news from Daily Maverick's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
