Country Style, Farm-fresh Fare, Made in the same Traditions for Three Generations

The Traditional Pantry or Larder

The pantry is traditionally a cupboard or small room where delicious ready-to-use food that does not need a refrigerator is stored.  These are some of my favourite pantry foods: cakes, jams, bread, biltong and preserves.  In my family background I have four wonderful farm pantries from my childhood memories to draw inspiration and tradition from.

Read the letter describing my great-aunt’s holiday outing 100 years ago, where a beach picnic was carried on a donkey.

Our family pantries are where I learned to cook and to appreciate fresh foods straight from the land:

– milk brought into the pantry in buckets straight from milking the cows,

– herbs and vegetables picked from the vegetable garden and brought to the pantry for processing, drying or chopping,

– eggs collected freshly in the early morning from the garden,

– fresh meat cut in to strips and hung on butcher’s hooks to dry as biltong.

Read about how its ‘All in the Family’ heritage here…

A trained chef with a passion for fine foods, I created Nerina Pantry to rediscover the three generations of my farming family pantry lore; recipes, methods, and a big dose of generous love for the land that produces our crops and harvests.

Try my mom’s fabulous Whisky marmalade which makes a wonderful festive gift.

A New Start in 2023

I moved to Montagu in 2023 and here in this abundant farming town I can fill my pantry with items made from freshly harvested foods: fruits can be made into dessert tarts or jams for use later in the year, meats can be cured or made into pies and vegetables can be made into sauces and pickles so that a home kitchen has an abundant store of relishes, preserves and foods to choose from.

No weekend is complete without the simple, rustic Apple Crumble that my cousin and I still make for our families from a recipe handed down over generations.

Building a Pantry and a Country Lifestyle

I live on the mountainside, on a property owned by me and my brother, overlooking the verdant farms of the Keisie Valley and just love to watch my fruit trees grow as seasons change.  I care for our 32 Olive Trees, the companion planted Lavender, fruit trees, herbs and vegetables and I never stop marvelling at the changing light in my surrounding mountain view.  Read about ‘Growing healthy children’ here as I recall my and my brother’s outdoors childhood.

Montagu is famed for its Fruit Preserves, Dried Fruit and Nuts

Montagu abounds in preserves, South African traditional pickles and bottled relishes to be enjoyed with an outdoors braai.

Try ‘My boetie se gunsteling smoor resep’ here for a lip-smacking meat relish and my own recipe for beetroot pickle can be found here. 

Country life – a Work in Progress

Growing up, there was an old-fashioned, hard cover book in our house called ‘Growing Old with Grace’ and that title has influenced me to choose to live a simple life – building up Nerina Pantry’s herb garden, baking with farm eggs from the neighbouring farm and fresh Jersey milk and cream for the cakes and tarts is my life. Try my home-bakes at the local Organic Green Grocer in Montagu or order from me here.

Read more about Nerina Panty’s Country Living and Cooking Lifestyle here