Forgive me if I sound sentimental, but I miss the days when I was a youngster and I could visit my Grandma and Grandpa on the farm. My Grandma had an extraordinarily abundant fruit orchard. We could pick all sorts of citrus, depending on the season: naartjies, oranges, grapefruit, lemons and even little kumquats!
We used to peel our oranges in many different ways – take a bitter bite and work it with your fingers until you’re white under the nails, or ask your Grandpa to cut off the sides and slice the belly so that you can pull the peel off in strips. The grownups used to cut the lemon in slices and eat it off the peel – not my favourite method.
The naartjies were sweet and easy to peel. You had to watch how much you ate though, otherwise you might get an upset tummy. I avoided grapefruits and lemons – only later in life did I learn to enjoy them. The kumquats with their sweet peel and sour inside that makes you pucker your mouth could easily fit in your pocket to eat later. It’s a pity that I sometimes forgot them in there – whilst climbing a tree a sudden mushiness in your pocket reminded you they were there; better to rinse it out yourself lest Grandma gets upset!
Many a time we had to cut strips of shiny paper to hang in the fig tree to keep the birds away. A ripe fig is an amazingly sweet thing and fig jam is to this day one of my treats.
The flavour of a ripe grenadilla and the bright orange inside of a ripe papaya with it’s hundreds of black pips, the cool body of a delicious cantaloupe, the striking red of a hiding strawberry that you pick out from under the leaves – these are all dear memories of my Grandmother’s yard.
My oldest uncle lived on the same farm, not even 20 meters from my Grandma’s house. On their yard were the rest of the fruits, some of which my Aunt watered with the washing water from their washing machine. During the holidays my cousins and I played there like there was no tomorrow. Every time the washing water was released it formed a river through our little town (where we played with our toy cars) which underwent a short-lived but glorious transformation.
There were 3 types of grapes that were watered there – Sultanas, Catawbas and a black sort, the name of which has slipped my mind. Further on there were a few quince trees, a fruit that few know about these days, followed by the pomegranate orchard. Long before it became a super fruit we had been eating them until we couldn’t anymore; talk about a fruit that makes you work for your satisfaction!
When we tired of playing with cars, we’d climb the mulberry trees and enjoyed the spoils. The trees were so big that we could climb from one’s branches onto those of the neighbouring trees – not forgetting Grandmother’s warning that were we to fall, a beating awaited us! We couldn’t conquer the mulberries – there were too many of them. They had to be plucked to make mouthwatering jam and for a long time after you’d scrub yourself with the green and red ones in an attempt to rid yourself of the dark purple stains that covered you from head to toe.
The final fruits, that were planted right outside my Grandma’s yard and had to be approached cautiously, were the prickly pears. How did we get to them? With a long branch that had a jam tin tied to its end – this was an elaborate attempt to avoid getting any of their fine little thorns in your hands. Finally, after being peeled and cooled in the fridge, I can confidently say that it is one of the most delicious, subtle flavours known to man.
To me, it is unimaginable that my children’s children won’t have the opportunity to experience the same – that one day they’ll only buy fruit from stores and will never eat anything fresh from the tree. The city life just doesn’t provide for it, and if one moves into a retirement home the chances are even slimmer that you can provide them with an opportunity like that.
Be it for the right reason or not, I can’t say, but this is what made me decide to design the Euphoria retirement village in such a way that your grandchildren can experience it there. It is in the countryside, we have ample space, we have the water and we’ll have the people who share this frame of mind – people who know the value of having contact with the earth and its fruits, who know it’s necessary to sometimes put the screens away and play in the soil. It is for them that we build Euphoria.
Blaar Coetzee – 082 781 6917