Lynda Gilfillan
food
Just up from Fancourt Estate, on the road to George airport, is a turn-off along a gravel road that leads to Leila’s Arms Organic Food Kitchen. A stone pathway takes one through an abundant vegetable garden where bright green spinach leaves form rich colour contrasts with various kinds of lettuce. At the entrance to a century-old, settler-style building with rough, mud-coloured plaster is a herb garden, and inside is the warmly welcoming figure of the proprietor, Gabie Coetzee-Andrews.
For R65 guests tuck into a home-grown, home-cooked meal in an intimate kitchen furnished with wooden benches and cloth-covered tables. At one end is a massive hearth and wooden-framed windows open to views that stretch across misty pastures to the grand backdrop of the Outeniqua mountains.
Coetzee-Andrews serves a limited menu that includes unique versions of Tandoori free-range chicken, Karoo lamb curry, organic vegetables, fresh herbed bread and a sensational salsa made with olive oil, coriander, basil and chilli. Home-grown gem squash is stuffed with basmati rice and asparagus in a subtle mix of flavours; golden roast potatoes they’re “to die for, I swear to God”, she says take on a whole new meaning with hints of lemon juice and parsley. The pice de rsistance is a halved, steamed sweet potato topped with cottage cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, dates, fresh basil and chopped spring onions the latter freshly picked from the garden that seems to tumble into the wooden-framed windows of the restaurant.
In this harmonious paradise, fears of genetic modification, chemical treatment and animal disease evaporate. The restaurant is the product of a total lifestyle and family philosophy.
The Coetzee-Andrews family embraces the principles of permaculture, a system that combines architecture with biology, agriculture and animal husbandry. (“Permaculture” is a contraction of “permanent agriculture” and “permanent culture” and implies that cultures need a sustainable agricultural base and land-use ethic to survive.)
For example, intercropping is used in the vegetable garden on the 7ha farm; by alternating rows of different vegetables, it is possible to eliminate 85% of pests and to dispense with the need for chemical pesticides. Mulch is used to conserve water, and compost eliminates the need for chemical fertilisers. Bantams rather than plant-eating hens control garden slugs and snails, and their eggs feed the family and restaurant guests.
The homestead, just visible from the vine-covered restaurant terrace, is another expression of the permaculture philosophy. It’s a strawbale house with rich textures of mud-coloured walls and wooden beams that fuse in a harmony of natural tones. The high pitch of the roof not only increases the volume of inside space (there are two levels), but also facilitates airflow by means of strategically positioned upstairs windows. One side of the roof is thatch, the other is tin to allow for rain run-off, which is filtered and used for drinking.
When Coetzee-Andrews talks of obeying the traditional wisdom of the universe, of embracing balance, common sense and simplicity, the world of malls and theme-park kitsch seem to belong to the inner circle of Dante’s hell. “We’ve got a garden of Eden in this country. All we need to do is break down the walls and barriers in our heads, to relearn the diversity that is the gift of our own earth.”
While she feeds the rich and the famous and perhaps the infamous of Fancourt, she also cares for some of the area’s poorest inhabitants from the nearby townships. She is the director of an NGO that assists street children and first-time landowners in learning the permaculture principles of self-reliance. For, in addition to having the “best food in the world”, Leila’s Arms also provides a rare opportunity to share in a genuinely alternative lifestyle that really seems to work.
Leila’s Arms is open for lunch and supper on Wednesdays and Fridays, or by special request. Tel: (044) 870 0292