Feild Trips

This week had more reading, more class and two field trips. Since we have been studying agriculture in SA, we went and visited some farms. First we went to a commercial fruit farm, about 16ha worth of apples, pears, plums and wine grapes. He had a chat with the owner, a retired stock broker from the UK. He took the business over in 1993 and had seen a few changes on the farm post apartheid, but most of the changes on the farm had occurred due to his changing management practices. Next we went to a mission station. The mission station owns around 4500ha which it divides and gives its members user rights to. There were several small vegetable patches and some cattle farming. Back in the day I imagine it would have been more vibrant and active, but today most of the land lay fallow. On day two we went to visit some vineyards and wineries. Wine is a big thing in the region just outside Cape Town and SA is the #8 wine producer in the world. We first went to a family owned traditional winery. The lady that gave the tour was part of the family and in charge of marketing. She was extremely dull, but knowledgeable. Most of the winery’s income comes from tourism and they sell 20% of their wine straight from the cellar to tourists. Unsurprisingly, the whole place was done up to look old and quaint. We next went to a more contemporary winery and had an excellent tour from a retired schoolteacher. The contrast between the two wineries was amazing.
Sunday we leave to go on a four day field trip to the Cedarburg, a mountain region with cedars. Should be fun, back on Thursday.