April showers bring May flowers...  What May is to the northern hemisphere, September and October are to Namibia, the months of spring when nature decks itself out in blooms and fresh green. The pretty season is the time for spring-cleaning and renewal also in this part of the world. This year the focus is mainly on the Kalahari Farmhouse and the adjoining Self-Sufficiency Centre SSC.

The SSC’s fruit and vegetable production can now be stepped up further as the second greenhouse was completed in time for the new planting season, while cheese and meat production is boosted by plenty of young cattle. On top of that another advanced course on cheese making was presented at the SSC in September by Dutch expert Albert Abbink who has supported Gondwana’s cheese makers for years. With the SSC so well prepared, guests at our lodges can look forward to a ready supply of fresh and healthy delicacies.

The SSC provides fresh produce for the nine Gondwana lodges all over the country and currently covers about 70 percent of their needs. The greenhouses as well as the butchery, smokehouse und cheese dairy are situated on the outskirts of the village of Stampriet, east of Mariental in the middle of the Kalahari Desert.

The Kalahari Farmhouse, next to the SSC, was also touched by the winds of spring: the new manager of the lodge, Hella Schmidt, started to spruce up the gardens immediately after her arrival in early October.

The restaurant will be fitted with handmade wooden window frames in the beginning of next year to enhance the view of the garden as well as the cosy farmhouse atmosphere. Construction work is scheduled for 11 to 31 January 2012 and Kalahari Farmhouse will be closed during that time.

Further plans are to set up a kiosk for selling SSC produce, and to open a museum-type of information centre on 1 February next year. The museum will focus on the life of early farmers and thus the history of Stampriet.