Anyone for a Road Tripping Feast… A Mapstudio GiveAway…

So summer is finally well on the way over here and folk around here are beginning to think of nothing else, except perhaps a summer road trip… and synonymous with road tripping all over South Africa is the much loved Farm Stall, or Padstal as almost everyone calls them no matter what language your home language is. These are family owned, road side stalls selling everything local: seasonal fruit, local jams and preserves, crafts, and of course flavourful feasts to sit and enjoy or take on your journey..

Imagine a long hot drive through the open veld and stopping at an old building, cool and shady inside. Stop and have a large farmhouse tea and pack up some supplies to take you further on down the road: Trays of ripe apricots, bottles of fresh ginger beer, a supply of biltong and mosbolltjies and the rest of your trip will be plain sailing all the way. We have the ultimate guide to Farm stalls all over South Africa to GiveAway…

Some farm stalls are really part of the landscape and appear to have been around for ever and ever. Places that I would have stopped at as a child and they are still going strong, others are new and off the beaten track. The point is there are a lot of them and some of them are really hidden gems. There is nothing worse than deciding to go on a country drive and hoping to stop for tea at a farmstead and you hit the road and drive and drive and drive and the only places you see are the shops at the massive garages along the way – somewhat lacking in character and really just the worst of home away from home. Finally we have the guide to the where, when, how and why… of our local farm stalls.

1. Location, Location, Location: Detailed maps, GPS co-ordinates, and contact details… website if there is a website, and telephone; shop hours and well the basics.
2. What You Will Find: Do they serve tea or coffee, is it fine tea or coffee or just the regular, is it child or pet friendly, trust me there is nothing worse than emerging from a squashed stuffy car with se7en+1 kids to discover “disdain”… you will know beforehand if the stop is friendly or has even gone the ultimate extra mile.
3. Plan your Route: The book is ordered according to the major South African road routes… you literally get on the road and plot your journey from one farm stall to the next. You can choose where you are going to stop for breakfast, lunch and supper. The only problem is you may want the journey to be longer, each farmstead has been beautifully photographed and the book is packed with photographs of country feasts and local offerings… loveliness from cover to cover.
4. Micro-Details: Wouldn’t it be good to know which stores have special, and often not publicised at all, features? Accommodation, fly fish-ing in the dam alongside, an interesting walk, canoes for hire – there is so much more you can do at a farmstead then buy a packet of dried fruit. This book is worth the read just to see all the crazy, zany fun and creative ideas that folk have made available to their customers.
5. Best of the Rest Features: If you are looking for the best apples the western cape has to offer, or the finest quilting fabric in the land, or the best honey baked cheesecake in all the land, the most fabulous Karroo sausages… or even the best cherry pancakes… this book is packed with these essential tips… and will have you packing for a road trip that you never thought you needed, just because…
6. Local Recipes: I kid you not, some farmsteads are willing to part with their family secrets and you can discover quite a few recipes for some very local South African faire. Secret sauces, posh pies, scrambled ostrich eggs and bokkoms (sun-dried fish) some recipes are lovely, some are a learning experience and all are local.
7. Farmer’s Markets and Festivals: Here is a bonus added to the end of this book… imagine plotting and planning a road trip only to discover that the annual speciality festival is two days before or after… this book allows you to plot and plan your road trips on the calendar, way in advance. Honestly I love that feature… do you want to miss the local crayfish festival, strawberry festival… there is even a potato festival… Fun times!!!

And the se7en + 1th…

8. Cultural Insight: This book provides a vivid picture of South African country life… and really when you know there is a pleasant place to stop and relax along the route of a journey… how much easier is it to get started on it. This book is a great read for local adventurers, families going on their annual holidays and of course folk living overseas that are hunkering after a little flavour of South Africa.

We have a copy of Farm Stall to Farm Stall to GiveAway to our readers.

We recently asked our readers if they prefer “leave a comment” or “rafflecopter” giveaways, it was unanimous. Our readers like to leave comments… So now we would love lots and lots of comments from you all: Tell us the location of your dream road trip… anywhere in the world. For those of you who are following, we will plot your trips on our map… which is looking fantastic and worthy of it’s own post!!!

This GiveAway works in the usual way, leave a comment before the end of Sunday, 16 November 2014. We will draw and publish the winners in the Fabulous Friday Fun Post after that. I won’t respond to your comments as we do on our other posts because we don’t want to be included in our own giveaway. Our GiveAways are open to everyone: If you have won a GiveAway before never fear – enter away. If you live on the far side of the world – enter away. Postage takes forever from here but eventually it should get to you! Good luck and happy commenting!!!

We would like to thank MapStudio who supplied us with a copy of this book to review. We were not paid for the review and the opinions expressed in it are as usual, entirely our own.