Weekends away: Riebeck Valley morning markets

If you’re taking a weekend break in the Riebeeck Valley on either the first or last Saturday of the month, you’re in luck, cos there’s bound to be a morning market in either Riebeck Kasteel or Riebeck West (they’re about five minutes’ drive from one another).

We were there on the first Saturday of the month, so the market was in Riebeck West. The three men with us were a little apprehensive – there’s nothing a guy hates more than hours of shopping – but they were in luck. The market only has about 20 stalls, but all of them are really good and most of them sell scrummy home-made food.

I first tasted some yoghurt cheese (balls of soft white cheese, covered in herbs in jars of olive oil). The lady insisted I try it with her sun-dried tomatoes in port vinaigrette and she was right, the combination was irresistible. I bought a soft ciabatta to go with it at another stall.

Lunch ingredients taken care of, I snacked on a fresh pork pie and bought eight fresh duck and chicken eggs to bake scones with on Sunday morning (Apparently, although duck eggs do taste a little different – and are green on the outside – they’re still fine to bake with). As I was leaving, I spent my last R10 on a large jar of dried peach jam. The man assured me it was good ‘because I made it’.

It was an hour and R100 most enjoyably spent. My only regret is that I missed out on the last mini chocolate milk tart

What my friends bought:
Chicken liver, mushroom and smoked salmon pates
Cheese, onion and pesto bread
Olives
Old comic books
Second-hand books
Rye bread (this was too solid to be used as anything but a doorstop)
Chicken kebabs
Chorizo
Oyster mushrooms
Marinated peppers