LAUGHTER AND HARD WORK BEHIND THE SCENES

One Saturday early evening while sneaking a small shuteye in the restaurant during a wedding, the sounds from the next door kitchen came floating across to me.  Much laughter and chirping in a musical score of English, Afrikaans, Shona, Dutch and French.  Someone pretending to cuff someone over the ear, more laughter, the hoots of our resident owls and then the sound of feet on the kitchen floor, the sharpening of a knife and the opening and closing of doors as the team dissolved into work. How wonderful, I thought as I drifted into sleep, to be here now on this marvelous adventure together with all these people.

Here are some pics of our wedding team grown organically as everything else on the farm and gelled under the leadership of Gail Nockels and chef-in-training Marna Stauss. We never quite know who exactly will be in the mix given the stream of volunteers and friends on the farm, but these pictures show chief Gail and Chef Marna, Zimbabweans Charles, Doubt, Pricilla and Virginia, volunteers from Europe Dido, Juriaan, Andy and Oceane, barmen Stephan and Craig and wedding team Lisa, Lucy, Rensche, Mignon, Zelda and Zenia.