One of the key long term goals of the Goedgedacht Trust is its long term sustainability. From our wedding and conference venue to our ever growing Olive Peace Grove, we are constantly looking for ways to ensure the long term sustainability of our projects, ensuring that years from now the rural children of the Swartland will still be benefiting from the work that Goedgedacht does. This is no small feat, but slowly but surely we are seeing inroads into growing the Trust’s self-sufficiency and one project which is truly helping us to fulfil this dream is Goedgedacht Trading. Managed by Robert Templeton, who oversees a dedicated and driven team, Goedgedacht Trading is helping us to secure a constant income stream into our Path out of Poverty programme, which brings hope to impoverished rural children.

So what is Goedgedacht Trading all about…

At present the farm is home to just over 35 hectares of olive trees, some of these have been kindly donated by you our friends as part of our Olive Peace Grove, all of these trees are used to benefit the farm through Goedgedacht Trading. We harvest roughly 60 tons of olives a year, a third of the harvest is used for green Manzanilla and black Mission table olives, and the rest is used in the production of our high quality extra virgin olive oil. These products can be found in Pick n Pay stores across the country. But we don’t stop there, we also produce 100% natural fruit vinegar dressings which can be used in a variety of different dishes and have proved to be very popular. Our olive oil is high in anti-oxidants, has no preservatives and no additives and is cold extracted from the finest cultivars.

Our products are produced on Goedgedacht Farm, in a relatively small-scale factory using fruit from the farm. Our olives are grown without using chemical herbicides, fungicides or pesticides. We are able to produce quality olive oil because we hand pick all our olives, leaving the fruit unbruised and the trees not damaged. On top of all of these benefits this also allows us to provide much needed employment for farm workers living in the Valley. Many of the farm workers children are part of our Path out of Poverty programme truly showing the full circle benefits of Goedgedacht Trading to the Trust.

So the next time you are at Pick n Pay look out for our Goedgedacht products and know that by adding them to your shopping basket you are directly helping us to put rural children on a path out of poverty.

CLICK HERE to watch Pick n Pay’s advert showcasing Goedgedacht Foods.

For those of you in the Cape Town area be sure to join us at the Good Food and Wine Show from 24-27 May – we would love to see you there.

Robert Templeton tells us about Goedgedacht’s Mr Olive, otherwise known as Andrew Max, our Olive Shed Manager.

I met Andrew about 7 years ago when he was running his own business in Brackenfell, curing olives and supplying various restaurants around the Western Cape. I was intrigued by how much he knew about the olive industry and he could always tell a great story about the various characters in the industry all those years ago. Andrew has been involved in the production of olives, one way or another, for the past 33 years and in this time has amassed a wealth of knowledge about this wonderful little fruit that is helping Goedgedacht in so many different ways. Andrew meticulously processes all of our fruit and you can be assured that the quality of the fruit that comes out of our olive shed, ready for the table, is of the highest quality. Andrew now lives on the farm with his wife, who works at our crèche, and is an integral part of the Goedgedacht family. For safety reasons we park all the farm bakkies next to my parents’ house at night and my Dad, Peter, frequently hears Andrew leaving the farm at three/four in the morning or coming in late in the evening after dropping off workers or coming back from Cape Town after delivering a load of produce. We can honestly say that Andrew works unbelievable hours. We are incredibly lucky to have Andrew working for us, he sets the pace, is always the first one to get to work and the last to leave and he sets incredibly high standards for both himself and his staff.

We are looking forward to Andrew spending many more years working with us and growing Goedgedacht Trading. Thank you Andrew, you’re a true Goedgedacht star.

I feel so privileged to be running one of the best marathons in the world this Sunday, I am not sure if I am fully trained so I thought I needed a focus to get me through the last few miles.

I’m aiming to raise some money for a charity that helps children living in poverty in rural South Africa. This is a charity that I have spent some time working with in the past. The charity is based around simple concepts of helping children get the basics in life, the people that work there are truly inspiring.

Last year a group of us sent out some toothbrushes as many of the children haven’t got access to running water so a toothbrush was out of the question until the centre included this routine in their daily after school programme.

If you want to find out more on the charity and the work they have achieved see the link:
www.goedgedacht.org.za

This is a wonderful a charity, I aim to run on Sunday in support of it and I would really appreciate your support. If you are able to donate, please use the following link: http://www.justgiving.com/ceri-ruzzi

Thanks in advance, I’ll run my socks off!

Ceri.x.x

26-year old Salome matriculated in 2003 at the Schoonspruit Secondary School in Malmesbury after which she worked at a number of hospitality establishments before starting her studies in Hospitality at the West Coast College in Malmesbury. Whilst still a student, she started her practical work here with us at Goedgedacht before becoming a permanent employee.

This bright and creative single mother of 6-year old Lucrechia has big dreams.  Because she wants to make a difference in the lives of others, she would like to study to be a pharmacist!  For now Salome and Karen make a fantastic team in the kitchen I need not worry about anything, Salome will go far in life and at Goedgedacht.

By Pieter Brand

Did you think they made busses like this? Here are the first pics of our bus which is being made in Pretoria. I always thought that busses were like assembled like cars. This is clearly not the case. Each one is built to specification and our specification was to make it as safe as possible for all the thousands of children that will be travelling in it. Let’s hope they heard us loud and clear.

The bus is due to be ready in Pretoria by the end of this week & should be delivered to Cape Town mid April 2012!

We will keep you up to date with the progress.
Read more on our Bus Appeal

Thank you for helping us sort out our fog harvester, which had fallen on hard times. The new one is working like a bomb! The water is pouring off it and being captured in our 10,000 litre tanks. It really is a wonderful extraordinarily different way of capturing such an scarce and precious resource like water.

I’m hoping to get a picture of the fog harvester when we have our next rainy and misty day. That only happens when the wonderful North-Westerlys blow in from the South Atlantic. I will rush up the mountain and take a photo so that you can see how well it works… watch this space…

The National Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform’s visit to Goedgedacht Farm:

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Ingrid Lestrade
POP Co-ordinator

Today, they are being trained in facilitation skills – how to keep a group alive whilst facilitating a programme, how plan a programme, how to look after all the small things like attendance registers, etc., how to plan and implement sport activities and making sure that the food is appropriate, enough and on time. We also have a special guest today who will be facilitating the basics on CPR thanks to a donation from the Pick ‘n Pay Foundation. Lots to look forward to and be thankful for.

To all our friends, families and supporters a million thank yous for giving our youngsters from the Riebeeksrivier Valley farms (POP1), Riebeek Kasteel (POP 2), Riebeek West (POP 3), Elandskloof Farm (POP 4), Algeria in the Cederberg (POP 5), Just Trees Farm near Paarl (POP 6), Darling (POP 7), Prince Albert (POP 8), Riverlands (POP 9), Kalbaskraal (POP 10) and Koringberg (POP 11) a real opportunity to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies, school drop-outs and substance abuse incidences in our rural communities and discover their great potential as human beings during this school holiday programme. What a priviledge!

Ingrid Lestrade
POP Co-ordinator