.: A Taste of Darling

The Swartland village of Darling was Hopping on Saturday. We enjoyed the Taste of Darling Country Festival in a blast of Indian Summer heat. 36ºC at what should be the threshold of winter.....

Bales to sit on and umbrellas for shade at the end of the Main Road which had been closed off

Wine and gin and tonics for sale of the stoep of the Charles Withington's Darling Wine Shop. Wine and spirits could only be bought by the glass, no sampling

Seating and lots of enjoyment for all ages

A duo playing well known rock tunes livened up the atmosphere

Inside the Udderly Delicious cheese shop everyone wanted to taste the cheese just voted best in SA at the South African Dairy Championship 2017. It is a soft Italian style cheese called Caciotta. It resembles a tangy brie when fresh but then gets a harder skin and matures

Cakes to buy for lunch?

It was busy inside Charles’ shop

We headed for the local butcher to buy some of his good meats, farm butter and charcuterie - we recommend it

It was very hot indeed (over 36ºC), so we needed to quench our thirst and headed to the Darling Brewery

Under the tent at the entrance, enjoying the food and beer

The charcuterie platter

A line up of the beers in the kitchen area

Upstairs is the popular bar/restaurant, looking down at the brewery. Lots of tables had been reserved and some people either turned up very late or not at all, rather selfish.

What was once a micro brewery has fast grown in popularity and impressive size

It was one of many venues that also hosted an art exhibition with the money going to local charity

We loved these witty pottery sculptures

How you feel when it’s hot?!

Momma!

It was a family day

Seating at the bar

A beer tasting costs R10 per 100ml, while 500ml cost R30 to R35 and lunch looked good

We wondered if these demijohns were old or new? Good decoration

Our two cold ones. A Thunder Bird IPA for Lynne, full of citrus and granadilla flavours and a Silver Back “Black Wit”, a new black wheat beer for John

We shared one of the long tables and ordered lunch. These lads on our table said they didn’t like beer much. Well they were certainly trying to disprove that

"What haven't we tasted yet..?"

This was much better than it looks. A huge slice of ciabatta, a flash fried minute steak, slightly overcooked but with good flavour, on a bed of super caramelised onion jam and topped with a creamy mustard sauce. And those chips were glassy crisp. Didn’t eat much of the bread, no need; it was very satisfying