Category Archives: Irene Dairy Farm

Joburg.co.za – Destination Irene – Skydiving Easter bunny and Easter treats – The highlight on Easter Sunday will be the skydiving Easter Bunny and friends at African Pride Irene Country Lodge. Delicious eats at Meadow Green Restaurant Join them for a….

The highlight on Easter Sunday will be the skydiving Easter Bunny and friends at African Pride Irene Country Lodge.

Delicious eats at Meadow Green Restaurant
Join them for a lovely Easter Sunday lunch with family and friends on 8th of April 2012 at African Pride Irene Country Lodge in the Meadow Green Restaurant

WIN! All guests will stand a chance to win a night in the presidential suite, worth R6,500. So, get out the map, pack in your detective skills, and go hunting for Easter eggs this April!

‘Tis the season to join together for hot-cross buns, chocolate bunnies and finding where that crafty Easter Bunny has got to this year.

Special Easter Menu with Kiddies Buffet
Guests will be spoilt this holiday with a Special Easter Menu while kids will be delighted with an endless array of treats from the Easter Bunny himself as well as their very own Kiddies Buffet

Festivities will start from noon – while enjoying a welcome drink, their magical pianist and Sax player – Kirsten Watkins will fill the air with beautiful jazz notes and then the moment that will make this an Easter to remember for years… The skydiving Easter Bunny and friends will arrive!

Don’t miss out on this one-of-a-kind Easter, book now to avoid disappointment . Alternatively extend the experience by staying over for the weekend on one of African Pride Irene Country Lodge’s Amazing Overnight Packages available for both family and romantic getaways.

Spa Treatment
The Camdeboo Day Spa, which is situated in African Pride Irene Country Lodge, offers in celebration of Easter a Chocolate Decadence Promotion valid for the whole month of April, from Chocolate Pedicures and Manicures to a full body chocolate wrap with a cup of hot chocolate!

Sunday Lunch at Irene Dairy Farm
If all the excitement of the Easter Bunny skydiving is not for you and you just want enjoy a relaxing Sunday Lunch with friends and family, then the Irene Dairy Farm across the road, offers their Normal Sunday Lunch on Easter Sunday @ R149.95 per person and kids have their own buffet @ R 29.95.

A stroll around a darling old dairy farm.

A stroll around a darling old dairy farm

The Irene Dairy Farm, which was started in 1895, is one of those places that holds a special place in many Pretoria residents’ hearts. My sister, who lives in the village-like, leafy suburb of Irene still buys milk and cream there regularly, and it’s a time-honoured meeting place for families and friends who enjoy picnics on its well-manicured lawns, or a bite to eat in one of its restaurants.

In fact, I have special memories of our family celebrating my grandfather’s 100th birthday there a few years ago.

Children love feeding the calves, watching the cows being milked and playing on the old tractor. And then, of course, there’s the farm-fresh creamy ice cream that cannot be missed. I made the mistake of buying myself a cone before I was done taking photos. It’s quite a challenge shooting one-handed! But manage, I did.

If you grew up in Pretoria and visited the farm as a child, enjoy the trip down memory lane. If you’re visiting here from further afield … I hope you get some joy from my little visit to Irene Farm one afternoon after the thunderstorms had passed, and the sun had broken through the clouds.

Enjoy a lazy afternoon at Irene Dairy Farm while the kids play on the jungle gym, if you did not order one of our custom made picnic baskets, feel free to walk around our Farm Shop and create your own picnic from our deli. You are more than welcome to bring your own blanket, but unfortunately we do not allow any food or beverages to be brought onto the farm.

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Click here for our custom made Picnic Menu

You may explore the farm, let the little calves give you a cow kiss and teach the city kids all about where milk comes from. Feel free to view the cows being milk between 14:00-15:00 daily, we have a special viewing deck specifically for the little ones.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Click here for our custom make Picnic Menu

Enjoy a lazy afternoon at Irene Dairy Farm while the kids play on the jungle gym, if you did not order one of our custom made picnic baskets, feel free to walk around our Farm Shop and create your own picnic from our deli. You are more than welcome to bring your own blanket and/or camping chair, but unfortunately we do not allow any food or beverages to be brought onto the farm.

You may explore the farm, let the little calves give you a cow kiss and teach the city kids all about where milk comes from. Feel free to view the cows being milk 14:00-15:00 daily, we have a special viewing deck specifically for the little ones.

Winter sun Family outing at Irene Village Market and Dairy Farm – Babynews Blogs.

I always find long-distance air travel to be a totally surreal experience. For a start, you spend 12 hours in a metal tube kept aloft by sheer force of good engineering, at a cosy temperature of 22C while the air on the other side of the wondow is about -34C. And then there is the experience of boarding the plane in the middle of a snowy European winter, and emerging 12 hours later blinking into the harsh Johannesburg summer sun. And for me, this surreal feeling is enhanced further if my dear friends then whisk me off to a completely improbable place for my first meal home – which is exactly the experience I had on my first visit to Irene Dairy Farm near Johannesburg. “I’m taking you somewhere you’ve never heard of and that will totalyl surprise you”, said Catherine – and she was correct.

The little township of Irene is today part of the Pretoria metropolitan area, but driving into it there is nothing metropolitan about it. The peaceful rural surroundings make it easy to picture the early days of this little settlement when it started out as Doornkloof Farm, home to Daniel Elardus Erasmus and his family from the 1830s. The name remained the same until the farm was bought in 1896 by Johannes Albertus van der Byl (“Bertie”) and renamed Irene after his daugher. The settlement that had grown up around the farm also adopted the new name and in 1902, Irene was declared a township. Bertie was the first of five generations of van der Byls born in Irene, and the farm is still in the family today. Over the years the family has been responsible for building up the herd of dairy cows on the farm, and locals still flock to the farm shop (sometimes with traditional one gallon milk pails) to buy the fresh farm milk.

Apart from the dairy operation itself, there is a farm shop which stocks an impressive range of artisanal food products, mostly sourced from the Gauteng area such as cured meats, cheeses and olive products. There are also freshly baked breads, fresh fruit juices and milk, and a wonderful selection of herbs and condiments such as the Cape Herb & Spice Company’s outstanding range. The first time I visited Irene Dairy Farm, we walked through the farm shop before we went to lunch and Catherine practically had to drag me out by my feet – I was like a kid in a candy store!

But onwards and upwards. There are two dining options at Irene: for more casual, light meals, there is the wooden deck that runs the length of the farm shop building; or there is the Barn Restaurant, situated in and around one of the original 1890 barns, which is where we ate most recently. We chose to sit outside (although there is also seating inside) under the ancient and impressive oak trees. One of my favourite things about both the Barn and the Deck is the innovative air conditioning system. If you look closely at the picture above, you will see what look like puffs of smoke in the tree branches and at intervals along the barn roof. This is in fact water mist sprayed from a system of thin suspended tubes above the dining area. There’s enough spray to cool you down, but not enough to get you wet. I was enchanted!

On to the food. As it was hot and summery I wanted a salad, and as halloumi cheese is a rarity on London menus, I could not resist the grilled halloumi salad. Nick (as I recall) had a pannini or a burger, and Catherine had a smoked chicken, Emmenthaler cheese and couscous salad. All the portions were generous and the ingredients were fresh. And unlike some places, they do not stint on the expensive ingredients – there was a load of smoked chicken and a load of halloumi – as you can see above!

Before (or after) you eat, you should also make time to visit the nearby Irene craft market and the unexpected historical treasure at its centre. General Jan Christian Smuts, one of South Africa’s most prominent international statesmen and a signatory of the original United Nations charter, bought a third of the original Doornkloof farm in 1908. As he needed a home for his growing family he bought, for the princely sum of £300, the wood and iron building which had served as the Officers Mess of the British Forces in Middelburg during the Anglo-Boer War. The building was dismantled, brought to Pretoria by rail, and then taken to the farm Doornkloof by ox wagon, where it was re-erected at the substantial cost of £1000. Gen. Smuts and his wife lived at Smuts House from 1909 until his death in 1950 and the British Royal Family visited him there on their South African visit in 1947. The building has been lovingly restored and today looks very much like it did when the Smuts family lived there. It is a restful space and it’s easy to imagine how Gen. Smuts might have retreated here after the rigours of public life to pursue his interest in botany and philosophy. It’s well worth a visit.

With a craft market, a working dairy, a wonderful farm shop, a historical building AND a good restaurant, Irene makes for a lovely day out in the country – even though you are less than an hour from the suburbs of Johannesburg (and literally IN the suburbs of Pretoria!).

via Irene Dairy Farm, Gauteng – Cook sister!.