Lady Bird
Mathilde Stegmann
The spirited owner of Birds Boutique Café on Bree Street, Namibian-born Mathilde Stegmann, has made Cape Town her home, and is satisfying a dedicated stream of patrons with her flair for fresh, organic fare.
‘I came here in the Fifties,’ reminisces Mathilde, ‘on honeymoon with my husband. What I remember most from those days were the musicians, especially the penny whistlers who played on street corners. There was music wherever you went … and dancing. People made time for that kind of thing. ‘Nowadays everyone is involved in their individual lives and there is less interaction. The youth spend most of their time working – you just have to look at the rush-hour traffic to see that. I feel it’s important to slow down, which is why I opened this place [Birds]. I want to let the city slow down.’
Long trestle tables and stacked crates at Mathilde’s cafe create an air of simple informality and invite you to do just that: slow down, and interact. The name stems from Mathilde’s admiration of the feathered species. ‘I love seagulls; I have since childhood. It’s important to take care of the birds we have, be they flamingos or oystercatchers. Watch the movement of birds, their grace, it teaches you to be in less of a hurry.’
Crates of organic veggies wait at the entrance for Capetonians who will swing by on their way home from work to collect their weekly order. ‘A lot of people in this city would love to follow an organic lifestyle, and it’s not that difficult to get into. You need to start slowly,’ advises Mathilde. ‘Read about what you eat, educate yourself. If you have a garden, you can start there. Organic produce begins in the ground; the more you grow, the better it becomes. You need to be patient. With every new rotation of plants the seeds get stronger.’ Birds gets its produce from Wild Organics in Woodstock, an outlet that sources from a variety of local organic-certified farmers.
Is there a trend towards a more organic way of living in a city where lunch is swallowed in front of a computer and microwave dinners are the order of the day? Certainly, believes Mathilde. ‘People are becoming more aware. You cannot eat something without thinking about its origins. Cheap, contaminated maize is dumped in Africa because no one else will accept it. We need to prevent this from happening.’ Along with a growing social conscience, people in this city are waking up to the need for a more wholesome and natural source of nourishment.
Nothing in Mathilde’s kitchen goes to waste. Leftovers, if there are any, are given to people working on the streets, including vendors for The Big Issue. Together with a team of volunteers started up by a German customer of hers, Mathilde is also involved in a ‘kitchen club’ in Khayelitsha. They put together scrapbooks of simple, healthy recipes and students learn the basics of cooking with things they can grow in their own vegetable patches. ‘You can have a garden in a beer box, or create a small patch and grow something you like to eat.’ Some of their students have gone on to assist in the kitchen at Birds and other Cape Town restaurants.
Having been a visitor to this city for most of her life, Mathilde decided to settle in Cape Town four years ago. ‘It is still so exciting for me,’ she says with obvious zest, ‘although it is no longer the same city. It has lost some of its spirit. You don’t see as many children and old people wandering the streets, and that’s what really makes a city tick.
‘As a visitor you look at the most beautiful things, but when you live here you get to know what the visitor doesn’t always see.’ As with any other city in the world, there’s always more than meets the eye and you cannot truly call a place home unless you acknowledge, and actively seek to improve, the daily afflictions that many of its inhabitants are faced with.
‘Cape Town remains one of the most beautiful cities in the world because of its culture, and the culture that is still to come. It’s something we have to work on,’ she says. As culture goes, the Bo-Kaap epitomises the flavour of the Cape for Mathilde. ‘There’s nothing more beautiful than the views from high up among the houses, looking down through the cobbled streets towards the city below. The people who live here are alive with culture, and their cooking is no exception. One of my most memorable experiences in this city was a picnic at the Noon Gun on Signal Hill. The men prepared a smoke braai for the fresh snoek, which was wrapped in tinfoil and cooked with cardamom, cinnamon and orange.’
Mathilde is drawn to the sea and wakes up daily to a picture-postcard Table Bay from her beachside home on Lagoon Beach in Milnerton. ‘I love Cape Point, the meeting of the two oceans – you’d almost expect a collision of the waves there. When I’m away from the city, it’s the sea I miss the most, and the beaches. ‘For time out in the city, I escape to the beautiful Mount Nelson gardens, where it’s blissfully quiet and I can unwind with a glass of Villiera sparkling wine. This city really does have everything. You just have to pause long enough to take it all in.’
HOME Lagoon Beach, Milnerton
SHOP Atlas Trading
DECOR My daughter Frauke’s ceramics
FLAVOUR Lemon
STREET Church
ICON The unfinished highway
TRADITION The Noon Gun
SOUND Birdsong
INDULGE Swimming at Boulders Beach
PRECIOUS Friends and family
Atlas Trading
94 Wale Street, 021 424 3417
Bird Boutique Café
127 Bree Street, 021 426 2534
Mount Nelson Hotel
76 Orange Street, 021 483 1000
The Kitchen Club
If you’d like to help, call Mathilde at Birds
The Noon Gun
Fired every day except Sunday. To get there, turn right off Buitengracht Street into Whirford Street, which then becomes Military Road.
Wild Organics
34 Salisbury Street, Cnr Fairview Avenue, Woodstock, 021 448 8109