Ladismith Eko-Fees

Join us for a week-end filled with activities during the Ladismith Eco Festival. Visitors will have the options to go on guided 4x4 trails, quadbike and hiking trails and experience the bio- diversity of our part of the Klein Karoo.

Taste our cheeses and wines, join the street parade on Saturday morning. Several activities will take place at the Show Grounds during the day.

Dance and steak night on Friday night in show hall. Different stalls for wandering around and purchasing all sorts of treats. 4x4 competition and potjieskos competition at night.

When: Friday, 29 April 2011 to Sunday, 01 May 2011
Where: Ladismith

Houtstock

Inspired by the origional Woodstock of 1969 this festival will be three days of peace and freedom with 35 hours of Afrikaans music in the Swartland.

Top Afrikaans musicians will be performing on the 35m stage and there will be three media screens to give everyone a great view. Keeping your bellies fill will be the various food stalls, including a stall from South Africa's favourite the Spur!

All ages and tastes will be catered for and you can expect performances from Kurt Darren, Steve Hofmeyr, Eden, Nadine, Nicholas Louw, Dozi to Fokofpolisiekar, Clive Bruce, Ray and Romanz.

When: (Saturday, 23 April 2011 to Monday, 25 April 2011)
Where: Malmesbury

Breedekloof Cloudy Nouveau Wine Festival

The Breedekloof wine region will give visitors a sneak preview of the 2011 harvest during their first Cloudy Nouveau weekend on Friday April 15 and Saturday April 16.

The event is an opportunity to taste unfiltered (cloudy) 2011 white wines direct from the tank and the weekend features everything from Sauvignon Blanc slush puppies to sushi, a Fynbos mountain hike, a 4x4 trail, picnics, a crocodile spitbraai, live music and the annual Breede Mountain Bike Challenge.

The Breedekloof region includes the wineries in the Rawsonville, Slanghoek, Goudini and Breede River areas. Bergsig Estate will serve thirst-quenching Sauvignon Blanc slush puppies, and sell Cabernet Jam, Pinotage Pears and freshly baked raison bread. Their Bistro will be open and there will also be live music on the Saturday.

On the Saturday between 10am and 3pm Kirabo Private Cellar will host a vertical wine tasting of Merlot and serve pan-pizza.

A 6.5km Fynbos hike on the mountainside is on the menu at Jason’s Hill Private Cellar, and picnic baskets are available. The farm stall stocks locally produced crafts while the Bistro will be open. They are also offering discounts on various wines.

Badsberg Wine Cellar will host a 4x4 trail on the Saturday. Entries cost R200 per 4x4 vehicle and R100 per quadbike. The winery will be open for wine tasting and sales. The now famous Badsberg steak burgers and chips will be available, as well as a crocodile spitbraai for the more adventurous palate.

Foodies can enjoy tapas and traditional Zwiebelkuchen onion tart at Daschbosch Wine Cellar, where there will also be a jumping castle and sand art for kids. There will be a jewellery exhibition on the Saturday.

Du Toitskloof Wine Cellar will host an Oes-af potjiekos competition (R400 per team of 4) on the Saturday, with live music. There will also be food stalls and Sauvignon Blanc on tap.

There will be special wine tasting in the cellar every hour at Goudini Wines where the coffee shop serves light meals. There will also be discounts on various wines.

Botha Wine Cellar will serve sushi and cheese platters by Ocean Basket, while Deetlefs Estate will also serve cheese platters. Opstal Estate will offer discounts on various wines, while their restaurant offers an à la carte menu. While vvisitors will also be able to drink 2011 wines direct from the tanks at Slanghoek Wine Cellar.

Mountain bikers can win their weight in wine at Breërivier Primary School’s annual Breede Mountain Bike Challenge on the Saturday. Registration is from 06:00 – 08:15 and the starting time is 08:30. The event offers a 55km Challenge, a 32km fun ride, a 16km for beginners as well as a 4km kiddie’s route.

When: Friday, 15 April 2011 to Saturday, 16 April 2011
Where: Rawsonville

Can Alcohol Help the Brain Remember? Repeated Ethanol Exposure Enhances Synaptic Plasticity in Key Brain Area, Study Finds

Drinking alcohol primes certain areas of our brain to learn and remember better, says a new study from the Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research at The University of Texas at Austin.

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The common view that drinking is bad for learning and memory isn't wrong, says neurobiologist Hitoshi Morikawa, but it highlights only one side of what ethanol consumption does to the brain.

"Usually, when we talk about learning and memory, we're talking about conscious memory," says Morikawa, whose results were published last month in The Journal of Neuroscience. "Alcohol diminishes our ability to hold on to pieces of information like your colleague's name, or the definition of a word, or where you parked your car this morning. But our subconscious is learning and remembering too, and alcohol may actually increase our capacity to learn, or 'conditionability,' at that level."

Morikawa's study, which found that repeated ethanol exposure enhances synaptic plasticity in a key area in the brain, is further evidence toward an emerging consensus in the neuroscience community that drug and alcohol addiction is fundamentally a learning and memory disorder.

When we drink alcohol (or shoot up heroin, or snort cocaine, or take methamphetamines), our subconscious is learning to consume more. But it doesn't stop there. We become more receptive to forming subsconscious memories and habits with respect to food, music, even people and social situations.

In an important sense, says Morikawa, alcoholics aren't addicted to the experience of pleasure or relief they get from drinking alcohol. They're addicted to the constellation of environmental, behavioral and physiological cues that are reinforced when alcohol triggers the release of dopamine in the brain.

"People commonly think of dopamine as a happy transmitter, or a pleasure transmitter, but more accurately it's a learning transmitter," says Morikawa. "It strengthens those synapses that are active when dopamine is released."

Alcohol, in this model, is the enabler. It hijacks the dopaminergic system, and it tells our brain that what we're doing at that moment is rewarding (and thus worth repeating).

Among the things we learn is that drinking alcohol is rewarding. We also learn that going to the bar, chatting with friends, eating certain foods and listening to certain kinds of music are rewarding. The more often we do these things while drinking, and the more dopamine that gets released, the more "potentiated" the various synapses become and the more we crave the set of experiences and associations that orbit around the alcohol use.

Morikawa's long-term hope is that by understanding the neurobiological underpinnings of addiction better, he can develop anti-addiction drugs that would weaken, rather than strengthen, the key synapses. And if he can do that, he would be able to erase the subconscious memory of addiction.

"We're talking about de-wiring things," says Morikawa. "It's kind of scary because it has the potential to be a mind controlling substance. Our goal, though, is to reverse the mind controlling aspects of addictive drugs."

LEMON MERINGUE PIE RECIPE

I wouldn't go so far as to claim that Lemon Meringue Pie is a South African invention. However, it is a South African favorite.
Any restaurant offering morning and afternoon tea/coffee and cake that doesn't have a Lemon Meringue Pie on the menu is looking to lose customers.
Also, through the ages, South African cooks have added their own improvements to the basic Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe.

In this sense the Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe given here may, at a stretch, be considered a truly traditional and authentic South African recipe. For the pie you obviously need a pie shell, for this I use a rich, sweet shortcrust pastry. Rich, because the Lemon Meringue itself is rich and sweet to compliment the sweet meringue and contrast with the tart sweetness of the lemon pie filling. SHORTCRUST PASTRY PIE SHELL:- Note, this Shortcrust Pastry recipe will make 4 pie shells. Presumably, you won't be making 4 Lemon Meringue Pies at the same time, so you can either halve the quantities or wrap the pastry in waxed paper and chill until needed. Will last for a week in the refrigerator. DO NOT FREEZE. 500g cake flour (1 lb 1 ½ oz) 350g shortening (12 ½ oz) (butter, a combination of 50% butter and 50% lard, or margarine) 125ml iced water (½ cup) 40 g sugar (granulated) (1 ½ oz) 25 ml lemon juice. Preferably freshly squeezed. (2 tbsp) 5ml Salt (1 tsp) 1 Egg

Double sift the dry ingredients (flour, sugar & salt) together into a mixing bowl. Cut the shortening into the dry mixture and rub until the mixture takes on the appearance of coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the water and lemon juice onto the crumb mixture and press together lightly to form a solid mass.

IMPORTANT: Do not knead the pastry and avoid over working.
Wrap in waxed paper and chill until required.

As an added taste I often add 10 ml (2 teaspoons) of lemon zest (the finely grated outside either yellow or green of a lemon) to the dry ingredients when I know that I am going to be using the pastry for Lemon Meringue Pies.

When ready for use, line pie tins with the pastry and bake at 190^oC (375^oF) for 15 minutes..

LEMON MERINGUE PIE FILLING

250g (sweetened condensed milk (9 oz)
65ml castor sugar (6 tbsp)
3 medium sized lemons
3 eggs.

Juice the lemons and using a rasp grate the outside of the lemons to obtain the zest. Be careful to only grate the outer colored skin of the lemons and not the white pith.
Separate the eggs.

In a mixing bowl beat together the egg yolks, lemon zest and lemon juice until the mixture becomes thick and creamy.
Beat in the condensed milk and pour the resulting mixture into a baked pastry shell.

Using a clean bowl beat together the egg whites and castor sugar until the mixture forms stiff peaks, be careful not to beat so much that the meringue mixture becomes dry.
Spoon the meringue mixture over the lemon pie filling. Do not smooth the top.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180^oC (350^oF) for 25 minutes.
Remove and allow to cool.

Serve the Lemon Meringue Pie cold; some people prefer to chill Lemon Meringues in a refrigerator before serving.

Coffee Drinking in Your Genes? Genetic Variants in Two Genes Linked With Caffeine Intake

Two genes in which variation affects intake of caffeine, the most widely consumed stimulant in the world, have been discovered. A team of investigators from the National Cancer Institute, Harvard School of Public Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill examined genetic variation across the entire genome of more than 47,000 individuals from the U.S., as described in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

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The genes identified were CYP1A2, which has previously been implicated in the metabolism of caffeine, and AHR, involved in the regulation of CYP1A2. Individuals with the highest-consumption genotype for either gene consumed ~40 mg more caffeine than those with the lowest-consumption genotype, equivalent to the amount of 1/3 cup of caffeinated coffee, or 1 can of cola.

Caffeine is implicated in numerous physiological and medical conditions; it affects sleep patterns, energy levels, mood, and mental and physical performance. The identification of genes that have an impact on daily consumption offers opportunities to better understand these conditions. Further exploration of the identified genetic variants may provide insight into the speed of caffeine metabolism, how long caffeine circulates in the blood, or how strong the physiological effects of consuming a given amount of caffeine are.

Apart from smoking, genetic determinants of lifestyle behaviors have generally not been consistently described. This study is among the first to examine the entire genome for a relationship between genetics and caffeine intake, a lifestyle behavior relevant to over 90% of U.S. adults. The study's success also suggests that additional genetic determinants of dietary and lifestyle behaviors may be identified in the future using a similar genome-based research strategy.

Two Oceans Marathon

The Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon presented by Nike is run under the rules of IAAF, Athletics South Africa and Western Province Athletics.

A marathon with global appeal is the Two Oceans Marathon. Hosted in the beautiful sea side city of Cape Town, the Two Oceans marathon attracts some 20 000 participants who willingly taken on 56 kilometers of open road and challenging mountain climbs. An interesting feature of the route of Two Oceans Marathon, is as the name indicates, it passes both oceans surrounding the South African shoreline - the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. It is therefore as stunning as it is challenging.

Runners will be begin their journey in Newlands and head out towards Noordhoek. It’s then that the most spectacular portion of the marathon begins - Chapmans Peak. The Two Oceans Marathon route didn’t include Chapmans Peak for a few years because of the danger of regular rock falls that led to the closure of this mountain pass. However, R156 million and a few engineering and construction feats later, Chapmans peak was reopened and was re-included into the Two Oceans Marathon route - much to the delight of regular entrants.

The toughest part of the Two Oceans Marathon, is undoubtedly the mountain climb known as the ‘Suikerbossie Pass’. After you’ve enjoyed the scenery of Chapmans peak and you’ve passed through the relative flats of Hout Bay, every ounce of remaining energy will be used as you climb this monstrous hill. The screams of supporters will edge you on to the top of this hill where you’re greeted by the welcome sight of the Atlantic Ocean.

Ultra Marathon Route: Chapman’s Peak Drive re-opened in December 2003, nearly 4 years after the scenic road was closed because of dangerous rock falls. The new road includes a number of additional safety features, such as 1560 metres of high energy catch fences and two curved canopy structures totalling 81 metres in length. The construction costs were in excess of R157 million.

Half Marathon Route: The half marathon route is along the same course as the ultra marathon for the first 6 km. Thereafter runners veer west through Plumstead and Constantia before reaching Rhodes Drive in Newlands and finishing at the UCT Upper Campus sportsfields.

Race Distances:
ULTRA Marathon 56 kilometres (34.8 miles)
HALF Marathon 21.1 kilometres (13.1 miles)



When: Saturday, 23 April 2011
Where: Cape Town
Categories: Sporting Events


If you would like to experienced the two Oceans Marathon and need accommodation contact us for more information: e-mail: riverlodgebackbackers@gmail.com or call us 0027214480526