I have just returned from a trip to Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, I was there finalizing the purchase of 500 Ostriches from my farmer pal Sid Birch.
Sid and his family have been farming in South Africa for generations, Sid's Farther, Ted is still very active in the business at 83 years.
At one time the Birch family, were the largest Angora goat (Mohair) farmers in the World, in the 60s -80s if you wore a "cool" Mohair suit, it may well have been made from "Birch" Angora goat hair . Nowadays the family concentrates on Ostriches in South Africa and Sheep in Australia, Mohair is not so fashionable these days.
I bought the Ostriches at 50kg average per bird and Sid will grow them to maturity (90-100kg) and harvest the feathers for me and also look after there well being from an animal husbandry point of view on one of his farms.
Although Oudtshoorn in the Western Cape is recognized to be the Ostrich capital of the World these days, Ostrich farming actually started in the 1850s in the Grahamstown area pioneered by young British immigrants seeking their fortunes in a beautiful but undeveloped country.
The Ostrich Feathers were Auctioned in the Feather Hall in Port Elizabeth where the buildings still stands.
I have attached a few, hopefully interesting, pictures including one of our national flower, The Protea (this one growing in my Garden) but they grow wild all over South Africa.
Feather hall and feather center in Port Elizabeth built during very prosperous times in the Ostrich feather business.
Go Well
Alistair Ross