Baard & Co.

Father’s Day Sourdoughs

For the long weekend around Youth Day and Father’s Day, we went to Oudtshoorn. We were keen to take the kids to the Cango Caves and Ostrich Farms, and of course enjoy the local produce and cook up a storm at the accommodation we were sharing with friends from Gqberha.

But then Harvey got sick, we took him to the local GP and he needed to be admitted to the Klein Karoo Mediclinic, where he stayed for three nights. You can’t leave a two year old on their own in hospital, so between Lianne and I we were taking turns looking after him.

“Can you make on that says ‘The Roasted Dad’?” I asked in a comment tongue-in-cheek.. low and behold, the next day Ronel de Jager, the power house behind the BAARD & Co brand, DM’ed me this picture, and offered to drop it off as she was making her rounds:

During that hospital stay I refreshed my Instagram feed many times and happened to see the Baard and Co Instagram post below:

BAARD & Co. Coffee Roasters

As we were still in Oudtshoorn, this didn’t work out, but when I reached out to her when we got back and when I asked for a picture of it baked, she said “don’t laugh but we ate it!”

Of course this meant she had to bake ‘The Roasted Dad’ Sourdough for us again when we returned. So as it happened, the Saturday after we got back, we took our three kids for a little drive to Durbanville to see Baard & Co. Coffee Roasters. The kids had their babyccinos that they had been asking for all morning and we had our cappuccinos (or ‘adult chinos’ as Liv calls them).

Soon after, Ronel walked in with the sourdoughs she had made for us. So cool! I’ve already placed an order for a bunch of these hand painted artisan sour dough loaves to use at my next event (Food and Music Pairing at Feastival). Baard and Co.’s sourdough loafs are made with Eureka Mills flour, which is also proudly South African and free from preservatives, GMO’s and additives.

BAARD & Co started out as a coffee roastery in 2018 but expanded into home baking sourdoughs during the Covid lockdown. After winning 1st place in the Shot in the Dark competition, judge Mike Mac Donald taught Ronel to roast as well and so you can now also get BAARD & Co.’s own specialty coffee!

BAARD & Co’s Louis and Ronel de Jager

Ronel’s husband Louis was first to start practicing his bread-baking skills during the lockdown, and Ronel wasn’t all that interested in the bread “until I realised that I could add designs to it”. And that she does. Ronel quickly became known for the aesthetic designs added to the loaves. The hand-paitned Sourdough has featured everywhere, from (online and print) magazines such as Pretty Blog, The Platteland Mag, House & Leasure, Scape Magazine, and Spaces Magazine (a collaboration with Okra who custom-made bread candles) to TV shows like Kwêla to Bravo (twice) and VIA. Her breads featured in advertisements for the likes of Le Creuset, Weylandts, Yuppiechef as well as on the Spring cover of Sarie Magazine in 2021 (to the right - featuring Zola Nene and Nataniël and made possible by food editor Herman Lensing). 

With her sourdough loaves, Ronel contributed to an art installation in the form of a never-seen-before bread mural (pictured below) at Sela Vie, Val de Vie Estate.

De Jager was also one of six women (along with Chefs Jackie Cameron, Eleanor Coetzee, Megin Meikle, Motheba Makhetha, Charné Sampson and Carla Schulze) showcasing their innovation, creativity, expertise and sheer talent at the 2023 Eat Out Awards. Ronel was asked to set the scene with a bread course of her hand painted artisanal sourdough.

A Small Business Supporting other Small Businesses

Baard & Co. also supports fellow entrepreneurs, for example:

• MasterChef runner-up Andriëtte de la Harpe sold her lemon meringue and carrot cake at the Baard and Co coffee shop in 2022.

• Crystal Birch hats are for sale at the Baard and Co.

• The Blue Logo mural behind the coffee counter was designed by South African artist Michael Chandler from Chandler House art gallery.

• Holland Bakkery sweet and savoury snacks are sold at the coffee counter.

Baard & Co Awards

• Best Cafe Designs in the Coffee Magazine Awards 2022

• 1st place Shot in the Dark - Coffee Magazine 2023

Location and Opening Hours

You can find BAARD & Co. at 5 Pampoenkraal Street in Durbanville.

Contact info: 076 305 0067 | baard.co@gmail.com

Opening Hours:

• Monday - Friday 07:00 am - 3:30 pm

• Saturday 07:00 am - 1:00 pm.

The Roasted Family with their custom-order, one to enjoy at home (above) and one to serve at the Feastival Italian Food, Wine and Music Pairing event at Makers Landing!

About Shawn Godfrey

Shawn Godfrey is an entrepreneur based in Cape Town, South Africa. After the Covid-19 lockdown saw his business in financial distress, cooking was the creative outlet that helped to keep him sane. To keep track of his recipes, and encourage friends and families to join him, he starts his instagram account The Roasted Dad.

Fast-forward to late 2021 - on a whim Shawn (encouraged by his wife Lianne) enters MasterChef South Africa. It is a crazy time of life: running a 200 people business and struggling to keep it profitable, two small children with a third on the way, and about to move into a new house. But when Shawn gets selected to be one of the 20 contestants participating in the fourth season of MasterChef South Africa, he decides to go all in. Leaving his 7-month-pregnant wife to look after their then three and one-year-old children, he battles it out and comes back home five weeks later with the trophy and a million rand prize money in his pocket.

It all started with an Instagram account, but The Roasted Dad is so much more now. Shawn has stayed his entrepreneurial self and whilst he hosts Private Dinner Parties and Cook-with-Me Demos, does Restaurant Take-Overs, he still runs the lighting company and several other businesses.

On his blog, Shawn shares Restaurant Reviews and Accommodation Reviews, and gives an insight into the wild and wonderful life he leads together with his wife Lianne, and their three children Aiden (6), Olivia (4) and Harvey (2).

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