Texaspotjie Blog

Welcome to the new Texaspotjie Blog. All registered users has the ability to blog so please register and start blogging. A special category has been created just for the 2008 Potjie so share your experiences with all.

Enjoy!

The Texas Potjie Festival is more of a gathering or camping rally rather than a Festival per se. It could be described as an old fashioned Nagmaal. There are people that sell their homemade boerewors, droerwors, biltong, koeksusters, some sell South African products like Mrs Balls Chutney etc but really it is about kuiering together and enjoying our South African cultural heritage. People wander campsite to campsite speaking and kuiering with each other. The idea of the Potjie is not to make it too commercialized or make it a too regulated weekend schedule that people have no time to rest. It is, after all, a no worries, care free, weekend. So everyone feel free to bring your braais, chairs, picnic things along and join the fun even if for a day.

People usually arrive either Friday evening or Saturday morning and set up camp. This year we have put together such events as a cricket match friendly (bring your bat, balls and other cricket paraphernalia if you have it), and a watermelon eating contest for the kids on Saturday. The Best in Texas Boerewors Contest judging begins at 5.30 pm so people usually start their braais around 4 pm. Although I am sure you could pinch a piece of wors here and there, the Festival does not provide dinner on Saturday night. So why not come and braai with us instead.

Around 7.30 pm is the Award Ceremony for The Best Boerewors in Texas and just thereafter the Saturday Night Sokkie begins. We provide some wine, beer and snacks in the hall to get the dans going. Last year the Sokkie ended around 2.30 am and a few die-hards went on till sunlight.

Sunday is the day of the Texas Potjie Cook-off so most of the day is spent by the contestants in their respective camps preparing and cooking the entries. This year however we are having an Afrikaans church service at 9.00 am in the hall. We will also be handing out ice-cream and cookies for the kids at 1.00 pm. Judging starts at 4 pm and goes through till 6-6.30 or so. After that is dinner.

Contestants take their pots up to the hall and there everyone (even those who did not enter a pot) has a little bit of each entries potjie. The idea is to share our food with each other. From year to year the amount of pots vary—some years we had up to 40 Potjies and others as low as 25—so you may want a back-up plan if you have hungry teenagers.

Then we have the Awards Ceremony for the Texas Potjie Festival Cook-Off and afterwards there is kuiering, music and perhaps some more dancing for those who want to.

So to answer your question there is no actual “set time” that the Festival begins or ends per se. Just come on down for the day or evening.