All declinations of ostrich products in Cape Town: ostrich boots, ostrich meat, ostrich feathers...!

Looking for ostrich boots? Well, the Western Cape is the kingdom of ostriches and especially Oudtshoorn, the city of ostriches! You see them all over and in any type of form such as ostrich accessories, live ostrich or ostrich meat...!

Commercial farming of ostriches started in 1850 when pioneering farmers located in Oudtshoorn. Ostriches are a great investment as you can use nearly everything out of them.

Ostrich birds are the biggest birds on planet earth and the fastest! They say they’re not clever and you have to be careful as they will eat everything which feels heavy to fill their stomachs. Piece of wood, metal have been found in their stomachs!

Do you know that, few decades ago, ostrich feathers were worse more than gold?! Ostrich feathers are the most amazing in the world and use for fashion (ostrich boots, shoes, wallets,etc.), decoration, cabarets, weddings and… a bit less romantic but very useful cleaning with the feather dusters! Ostrich feathers can be died in fancy colors such as red, green, pink…! If you are looking for ostrich feather, click here

Ostrich meat is my favorite red meat because it’s very healthy with very low cholesterol and calories, it’s almost fat free and it simply tastes so good!

There are several ways to cook it, you can ‘braai’ (barbecue) a steak or a boerwors made of ostrich meat, you can stew ostrich goulash or make a Bolognese with ostrich mince. How ever you decide to cook it, the best is to have it rare and no to use a fork to return the meat as you’ll lose its meat juice and you’ll make the meat very dry. For more ostrich recipes, click here

Ostrich leather is one of the strongest commercial leathers and for that reason people love buying ostrich boots or shoes because they lats forever! Apart from ostrich boots, ostrich leather make beautiful accessories such as ostrich wallets, bags, belts in multiple colors.If you are looking for ostrich products, visit Klein Karoo's website or Skinz leather's website. And for the world cup, you are now even able to get ostrich boots to play soccer!

Ostrich eggs can be eaten and it’s very nice cooked in the ground (careful it takes 4 hours!) and served hard, chopped in pieces with some mayonnaise on it… If you want to have it as an omelet, it equals to 20 chicken eggs so it's nice for a big family meal!!!

The first year I’ve lived in Cape Town and I got back to France on holidays, I brought back an ostrich egg to my family to eat together. At this stage, I did not know how to break teh shell so we drilled a hole and we managed to get the white and yolk together after a long time because the hole was small!

Now, I know...the best way to get it, is to take a spoon and knock on the top of the egg with the top of a spoon. Naturally a circle is going to take place. You’ll just have to take the broken shell away and make a hole in the membrane and you’ll have a big enough hole to get whole egg! If you look at any empty egg, they'll all have a hole at the top or at the bottom-(it all depends how you look at it!)- And now you know why…!

If you are vegetarian, you could have a different approach to this bird by going to an ostrich farm. There are plenty of them in Oudtshoorn. I recommend Cango Ostrich farm but you can also go to Ostrich Ranch which is 30 minutes drive from Cape Town. They'll give you lots of information about ostriches and you’ll even be able to ride or feed an ostrich.

You can also use the eggs for decoration. Lots of shops in Cape Town sell beautiful eggs for the decoration. Carved eggs make beautiful lampshades as the light goes through the holes and give a nice ambiance. Painted bright color eggs are nice in a wooden basket or in a glass vase.

And… by the way, I have never been able to see an ostrich on a beach so I have not witnessed them hiding their heads in the sand!!! Is that a legend or do they really do it?!

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