If I recall correctly, I think we were the first to arrive at the Blue Barn Opening Day Christmas Market in Mooiplaas on Sunday 14 December 2014.

We were a little nervous about how sales would go that day at the Blue Barn, at a place not only new to us but new to visitors too. We’d had a good afternoon and evening of sales at the Acacia Tree Nursery School Christmas Market the day before and were now afraid of losing some of that market profit we’d made. Our market costs are small as they’re mostly stall fee costs and petrol for the car. Although we spend a lot of time on the making of our products, we spend very little money on the making of our products, but we still needed some decent extra cash ahead of Christmas Day.

Although sales for us were a little slow at the Blue Barn at first, we need not have worried. Our market stall product sales picked up a bit later, and we ended up having a reasonable sales day. Our market sales were R462.50. Our market costs were R20 for the stall space and R90 petrol. Market profit was thus R352.50.

We’ve had worse market days, where we’ve even run at a loss, so couldn’t complain, but we were hoping we’d do a bit better than that. We could have gone to Tea in the Trees, as had had a good market day at Tea in the Trees the Sunday before, but then again, who’s to say that Sunday 14 December at Tea in the Trees would have been as good as Sunday 7 December at Tea in the Trees had been. One just never knows, so we just settled in to enjoy ourselves at the Blue Barn.

And we did enjoy ourselves at the Blue Barn opening day Christmas market. There were some lovely photo opportunities: there were woolly goats just wandering about, there were some lovely old wooden barrels, and there was a cute little wagon.

We had our market stall set up indoors, so were relieved not to have to worry about sunburn or about wind knocking any of our products over.

We didn’t buy anything to eat at the Blue Barn, but their gourmet boerewors rolls did look tempting. Although as tempting as they looked, we thought R30 was a bit much for these boerewors rolls.

The Blue Barn has a delightful little gift shop and a cosy corner bar. The music that was playing throughout most of the morning was a little loud, and it was somewhat irritating coupled with the heat of the place. It was a hot day, and it was almost as hot and humid inside as it was outside. It was only as we were starting to pack up that a youngster brought out his guitar and started singing some songs that were much more to our liking. We wished we could have had him singing all morning instead of the music that was played.

The feta cheese people were there, or better known as the feta folk. They had a little bowl of dressing and cherry tomatoes for people to try along with a piece of feta and I absolutely loved it. It seemed like many other people did too, and I suggested they make up little bottles of it and sell it along with their feta.

Other than playing with the woolly goats, there isn’t really anything for kids to do at the Blue Barn, but, generally, I’d say that the Blue Barn had a successful opening day, and I do see them going from strength to strength. It’s also a lovely countryside place for a wedding venue, a little rustic, and charming. Mooiplaas is not that far out of East London, and the Blue Barn could become an East London wedding venue of note. It’s also a great place to simply meet up with family or friends for a cup of tea of coffee, or a drink, and a snack and a chat.

Where is the Blue Barn? Heading towards Komga (or Durban) along the N2 from East London, instead of taking the turn on the right to Haga Haga and Kei Mouth, turn left instead, and almost immediately turn left again.

© Copyright Teresa Schultz 2014