Roadside heroes make you crave for more

Along the scenic road to Grünau in the southern part of Namibia is a beautiful farmstall called Eat-Sum-Mor.
Ronelle Rademeyer
Elizabeth Joseph



Andriëtte and Ben Loftie-Eaton own a beautiful farmstall not far from Grünau along the B1 to the South, called Eat-Sum-Mor.

We caught up with them to find out what their secret was for running a successful roadside business for more than 15 years.

Eat-Sum-More Padstal, open every day of the week, is decorated with fabric and metal sunflowers and marked by a line of colourful flags. As much as the outside attracted us and compelled us to stop, it was the friendly response from both employee and owner that made us drive 8 km to meet the people behind it all.

The Loftie-Eatons started the farmstall 16 years ago and mainly focus on dried fruit, cookies, chilly bites, biltong, and “droëwors”. All the savory products are made on the farm Karolina, by a team that has been on the farm for almost a decade.

“My husband runs a fully functioning butchery here on the farm and there we make the chilly bites, biltong, and droëwors. Most of our dried fruits come from South Africa, but because of Covid-19 imports became more and more challenging,” Andriette said.

Furthermore, the cookies that are sold at the farmstall are made on the farm as by Ndeyapo Primus who has been employed there for a little over 4 years. She seemed to have mastered the art of making several different cookies all at once with poise.



Branching out

For marketing, the Loftie-Eatons rely mostly on their product doing the talking. They trust the fact that they give a quality product and that it will market itself that way.

They have other businesses in places like Keetmanshoop, Karasburg and Lüderitz, where they send their products bi-weekly.

“I bake on a very big scale and I think the fact that we have been in the business so long makes it easier to trust that the quality speaks for itself. The cookies are affordable and we put everything into our products, no matter what it is,” she further mentions.



Employment

The farm provides jobs to at least 13 people all over the farm and everyone has become like one big family, where each one knows their role and helps one another make the farm and farmstall run successfully.

The farm has recently received close to 150 mm of rain along with the entire southern regions and the farmers say that a little bit of rain goes a long way, especially in the South where it has taken years for farmers to see even a little bit of green.

Their hopes and wishes for this year are to continue making sure their products are of high quality and that people keep choosing their products.

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Republikein 2024-11-23

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