Western Cape Farms

Where to pick flowers and berries, walk with alpacas and see rural life in the Cape

When you hear the word “farm”, it is easy to picture cows, sheep and a field somewhere far outside the city.

In the Western Cape, things are a little more interesting.

A farm here might turn out to be a garden with thousands of rose bushes, a strawberry field where you arrive with a basket, a cherry orchard high in the mountains, a family-run alpaca farm or a small flower farm that opens for just a few Pick Your Own days during the season.

And that is no coincidence.

Agriculture plays an important role in life across the Western Cape. The Mediterranean climate, mountain valleys, different soil types and very different conditions even within the same province make it possible to grow grapes, berries, stone fruit, vegetables, flowers and other crops here. Add livestock farms, ostrich farms and wineries, and it becomes easier to understand why a trip “to a farm” can mean dozens of completely different things.

📍 You will find especially many of these places around Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Paarl, Somerset West, Tulbagh and Ceres.

I collected farms we already knew about or found while working on the Western Cape. We will gradually keep adding to this list.

Just remember one thing: farms live by the seasons. Flowers finish blooming, berries ripen at different times, picking can close earlier because of the weather, and some farms only welcome visitors by prior arrangement.

So save the address now, but check opening hours and whether visits are currently possible right before you go.

🌹 Chart Farm

Chart Farm is practically inside Cape Town, between Wynberg and Constantia, but it feels like a quick escape from the city.

The farm has belonged to the same family since 1934. Today, grapes, lemons and around 6,000 rose bushes grow here, and Chart Farm describes itself as the only place on the Cape Peninsula where visitors can cut their own roses and make their own bouquet.

You do not have to come here for just fifteen minutes to pick flowers. There is a café on the property, and a riding school nearby.

🌸 Jaftha’s Flower Farm

Jaftha’s has one of those stories that makes the farm more interesting than any beautiful flower field.

The family has been growing flowers in Constantia since the 19th century. During the era of the Group Areas Act, many flower farmers in the area were forcibly removed, but the Jaftha family managed to maintain its connection to the land. Today, the family story is already being continued by the fifth generation.

The farm is especially known for its dahlias. Depending on the season, they also grow sunflowers, cornflowers and other flowers.

This is not a tourist park where you can simply walk in at any time, so visits need to be arranged in advance.

💐 Flourish Urban Flower Farm

Flourish began with a love of growing flowers that gradually turned into a small urban farm in Constantia.

It was created by Susie Le Blond, who studied horticulture with the Royal Horticultural Society in London and worked in the gardens of English estates before returning to South Africa.

They grow dahlias, zinnias, cosmos, sweet peas, scabiosa and other seasonal flowers here. But you cannot simply arrive and wander between the flower beds. Flourish is located on private family land and operates through workshops, flower-related events and selected Pick Your Own days.

Perhaps that is exactly why the place feels more intimate than many larger farms.

🌷 Adene’s Farm Flowers

The story of Adene’s did not begin with farming.

Before flowers, Adene Nieuwoudt worked as a wedding photographer and repeatedly came across the same problem: many unusual flower varieties for weddings had to be imported. Gradually, that problem grew into a flower farm of her own.

Today, Adene’s grows many varieties of flowers, and seasonal Pick Your Own locations appear in different parts of the Western Cape.

One of them operates on the grounds of Lourensford Estate in Somerset West. So you can combine the trip with a walk around the large estate, its gardens and other places nearby.

It is important not to confuse this location with the main production farm. Visiting formats and available locations change with the season.

🍓 Polkadraai Strawberry Farm

Not far from Stellenbosch, there is a place where strawberries have long been more than just a crop. They have become an entire reason for a countryside trip.

Polkadraai grows several varieties of strawberries, and during the season the fields open for self-picking.

Over time, the farm has also grown into a family destination. Alongside strawberries, there are tractor rides, mini golf, children’s activities and other entertainment, so it is very easy to come here “just to pick some berries” and stay much longer.

The usual strawberry season runs roughly from September to January, but the start of picking depends on the weather.

🫐 Blueberry Bar

Blueberry Bar is located on Sonop Farm in the Paarl / Simondium area and appeared as a relatively new way to discover local blueberries.

During the season, people come here to pick berries themselves, but the experience does not end with U-Pick. They also make juices from the blueberries, and you can try different combinations on the farm.

So it becomes more than simply “pick a bucket of berries”. You also get to see what else can be created around one product.

Self-picking only operates when there is enough fruit, so always check the current season status before travelling.

🍑 Murludi Farm

Murludi is a working family fruit farm in the Tulbagh Valley, run by the Van der Westhuizen family since the 1970s.

They grow apricots, peaches and other fruit here. Some of the harvest can be picked directly from the trees, while some is turned into dried fruit and dried on the farm itself.

I like the idea of a place like this: you arrive thinking you are coming for fruit, but suddenly there are orchards, hydrangeas, picnics and routes through the Witzenberg Mountains around you.

Each fruit ripens at a different time, so there is no single “Murludi season”.

🍒 Klondyke Cherry Farm

For cherries, you have to travel a little further and higher.

Klondyke is located about 30 kilometres from Ceres, in the Koue Bokkeveld, at around 1,260 metres above sea level. That is why the climate here already feels noticeably different from Cape Town.

The tradition of picking cherries yourself on the farm goes back more than half a century. The first trees were planted here in the late 1960s, and visitors began coming to pick the harvest in the early 1970s.

Today, the farm grows not only red and yellow cherry varieties, but also apples and pears. There is a campsite and cottages, so if you want, a simple fruit-picking trip can turn into a small overnight getaway.

And in winter, people come here for something completely different. This high-altitude area is known for snow.

🦙 The Alpaca Loom

A herd of several hundred alpacas lives not far from Paarl.

The Alpaca Loom has been breeding them since 2004, but the most interesting part is that the farm shows visitors more than just the animals themselves.

During a tour, you can meet the alpacas and then visit the weaving studio to see how their fleece becomes yarn and finished products. The alpacas are sheared here too, and some of the fleece is then used in the farm’s own workshop.

It is quite a rare format where there is a full production story behind the cute photo with an animal.

🐐 Imhoff Farm

Imhoff is easy to add to a Cape Peninsula day rather than turning it into a separate major trip.

The farm is located in Kommetjie. On the property there is Higgeldy Piggeldy Farmyard, where you can see goats, sheep, pigs and other farm animals, while restaurants and small shops operate nearby.

That makes it a good stop if you are already travelling through Kommetjie towards Cape Point and want to break up the drive with something different.

This format is especially convenient with children, when a full day of viewpoints and scenic roads starts to become a little tiring.

🫏 Anna Beulah Farm

Anna Beulah began very modestly.

In 2013, an organic vegetable garden appeared here where local residents could come, walk around and pick seasonal vegetables. Gradually, an entire farm destination grew around that idea.

Today, there are alpacas, donkeys, rabbits, chickens, a café, a shop, creative activities and even accommodation.

So Anna Beulah is now difficult to describe as a farm built around one particular animal or product. It is more a place where you can spend a few hours getting that countryside feeling without travelling too far from Cape Town.

🪶 Cape Town Ostrich Ranch

This farm is built around one animal.

Cape Town Ostrich Ranch has operated since 1994 and remains a third-generation family business. They offer tours focused on ostriches, tell visitors about the birds and show different parts of the farm.

It is a completely different experience from family farms where animals are only one of several activities. Here, the ostriches themselves are the reason to visit.

🌿 Before you go

Places like these have one feature that is genuinely important to remember.

An old beautiful Instagram post does not mean that you can pick the same flowers or berries on the farm today.

Before travelling, open the farm’s own page and check whether the activity you want is currently running, whether booking is required and whether visitors can come without an appointment at all.

This is especially important for Pick Your Own.

The season can sometimes shift by several weeks, and a good harvest may finish earlier than expected.

So it is better to treat this guide not as a timetable, but as a list of ideas for places you could visit.

💜 Found a place that is missing from this list?

We want to collect more than just the obvious places that appear in every guidebook.

If you have found a small farm, an unusual route, a family-run place or simply somewhere you would like to tell other people about, share your story with us.

It can be a full story about your trip, a few photos and impressions, or simply a place you happened to discover along the way.

Message us on Telegram @Froginya_travel.

If your story becomes an article for the website, you can become a FROGI author, and your name and experience will remain part of the publication.

Because this is often how the most interesting places appear on FROGI: someone once turned off the main road and later decided to tell others what they found there.