By: Antonia De Luca
My grandmother, Marguerite De Luca (Ma) was born in 1930 in Cheltondale, Johannesburg. Her father owned a garage where she helped with the petrol pump readings and fixing the trucks. She was always a very handy lady and a hard worker. My grandfather, Aldo De Luca, worked at the garage too, and that is where they met. They got married very young and had a hard life together. Aldo was always working and my grandmother brought up their 4 children alone.
Aldo eventually left Ma, they got divorced and it was a very difficult time for the family. My grandfather was not very involved in my father’s life or the life of his siblings so life was hard. My father has such a lot of love for his family, as he never really got the love he needed from his father.
Ma moved to Random Harvest in Muldersdrift, which is the farm that I know so well. The farm was so overgrown and such a mess when she moved there, it was a challenge for her and she really found her passion for life on this farm. Every Monday night growing up we had dinner at Ma’s house. She used to make us homegrown, stone-ground polenta from her garden, brown beans that she grew too, cabbage dishes (that is very traditional to Italian fare) and salad. She was always so proud of what she grew; she loves her garden and spends lots of time everyday getting her hands dirty. My aunt Linda started an indigenous nursery on that farm that still runs today. Linda is also very hands-on and a very hard worker, she is so good with her hands too. My aunt Louise is the same; she has a love for horses and cooking. The first thing she tough me to cook was battered zucchini. I would pick the baby marrows from the garden, wash them, and slice them thin on Louise’s mandolin. Prepare my bowl with eggs and flour and dip the zucchini and pan-fry them. I learned this before I learned how to scramble an egg.
Louise owns a Bed and Breakfast in Lanseria called Touch of Africa Lodge. We are lucky to all still live in very close proximity to each other.
Ma loved tennis very much and so she saved up to build herself a tennis court, but shortly after it was completed, she had a terrible tractor accident when she was cutting hay on her farm, it basically chewed up her leg. After that day, she could never exercise again.
Ma’s sister Rose and her Rose’s son Clem were brutally murdered in their house in Shelley Beach and this has been with ma since 1999, it was heart wrenching for her and has caused her a lot of pain. But nonetheless, she has continued to be a strong, hard-working woman.
She has a passion for preserving, pickling and bottling fruits and vegetables that she grows in her garden. She has a lot to teach in terms of techniques and methods that she has perfected throughout the years. Her pantry is full of beautiful goodies. She is also an incredible cook and she never lets anything go to waste. She is also “Mrs. Fixit”, if you need anything repaired from a tractor to a jersey, Ma can do it. She loves her tools and her hands are always busy with something. I have fond memories of eating preserved peaches and homemade vanilla ice cream at Ma’s house as a kid. I would open her freezer and everything was perfectly packed. She owned 4 Tupperwares that she used to freeze soup in, and then she would take the soup and knock it out of the Tupperware and wrap the soup in plastic to store. She had those same 4 Tupperwares for over 10 years. She looked after her things so well.
Ma helps our family with sewing our clothes, cooking our meals and doing lots of little things for us, she is such a help to us all as we are so busy. Ma lives a truly full, busy and active life.
My Grandfather, Aldo De Luca was born to Filomena and Guilio De Luca in Lucca, Tuscany, Italy.
His family was struggling to make a living in Italy so they moved to South Africa. He grew up in Kew on a vegetable farm. He took care of the chickens, rabbits and cows, and the vegetables. He used to squirt the milk from the goats right into his mouth. It was so natural back then! He used to deliver the milk by foot to neighbours and customers. His family picked vegetables until early hours of the morning so that they could be delivered freshly picked a few hours later. Life for them was hard; they had no electricity and so were forced to do everything by candlelight.
Aldo had to walk to school, about 12km per day. They walked barefoot most of the way carrying their shoes so that they never wore them out too fast. In 1933 things were extremely tough during the Great Depression, luckily they could eat from their own farm.
In 1955 Aldo started a business called Honeydew Sands with the bit of money that he had saved up from trading in old petrol trucks. He was such a hard worker that naturally he succeeded. He went on to own 4 other businesses, the last one at 74 years old, Al Fresco Restaurant, just up the road from Leafy Greens. My family have all always come back to food in some way.
Our family got much closer to Aldo in his old age as he worked so close to our homes. He always had an interesting story to tell, he always had a very positive attitude, he treated his staff so well and he had a great sense of humour.
We love and miss him a lot.
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