When I was pregnant with Kyla, we would often take our time in the mornings to get ready and still arrive at the Old Biscuit Mill at 9am. Aaaah, the good old days. Anyway, I digress. This place holds so many great memories for me. The shopping opportunities for food, for clothes and for random trinkets that you just can’t find anywhere else. We would take a leisurely stroll around, eat some of the yummy (mostly organic) food and then browse through each and every shop, making sure that we don’t skip even one because we would just be cheating our eyes on visionary pleasure but also possibly saving our wallets from overuse. I still have some of the gorgeous items from those shops hiding in nooks, out of sight of the destructors that I call children.
We haven’t been to the Old Biscuit Mill in so long, mostly because we can’t get ourselves going early enough to find awesome parking that is required to unload and reload 3 kids, but also because the kids aren’t really as into walking around and seeing every single one of the sights as we are. Although I am definitely working on that.
Thankfully when Lizanne (one of my bestest friends that blogs over at Clay Jar People) has a free morning this is where she spends it. She even managed to take some awesome pictures while enjoying breakfast with her man and her tots. So let me hand right on over to her…
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Before you tell us about your “go to” spot on a Saturday, we want to hear about you. Tell us a bit about yourself and your family:
I’m a stay at home mom to two littles, Elijah and Naomi. Married to my high school sweetheart for 6 years this year. My husband is a web developer and working in advertising. We’re busy packing up our lives to go live the slow life on a farm, which is very exciting.
What do you love to do on a Saturday?
We love the Old Biscuit Mill – the Neighbourhood Good Market in particular. I am a big fan of natural, organic, farm-grown food and handmade goods. The hippy in me is drawn to it.
Where is that and what is it exactly?
The Old Biscuit Mill is in Woodstock – if you’re on your way to Cape Town on Albert Road, it is the big maroon building that you will see on your right hand side. The Old Biscuit Mill is a business complex that is open on Saturdays with stalls selling amazing food and some lovely clothes and jewellery. There’s not much to do for kids, but the food is great and you don’t really spend the whole day there. They even have a website – check it out for more info on their regular stores.
Do you need to take anything special with you?
Just money (there is an ATM but most of the stalls do not take cards), yourselves and maybe something for the kids to play with if they niggle easily.
Do you need to spend money there to enjoy yourself?
At the very least you will want to buy coffee from Rosetta, or a smoothie, or something delicious from the Queen of Tarts. But I can highly recommend the Chicken Panini from Gourmet Paninis… Oh my goodness. If you want to buy some unique clothing for your kids, Sojo, Tic Tac Toe and the other cute stalls there offer a good variety. Or even for yourself – Jane Sews has a stall there and Dear Rae has lovely jewellery there too.
Why do you love going there?
We enjoy doing breakfast there, making a point of going crazy early, like trying to be there before 9am to get parking and space at a table. It can get really crowded, so with small children its best to go as early.
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Remember that if you want to tell us about your favourite way to spend a Saturday, drop me an email cindyalfino(at)gmail.com
Some pictures of some of the goodies that you can find at the Old Biscuit Mill:
3 Kids, 2 Dogs, 1 Old House 
this must have been VERY early in the am. well done Liz
Thanks Auntie Dawn 🙂 yeah we are usually there while they are still setting up… the kids are easier then and we get the freshest coffee 😉