Each Labor Day, the first weekend in September, there’s a rummaging … we’re preparing for Texas Potjie! This year we celebrated our 16th anniversary.

It started out very small in the house of oom Fred and tannie Yvonne Reinhardt – when you’re alone in America, you want your people. It has grown too big and it was decided to turn it into an entire four-day weekend.

Texas Potjie is organised by committee members and this year the committee consisted of nine people. The planning began a year in advance. This year 600 people attended. Most came from Texas, but we also had people from as far away as Florida!

Early in the week people started arriving from near and far. With caravans, tents or to stay in a cabin. We “kuier” and camp and eat what we miss. During this weekend there is no shortage of biltong, droëwors, koeksisters, milktart, vetkoek, pancake, fudge or South African wine and beer, to name but a few.

This year we have seen camps like Kalahari Kraal, Span Tafelberg and Team Zebra. Highlights always include the farmers’ market, sokkie, Afrikaans church service and potjiekos and this year we had a concert for the first time with Clint & Co. Marelize Dingman of Dalliance and The Sentinel-Record brought us Clint and Ghapi from South Africa. Clint and Ghapi had an interview with Pieter Koen of Jukebox, live from Texas Potjie. People danced like blazes.

We get sponsors to make it all possible. Our major sponsors this year were cashcows.com, Philip and Celeste van Staden, MK Consulting (music) and Versfeld & Hugo Attorneys. Thank you, AfriForum, for the donation of two large gift baskets with delicacies such as koeksisters, wine, biltong and droëwors. The winners were chosen by drawing lots.

We will definitely do so again next year!

For more information, visit our Facebook page (Texas Potjie) or our website at www.texaspotjie.com.

Susan Smit
Houston, Texas