In Good Taste

Front runners in producing local, artisanal fare, Perry and Karen Chaloner have created a brand that is synonymous with exceptional quality and outstanding flavour

- Natalie Boruvka

Uncompromising in quality and singular in flavour, it’s no surprise that Chaloner products have captured a growing local and international market. “If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary,” – the words of American entrepreneur Jim Rohn – is a quote that speaks volumes about Perry and Karen, and the journey they have taken to establish the Chaloner brand, their signature range of hand-crafted olive products, preserves and sauces.

In 1992, the Chaloners moved from Cape Town to a 14-hectare farm hugging the base of the Stellenbosch Mountains in the Blaauwklippen Valley. “There was nothing here apart from an expanse of land overgrown with alien vegetation,” Karen recalls, telling me about how they worked with a bricklayer to build a tiny cottage and barn while they rented a house nearby. “It was daunting, but we were young and reckless. It was also a labour of love: marking out orchards, installing irrigation and telephone lines, planting trees, and dealing with issues like storm water run-off; but it took just one spectacular sunset to confirm we had made the right decision.”

After seven years of patience, the farm – which they had by then named Falcon’s Nest – started to flourish with fruit trees bearing olives, plums, lemons and Seville oranges. “The reality, however, was that we were losing most of our profits to the middleman, and this forced us to look at alternative ways of using our harvests to add value,” Perry recalls. As an entrepreneur with a passion for food – Perry owned one of Cape Town’s first sushi restaurants in Sea Point, Kamakura – he combined his skills and started to make traditional jams from the fruit, and progressed to making other products like tapenades.