The head hen who lays the golden eggs

The Country Chic is a delightful specialty store in the Swartland where small farmer and entrepreneur Suzanne Smit sells the organic free-range chicken eggs and poultry meat she produces – straight from her farm to the shelves of her own store

- JOHAN VAN ZYL

On the button at dawn, almost like a hen that has just laid an egg – buk-buk-buk-bagawk! – Suzanne Smit happily posts on Facebook or Instagram about the fresh batch of chicken pies or milk tarts that have just been delivered to The Country Chic in Riebeek-Kasteel, all baked specially for the shop using her own free-range meat and eggs. On other days she’ll sing the praises of the figs or almonds or raw honey produced by her husband, Jacobus Truter, “the actual farmer”. Or the bunches of fresh flowers or bottles of Jersey milk fresh from the dairy.

This talkative, bubbly entrepreneur, who almost always has a smile on her face, is not shy to boast online about the absolute tastiest this or that being sold at The Country Chic. Such is her confidence in her business and taste that doubting Thomases are always invited to come sample the offering for themselves. And she mostly does this in a unique version of English, for which she is now almost famous (and which makes Jacobus squirm with embarrassment).

Barely five minutes after meeting Suzanne in person, you understand how she carved out a niche for herself in the competitive chicken market so fast. It’s as though she and her birds simply found one another. In fact, in many respects she might bring to mind a free-range hen. She is maternal, curious, funny and always busily scratching for opportunities… and this former athlete acknowledges that, with four children between the ages of 1 and 16, a farming enterprise and two shops, on most days she is running around like a headless chicken.