“Our Stanfordians” – No. 2: Peter and Jami Kastner, owners of Stanford Hills Estate

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Here’s the second of my weekly interviews with the very interesting people of our paradisical village of Stanford. You might need to be told that Stanford is a small village, the third-best preserved Victorian village in the Western Cape, 23km beyond Hermanus on the R43 heading up the east coat from Cape Town. Blissful is the word that comes to mind.

Peter and Jami Kastner own Stanford Hills Estate on Weltevrede Farm, just outside Stanford, and here are the very popular couple’s replies to the “Big Five” questions I put to them this week.

One lovely family: Jami Kastner with Alexander, one, and Peter with Jack, three. They have every reason to look happy, living as they do in the sumptuously appointed and super-chilled Stanford. Pic: Ed ‘O Riley

FH: Jami, this question’s for you… Where were you born, schooled, shaped as a human being and when and how did you first discover Stanford? And how – and at what point – did you discover your husband Peter?

JAMI: I was born in Stellenbosch, but moved to a farm just outside Stanford when I was only a wee sprog. My parents inherited a farm by the name of Witvoetskloof, with not much on it other than fynbos. They were one of the first farms in South Africa to begin exporting this product to the international market. We later moved to Du Toit Street in Stanford itself, in the days when there was not a tar road in sight. At 13, I went to join my two older sisters as boarders at Rhenish Girls High in Stellenbosch. I later studied at Stellenbosch University and then set off to do the traditional young South African two-year stint in London. I then moved back to Hermanus, and became a director of my parents flower export company. In 2001 I met my husband Peter, whilst dancing on a table at his fine establishment, the Zebra Crossing in Hermanus. We were married in 2003, and our desire to start a family prompted a lifestyle change. We discovered that Weltevrede farm was on the market, a farm which I knew well due to my childhood friendship with the Woods’ children. We sold up everything we could, borrowed a bit more, and moved to our dream home here on the farm.

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