Mr.Ball’s new Old Mrs.Ball’s Chutney.

Desmond Ball at the Porter Estate.

Desmond Ball had a pain in his face being asked by people around Fish Hoek “When are you going to make some of the original chutney like what Mrs.Ball’s made?” He had to endure complaints that they’d changed the recipe, changed the taste, changed everything. It was nothing like the original.

Now Desmond is the Great Great Grandson of Mrs. H.S. Ball, the original maker of Ball’s Chutney. He remembered working in the chutney factory in Retreat, in his childhood, so he went and rooted out the old recipe.

When I write ‘old recipe’, I mean the one they used before the family sold the business to Brooke Bond Oxo in the early seventies. (They were then subsequently taken over by the Dutch conglomerate, Unilever).

This recipe is Granny Ball’s original recipe, handed down from her mother, and dates back to 1870.

That was 3 years ago and about 1 year ago Desmond realised that there was no traditional homemade organic chutneys on the market, so he teamed up with Alistair McGregor of The Organic Zone in Lakeside and he began to source all the organic ingredients necessary. The result is Amelia’s Organic Chutney, and I tasted it yesterday and I have to say it was delicious.

It contains no artificial flavours, colourants or preservatives (no Sulphur Dioxide). This would be unlike, ahem…the Unilever brand.

Amelia's Organic Chutney, Mild and Hot versions. 1870 recipe.

It is all hand made in small batches in Glencairn, south of Cape Town. Desmond sells it through The Organic Zone in Lakeside, Kwalapa on Newlands Avenue and at the Porter Estate Market in Tokai. He recently started exporting to Sweden, of all places.

He is proud to have named it after his Great-Great Grandmother, Amelia, who only passed away in 1962, well into her 90’s. “Granny Ball was a formidable powerful woman, with huge hands. She ruled with an iron fist and Grandfather danced around her. I remember her sitting on her stoop, looking out at the sea, wearing a silver shawl on her head and a silver choke”.

That’s genuine provenance for you. No makey uppy marketing stuff here.

The indominatible Mrs. H.S. (Amelia) Ball. Not to be messed with.

Amelia’s Organic Chutney. 260gms. R30.

Kwalapa Newlands, 021 687 9314

Organic Zone Lakeside, 021 788 3133

Porter Estate Market, Tokai, Saturdays.