The sweet, melodious sounds of Xhosa women singing resonates over the strawberry fields on a Geelhoutboom farm where all types of berries thrive alongside a clear mountain stream and the reflection of the Outeniqua mountains in the farm dam, are all elements that add to the exceptional beauty encountered here.

After the excellent rains the air is crisp and everything looks shiny and sparkling on the Well-Pict Strawberry farms in Geelhoutboom.

A choir of 9 women and one man, made their debut at the bridal expo held last year at the Garden Route Mall during which they were proudly decked out in brilliantly coloured tribal costumes. Their motivational song - "Ne-ver Give Up" struck a popular note with the audience.

Well-Pict South Africa employs up to 400 people on four farms and produces 1000 tons of strawberries, Raspberries and gooseberries per annum, all of which have to very meet exacting export standards.

In season the strawberries are picked in the early hours of the morning, trucked to Cape Town International Airport and flown out on a daily basis to the UK. The cooling and packing facilities are situated on Fragro Farm. Readers may have noticed this scenic farm situated alongside the Blanco road to the airport.

Being framed by the Outeniqua Mountains and situated opposite Red Berry Farm it forms a welcoming entrance to the Oute-niqua Country Hop, a scenic drive where select farms can be visited. Well-Pict SA, which exports most of their produce to the United Kingdom and the rest to the retail industry such as Woolworths, complies to various international standards such as the EurepGAP Certification standard. This standard governs Good Agricultural Practice. "We farm using very scientific methods in which climate plays a very important role. For this reason large sections of strawberries are grown in tunnels where the climate can be partially controlled," said Chris Charter, Managing Director of Well-Pict. Sudden climactic changes, the damaging November 2007 floods, recruiting suitable staff as well as keeping such a large staff contingent happy, is extremely challenging admits Charter.

"We therefore encourage initiatives such as this choir to blossom and grow into successful groups".

Naturally the Shining Stars choir as they are known would only be too happy to perform at weddings and other functions. Many of the Xhosa tribal songs have a wedding motief and there are many customs relating to marriage that are still being honoured today.

All of the Choir members are born and bred Thembalethans and have thorough in-house training, advanced from farm workers to supervisory packhouse staff.

Choir Mistress Milani Make can be reached at 044-870-7135 to book the choir for a performance.