Find us out and about in June on the Magazine stands – featured in House & Leisure and Woman & Home!
Which side of the tree are you on?
Which side of the fence, I mean tree, are you on? Baobabs make fantastic poster boards and on a recent field trip I photographed this tree. On the one side is a poster of Jacob Zuma (ANC) and on the other side is Julius Malema (EFF). Tough Choice!
Ecotrade empowers many women…
…and Annah Mendela is just one of them. After being inspired by previous films made in collaboration with PhytoTrade and EcoProducts, Greg Cameron has created this warm and sensitve portrait of Annah, showing how by collecting baobab fruit for EcoProducts, she has been able to turn her life around. A short 2.5 minute film that's so beautifully made it will stay with you long after you've watched […] Continue Reading
Baobab Galerie: a unique shop
Baobab Galerie is a unique decor and gift shop in Port Edward, KZN selling an exquisite handmade range of products made of natural fibres such as sisal, raffia, different varieties of reeds and grasses as well as recycled recycled paper and metal. Alexandre and Michel who own the shop have long been interested in Baobabs, even growing baobab trees, hence the shop name. The feature […] Continue Reading
EcoProducts is out and about in May!
We are HAPPENING this month in the media! We have an article on baobab oil in Wellness Magazine, our boabab fruit powder is featured in Elle Magazine and we're flying with Mango in their latest inflight magazine! All power to the baobab tree!
It's been a good year – baobab harvesters
The area where baobabs are found is usually very arid and the climate not easy to grow crops in. Many of the harvesters with whom I work have fields around their villages where they do dry-land cropping for food and to supplement income. Dry-land cropping means that there is no irrigated water to the fields and they have to rely […] Continue Reading
Local headman and I chat about baobabs
One of the wonderful things about my job is that it is so varied, from production, to resource monitoring to community friendships. Our relationship with the harvesters starts with the headman in each village. I have had a relationship with some of the village headmen for over 10 years now. I always love visiting them and we always end […] Continue Reading
Ecoproducts and Esse support rural crèche
One of the villages where some of our harvesters live has a little crèche which is so needed while mothers go out to work. Yet they have so very little in the way of even basic resources for busy, active, growing little children. Recently on one of my monitoring trips, I was able to take some chairs and tables to the little […] Continue Reading
Monitoring with baobab harvesters
Last week I did my annual baobab fruit monitoring trip where I gather research information on a spcecific population of 40 baobab trees. This year I am looking at how much fruit each tree produces each year and how that varies from season to season and between land use types. Usually I have a field assistant whom I hire from the village, but […] Continue Reading
Bioprospecting – what does it mean?
What is a bioprospecting permit? And why is EcoProducts Bioprospecting permit such a big deal? On the 12 November 2013, EcoProducts was issued with a Bioprospecting permit from the South Africa Department of Environment Affairs. So what, you may ask, is this all about? South Africa has introduced laws that make it illegal to harvest our indigenous resources for commercial […] Continue Reading