The reason EcoProducts exists is to celebrate the Baobab tree – not only for its many gifts – but also simply because it’s beautiful. We’ve found some gorgeous images of Baobab Trees to share with you.
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
2014 Mar: Baobab seedling in the wild – will it survive?
I always get excited when I see baobab seedlings emerging from the earth near or under the baobab trees. It shows that the seeds are viable and that the weather was perfect. Unfortunately their survival is very slim because of the harsh climate they need to survive in and because they are simply too delicious for a goat to ignore. […] 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
2014 Mar: Baobab seedlings get big ideas!
In November last year EcoProducts did a workshop with 50 rural women harvesters in how to grow and conserve baobabs. Each woman was given a seed and a planting bag to take home. Well, when I visited the village this week, some of the women took me to see their so- called seedlings. They had successfully germinated and had grown […] Continue Reading
Baobab fruit season
February is a wonderful time to see growing baobab fruit. They emerge from their showy white flowers in December and take six months to grow into our superfruit. In February they are still growing and the fruit are soft and green. The inside of the fruit is wet and pulpy, providing an ideal environment for the seeds to grow and […] 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
Most expensive baobab (painting) in SA
J Pierneef was a South African landscape artist, generally considered to be one of the best of the old South African masters. According to this website, Pierneef’s painting, The Baobab Tree (painted around1934) holds the record for most expensive South African painting sold at Bonhams in 2008 for R 11.8 million! Apparently the buyer, says a Mail & Guardian archive article from 2008, was an unidentified South African individual. A powerful painting with an […] Continue Reading
The Order of the Baobab
This Order was created in 2002, to be awarded to South African citizens for distinguished service. The service awarded is well above and beyond the ordinary call of duty. It is an award for exceptional and distinguished contributions in the following categories. The struggle for democracy Building democracy and human rights Nation-building Peace and security Journalism, literature, arts, culture, sport […] Continue Reading