News

Sarah Venter’s Baobab Guardians tree planting project had reached its goal of 50 trees and so she believed the project was complete. But it seems the project has other ideas…

Agence France-Presse, the third largest news agency in the world recently visited EcoProducts in the Limpopo to film them at work. Some lovely footage of the EcoProducts team processing the baobab fruit pods.

Inspired by her PhD research on baobab trees, Dr Sarah Venter wans to make the fascinating information usually available only in obscure scientific papers, available to a much broader audience including children. The Little BIG BAOBAB book is for everyone who loves baobab trees…

As some of hardiest, long-lived trees around, Baobabs know how to make the most of scarce resources, especially water. On World Water Day, when we’re bringing awareness to one of our Earth’s most precious resources, what lessons can we learn from Baobabs?

These baobab seedling pics remind me of the boldness of youth. And these days sadly, if they’re growing in an inhabited area, they’re bound to get eaten by livestock. Out there in the ‘wild’ they just have to make the most of a few weeks of life and then the thousand year promise in their genes is extinguished. Which is why the work of the Baobab Guardians becomes so important. 

EcoProducts has been recognized by the South African Department of Environment Affairs as a “Game Changer” in the sector.  Sarah Venter, founder and owner of EcoProducts has been invited to share the stage with Minister Dr Edna Molewa at the official opening of the Biodiverisity Economy Indaba being held in East London on the 8th March 2018. 

It is baobab flowering time again giving us the chance to continue our research into the ecology and pollination of the baobab flower.

Baobab trees and animals often spend time together. Here, Vanessa Bristow reveals through her quiet, observant lens, a bird’s guide to the baobab tree

As some of hardiest, long-lived trees around, Baobabs know how to make the most of scarce resources, especially water. On World Water Day, when we’re bringing awareness to one of our Earth’s most precious resources, what lessons can we learn from Baobabs?

How are baobab flowers pollinated? It’s still a subject for considerable research and Nisa Karimi has been studying baobab flower pollination in the Limpopo area.

Skelmwater is a bare stony hillside dotted with baobab trees, but this has become a special place for Sarah Venter and Diana Mayne.  The baobab trees here are each numbered and painted with a neat stripe around their girth.  The girth of these trees has been measured since 1931.    Diana and Sarah discovered this plot in 2002 when they first went to visit it and found that the measurements had been forgotten and no one was measuring them any more.

Bernadette McCabe is a Fine Art – Documentary stills photographer based in Cape Town who has developed a deep passion for colour, light, style, mood & texture… and for the magic of telling a story through the lens of a camera and capturing it in a single frame.  She loves to  create imagery that will move […]

Last December I visited the Sagole Big tree which is looking more magnificent than ever.  Located in Vendaland, Limpopo Province, The tree has been carbon dated as being 1200 years old! It is the biggest baobab in the world.  It has a girth of 37 m and a height of 22 meter and its crown measures 38 […]

Baobab: is there some wondrous special quality which comes from eating the fruit borne by such very ancient trees.

In the last of our series featuring photographer Vanessa Bristow’s wonderful work, we leave you with these simply stunning photos of baobab trees at sunset.  It’s not difficult to see where EcoProducts got its inspiration from for its striking logo! 🙂

Baobabs usually stand out in the landscape. But they can also blend… Photographer Vanessa Bristow captures this beautifully here.

Photographer Vanessa Bristow has wonderfully captured these different birds perched in baobab trees in Zimbabwe.  Featured here are a Marabou Stork, an owl and a pair of Bennett’s woodpeckers busily pecking away (the female below the male). As Vanessa says of her photographs: ‘They are in humble tribute to a mighty tree! Baobab’s provide shade in summer, beautiful […]

Here, talented photographer Vanessa Bristow shares some of her photographs of Baobabs taken at Sentinel Ranch in Zimbabwe.  We’ll be featuring more of her stunning photographs during the week.

Spring has arrived in the Limpopo with budding baobabs!  The baobab trees which have been bare for most of the year are bursting into bud and leaf.  The round buds which look like fruit are actually flower buds.  They will still grow to three times that size over the next month before they are ready […]

Do you recognise this painting?  Find out how the Baobab has inspired other crafters, artists and photographers. Visit our Baobab Inspiration Pinterest page here: http://www.pinterest.com/ecoproductsza/baobab-inspiration-art-craft-photography/  

As always in West Africa, people usually dress in vibrant colors, especially the women. It’s a beautiful sight to see. Around Boukombé, the markets are the most animated during the dry season. People are not otherwise occupied with agricultural labor, and harvests are in, so there is plenty to buy. The temperature that time of […]

In the 16 000 sq km of  Makgadikgadi Pan (Botswana) lies an isolated dry granite rock island 10 metres high, forming a roughly 1km long crescent shape called Kubu Island. The entire island is a national monument, and is considered a sacred site by the indigenous people of the area.  The almost white rocks (covered in fossilised guano) share space […]

it's on the New York Best Seller List and has been described as a "Beautiful and powerful work at the intersection of fine art, science, and philosophy, spanning seven continents and exploring issues of deep time, permanence and impermanence, and the interconnectedness of life, Rachel Sussman has written a wonderful book "The Oldest Living Things in […]

The area has had lovely late rains, but this has affected our normal fruit harvesting time.  Normally all the fruit would have fallen to the ground by now and been picked up by our harvesters, but this year more than half of them are still on the trees.  So we are waiting for the fruit […]

A few years ago I was called by a local farmer to see some baobabs that were very ill and dying.  There was a group of four baobabs, some of them were still standing and others had already collapsed in to a heap of fibre.  This tree was still standing, but was hot and ‘sweaty’ with […]