A friend and I prepared some refreshing Moringa juice whilst we waited for our flights out of Skukuzaairport. Most households in the iconic bush have the Moringa plant growing naturally in their backyards.

Those that don’t have it, have started to grow it purposefully, to reap the many, touted health benefits associated with the plant. The leaves of the plant are picked and put out to dry, then ground to a powder. For our refreshing juice, we simply added two teaspoons of the powder, each, to a tall glass of  water and stirred to dissolve the powder. Using a coffee filter it was possible to filter the juice to a clear,

green coloured  refreshing drink.  We had filtered Moringa juice to go with our toasted sandwiches. Following that, we each had a naartjie (a.k.a tangerine /satsuma /mandarin), seen on the table, next to the laptop.  Now, that is a healthy,  mid morning snack if there ever was one.

I am proud to say that it is possible to eat healthy in the iconic bush because it is abound with, among other foods, fruits. The iconic bush is also home to pecan nuts. I will blog about pecan nut  derivative products in a later blog.You will definitely need a nut cracker to open these nuts! Check out www.yuppiechef.com for nut crackers.

Aaaah! the colors of bountiful fruit.

Local business women sell fruit in informal markets along the side of the road. Here you can buy the largest mangoes, juicy grapefruits, avocado, oranges and pecan nuts, as seen in the picture, below, with my sister establishing prices with the stall owner.

Prices are usually set, thus not much price bargaining is required. If you purchase more than two bags of fruit, you may be able to bring the price down.

Another interesting fruit that grows wildly in the iconic bush is the guava, characterized by a thick, fleshy outside and core made up of clustered seeds. Most of you will be familiar with guava juice or guava jelly.

The guava, (Psdium guajava), is a tropical fruit which originated in tropical America (Mexico and Peru). The Portuguese distributed guavas worldwide reaching Mpumalanga, from Mozambique and the Western Cape from Madeira, during the 19th century. (http://www.guavaproducers.co.za/all-about-guavas)

In the iconic bush there are many foods that are of interest. The abundance of fruit in the iconic bush is real. The next time you go through there, grab a bag of five, large mangoes  or bag of seven grapefruit or bag of eight avocados or a bag of pecan nuts for about R30,00 ($2,40).  Brilliant!