At heart, I am a very sentimental person, and today while out in the bush, I saw something that brought back childhood memories that I didn't even know I had.
I went to go visit my brother on a farm that he is working at today. And he decided to take me on a drive through the estate. We drove through the mango orchards and cattle pastures for a while until we reached a farm division gate. This was a gate that lead to an adjoining game farm belonging to the same farm owners. We opened the gate and continued our journey. While driving through the landscape and meandering dirt roads, slippery from recent rains we saw gorgeous landscapes, Impala and ostridge with their offspring, and a glorious selection of indigenous trees.
But the thing that captured my mind the most, was driving down a dirt path when the air was suddenly filled with an all too familiar aroma, one that I could not immediately place. It very soon became apparent that the scent that drew me closer was that of the Monkey Orange tree, whose fruits lay strewn across the grass-laden soil below it.
As children, we would often forage the bushveld for seasonal fruits from indigenous trees. And this particular fruit was at the top of the list of our bushveld gems. Not only does this tree provide fruits with a uniquely distinct flavor and texture, but the fruits also doubled as toys. The hard and well-rounded shells of the monkey orange fruits made them ideal for use as oversized marbles and provided hours of entertainment before becoming a healthy yet sweet treat after.
This was quite a rare find, and it immediately took me back to my childhood days. A simpler time when the biggest stress factor in life was being home in time for dinner. It was beautiful that I got to share this with my brother, my best friend and partner in crime as a child.
The Monkey Orange is a large round fruit about the size of a grapefruit. Inside the fruit is centered around a cluster of large seeds. Each seed can be taken out at the fruit is then sucked off the pit. The taste is a sweet and sour combination that I would describe as somewhere between a ripe mango and a papaya. A single fruit can weigh up to 0.5kg and has a very thick woodlike skin that can be cracked open with a mild amount of force. These fruits can keep very long and can be stored for months before going off.
These fruits are very high in vitamins B & C. It is also rich in crude protein, phosphorus, magnesium & potassium, and makes for a nutritious snack. But as with everything in Africa, there is more to this fruit than what meets the eye.
These fruits are eaten fresh, but they can also easily be prepared or preserved in the form of juices jams and wines. Traditionally an extract made from the pits of these fruits was used to treat snakebites due to their high strychnine content, this also makes this fruit as poisonous as it is nourishing - go figure, only in Africa right?
Another great way that these fruits have been utilized was by making a hole in the stem section of the fruit and then removing the contents, once the fruit shell is empty and cleaned, dried seeds were then thrown back into the casing, while the hole was sealed off with a part of the tree stem. This was then used as a musical shaker in traditional music - similar to a maraca.
And one of my personal favorites is that the fresh leaves of the Monkey Orange tree can be soaked in water and prepared as an organic insecticide.
There is also a great deal of medicinal applications for this plant, and if you like you can read more about that here
Monkey orange prefers well-drained soil. and can easily be planted from seeds, but propagation can also be done through grafting.
I am going to attempt planting them from seeds, this will be my first attempt at this and in preparation, I have taken the seeds out of the hard encasing shell and scrubbed them down in clean water to remove all the fruit from the seed. The seeds are currently sitting outside in the full sun to dry out. Once they are completely dry to the touch, the seeds will be soaked in lukewarm water for about 24h and will then be planted in planting bags in a mixture of well-draining potting soil,
