These beautifully designed pieces are made by a craft center in South Africa, whose mission is to provide fair employment opportunities to unemployed villagers in the White River area of South Africa.

The monkey apple candles and decorations are made from the monkey apple fruit which is first dried out in the sun, then hand-crafted and decorated by burning in the designs. Once the designs have been implemented, the finished product is then polished. Each monkey apple takes approximately an hour make, depending on the complexity of the design.

The seeds are collected and seedlings are being re-introduced into nature to ensure that there will be future harvesting opportunities as well as to protect the number of trees in nature. Our cooperative has several thousand of these trees under cultivation, to ensured the sustainability of the resource. The trees are given to villagers who can then sell the fruits to this organization, thereby creating additional employment opportunities.

The monkey apple fruit is used as traditional African medicine for curing various stomach ailments. The monkey apple seeds/pips are used for rubbing on the soles of your feet as bug repellents. The village children also enjoy using the pips as once they are dried they taste like candy.