Friday Morning at the Biggest Fresh Produce Market in Africa
A couple of miles southeast of downtown Joburg, in a place called City Deep, there’s a produce market the size of a small town. The Joburg Market (next door to the Mutliflora Market) is the largest fresh produce market in Africa — or the largest in the...
Pomegranates and Turkish Food in Centurion
Centurion, an anonymous no man’s land between Joburg and Pretoria, is home to a magical place called Buyuk Chamlija: a self-described “Socio Eco Techno Village” that grows fat, juicy pomegranates and has a Turkish restaurant shaped like a beehive. I...
Quirky South Africa, Part 1: Padstals of the Platteland
My mom came for a visit and the two of us took a weeklong road trip through the South African platteland (Afrikaans for countryside). We drove from Joburg to Bethulie, Bethulie to the Garden Route, up through the Karoo Desert to Hanover, and then back to Joburg. Tiny...
Veldskoens: Southern Africa’s Favorite Shoes
I can’t remember the exact moment when I became aware of veldskoens, a.k.a. vellies. These leather foot coverings — somewhere between a shoe and a boot — have always been prolific in rural South Africa, lining the shelves of padstals (farm stalls),...
Heather Mason
I’m an American writer/blogger/photographer living a quirky life in Johannesburg. Follow along as I explore Johannesburg, South Africa, and the rest of the world.