What makes a Superfruit so “Super”? Scientist don’t actually agree on what actually makes a food “Super”, but we won’t focus on the nomenclature in this article. Instead we are going to celebrate what we think makes these fruits so “Super” to have in your own backyard. Perhaps we should use a different term like “Extra Nutritional Food”, but it doesn’t quite sound as fun as super fruits. The one common theme we see between fruits that have been dubbed super fruits is either an abundance of a particular vitamin, fatty acid or mineral, or the presence of some nutrient we don’t typically see a lot of in our diets. Many of these fruits have particularly dark skin and flesh due to the high number of antioxidants contained within them. Here are five super fruits for the South African garden.

• Blackberry – High in fibre, Vitamin C, and K. The dark colour in some is also high in Anthocyanins.
• Blueberry – Grow your own blueberry bushes and enjoy the peak flavour and nutritional value of perfectly ripe, fresh picked berries. Blueberry fruit might not be the highest source of Antioxidants, but it is arguably the most delicious.
• Grapes – One of our most versatile and iconic super fruits, grapes have been eaten fresh, dehydrated into raisins or made into wine for over 8000 years. The fruit is one of the only ones in nature to contain enough tannins, sugar and natural yeast to ferment and preserve itself.
• Pomegranate – Pomegranates have long been a symbol for health and fertility and today we know that the red fruit is not only delicious but also packed with healthy nutrients, tannins, and loads of soluble fibre from the seeds.
• Apples – ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away’. Apples are super fruit that has many wonderful health benefits. Rich in vitamins and natural sugar but also with other healing properties for a list diseases like cancer and diabetes.

Be a super gardener and plant some super fruit in your garden.