A New Season For Stranger Fruits
Not all of my food plants are of the conventional type, some of them are of the lessor seen variety - and it just so happened that three of these are now ready to jump into action. With the winter on our heals, it is strange to think that we can still be growing food outside, but that is just another way that makes Africa such an amazing place; we are blessed to be able to grow a vast variety of fruits, vegetables and nuts right throughout the year.
This week my Pachira aquatica trees came into bloom, these white tufts starting to show on the tree is a promise of clusters of delicious nuts that will start to form soon.
The Pachira nut tree goes by many names.
"It is known by its nonscientific names Malabar chestnut, French peanut, Guiana chestnut, Provision tree, Saba nut, Monguba (Brazil), Pumpo (Guatemala) and is commercially sold under the names Money tree and Money plant. " ~ source
Another wonderful garden surprise I got, was seeing my very first Luffa growing. This was one of the plants that I have brought back from Durban and nursed up till now.
When the gourd of the luffa plant is small like on the picture above, they make for some great eating, however I am not planning on eating this one - I want to let it grow big so that I can harvest a usable luffa from it to use in the house. And of course to harvest seeds from so that I can grow more of these awesome plants...
The great thing though is that this looks like the first of many fruit to form as these gorgeous yellow flowers are starting to open up all over the plant, and with some luck they will all become gourds as time goes by, and that I am very grateful for.
Lastly, and this is another plant that I started growing while in Durban and brought back to the farm not knowing if it would survive the climate change - is the African horned melon.
As you can see, the first fruit on the plant didn't grow to its full potential before something bored into it stubbing the growth, but I am definitely hoping to get a few more fruit off of this plant before the season is over...