Our Food Forest in Midwinter

A walk around the food forest in the bright, midwinter (late July) sun is always interesting. Citrus are providing buckets of fruit. The odd Custard Apple still hangs on and we collect the pumpkins before the bush rats can attack them. As far as our plants are concerned Spring is almost here and the peaches are coming into flower.

Pumpkin in tree

Taro, Chili, Tithonia, Ragweed (Crassocephalum crepioides), all thriving in midwinter on a sunny north facing slope in southern hemisphere in a warm temperate climate.

Our Hog Plum (Ambarella) is in fruit and we made a curry. Sugar and salt and much boiling was required and we ended up with a sweet curry. Perhaps we need to lop this tree to keep its fruit in reach and so it will not shade other trees.

Mexican Weeping Bamboo

Mexican Weeping Bamboo is surely the most attractive bamboo of all. It is perfect on the wall of our small dam

 Edible Colocasia

 Taro surviving some near zero temperatures.

Tropical Peach

A Tropical Peach is the first to burst into flower.

Tithonia

 Mexican Sun Flower provides plenty of cut and drop mulch but we must remove the seed heads.

Peach Palm

 Our three years in the ground Peach Palm is thriving despite the midwinter cold. It loves its well drained position.

Palm - Peach Bactris gasipaes

This attractive, fast growing palm reaching 12-15m produces clusters of peach-like fruit, which have a sweet and nutty flavour when eaten after cooking. The palm is native to Central and South America and the fruit are often sold at fruit markets. Daleys Fruit Tree Nursery

Pitomba

 A Pitomba is growing much more slowly than the above Peach Palm although planted at the same time.

"Pitomba Eugenia luschnathiana

An excellent ornamental shrub. The pitomba produces bright orange-yellow fruit with soft, melting, juicy flesh with a highly aromatic slightly acid flavour. They are good eaten fresh or made into jelly and preserves. Taste comparable to an apricot. Very slow growing, hence suitable as a dwarf fruit tree." Daleys Fruit Tree Nursery

Amla

This Amla was also planted at the same time and is alteady a metre tall. It was attacked by borer but seems to have recovered well. I hope the fruit will be useful despite their reputed sour taste. 

"Phyllanthus emblica, also known as emblic, emblic myrobalan, myrobalan, Indian gooseberry, Malacca tree, or amla from Sanskrit amalaki is a deciduous tree of the family Phyllanthaceae. It is known for its edible fruit of the same name. Wikipedia" 

"The taste of Indian emblic is sour, bitter and astringent, and it is quite fibrous. In India, it is common to eat emblic steeped in salt water and red chilli powder to make the sour fruits palatable"Wikipedia

Our Grumichamas seem made for this climate despite their South American origins.They (a black species and an orange species) reliably provide sweet, small fruit every year.

Gulf Gold Plum

  

A Gulf Gold Plum will be next to flower.This variety of plum has been bred to require low chilling hours, a necessity for our milder winters.

A weedy Cassia but is it edible?

Here are two cassias I am trying to identify to see if one of them is edible. Sicklepod (Senna Obtusifolia) is said by some authorities in Wikipedia to have edible leaves. The above cassia is a Tropical Rainforest cassia from Queensland.

Tree Fern

 We love our self sown Tree ferns.

Our Valencia Orange is laden with fruit that it will hold well into summer with luck. All of our citrus are laden. Our Cumquat is best stewed with sugar to make a sweet but tart dressing for dessert.