Miracle Fruit

It's Autumn, Ignore the not so attractive Australian Sweet Lime, ripened off the tree, but check out the Miracle Fruit berries. Miracle Fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum) so called for its ability to make sour fruit taste sweet after chewing. 

I almost missed this first crop of berries on our 2m bush. 

Why pay $50 for the dried fruit in capsule form when you can grow your own in a food forest.

Why the Fernmount Food Forest can look overgrown at times.

The percentage of nursery and soil improving trees and shrubs can be as high as 95% when a food forest is first established, gradually reducing as food bearing trees and plants mature. This excellent, recent video clearly describes the layers of planting: canopy; understory, bushes and shrubs; herbaceous; and root layers.

Kwai Muk

The Kwai Muk, is related to Jack Fruit. It has a pleasingly acidic taste. We love the tartness. These fruit were discovered on the leaf-carpeted ground. In the picture, smaller fruit are still to ripen. Perhaps they will ripen off the tree although I read fruit ripens best on the tree.

Kwai Muk

 The ten year old tree is now about 8m high with a spreading canopy. I will dwarf the tree by cincturing the trunk as explained in the video link above.

Hand pollination of Dragon Fruit brings success.

White fleshed Dragon Fruit (Pitaya)

And aren't they luscious. The fruit developed surprisingly quickly. Excess shade wasn't the problem. A lack of natural pollinators was.