Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

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Lalot beef wraps: quick n fun exotic recipes. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Lalot beef wraps

Lalot beef wraps

🍴 Lalot beef wraps: quick n fun exotic recipes
  • 🔵Mix ground beef with garlic, shallots, and fish sauce.
  • 🔵Wrap spoonfuls in Lalot leaves (Piper sarmentosum - Vietnamese pepper)
  • 🔵Pan-sear or grill, until the leaves are crisp
  • 🔵Serve with rice or noodles


🛒 Grow Lalot Papper for tasty, peppery recipes

#Food_Forest #Recipes

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Zero Sugar fruit: forget lemonade - new perfect summer drink discovered! A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Costa Rican Guava, Cas Guava - Psidium friedrichsthalianum

Zero Sugar fruit: forget lemonade - new perfect summer drink discovered!
  • 🍋 Costa Rican Guava, or Cas Guava (Psidium friedrichsthalianum) is the boldest fruit you can grow for refreshing drinks. Its flavor is sharp, tangy, and unforgettable - perfect for anyone who loves acidic fruit. Cas Guava has sugar at all, unless you decide to add some.
  • 🍋 The trees are super prolific - even young ones fruit heavily, and we make gallons of juice at Top Tropicals.
  • 🍋 The best part? You can freeze the fruit or boil it into a concentrate with a bit of sugar. That drink lasts in the fridge for months without going bad, thanks to Cas Guava’s natural antibacterial punch.
  • 🍋 Cas Guava juice is Costa Rica’s traditional Agua de Cas - tart, refreshing, and perfect for summer heat. And if you save enough, you’ll still be sipping it through the winter.


♨️ Agua de Cas Quick Recipe
We boiled this fruit and the drink lasted for months!
  • ▫️Boil halved fruits in water with sugar to taste
  • ▫️Simmer 5-10 minutes, let sit, then mash the softened fruit to release all the flavor
  • ▫️Strain through a colander, bottle, and refrigerate - just dilute with water when serving


✔️ Why choose Cas Guava?
  • • Packed with vitamin C - four times more than lemons - for a powerful immune boost.
  • • Rich in antioxidants to combat stress and inflammation.
  • • Hardy and low-maintenance, thriving in poor soils and resisting pests.


🛒 Grow your own Cas Guava

📚 Learn more:

#Food_Forest #Recipes #Guava

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Guava grilled cheese: quick and fun exotic. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Guava grilled cheese

Guava grilled cheese

🍴 Guava grilled cheese: quick and fun exotic recipes
  • 🔴Spread fresh mashed guava (or guava paste) between slices of bread with cheese
  • 🔴Grill until golden.
  • 🔴Sweet and savory twist on a classic sandwich!


🛒 Explore Guava varieties

#Food_Forest #Recipes #Guava

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Don't plant cherries until you see this one! A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Cherry of the Rio Grande - Eugenia aggregata

🍒 Don't plant cherries until you see this one!
  • 🍒 Cherry of the Rio Grande (Eugenia aggregata) is one of those tropical fruits you don't forget once you taste it. The fruit looks like a dark ruby jewel and ripens to almost black, with a sweet, full cherry-like flavor.
  • 🍒 Unlike the temperate cherries, this one thrives in warm climates and starts flowering as early as March, keeping the harvest going well into summer.
  • 🍒 This little fruit tree that fits anywhere! It's slender, branching, fits neatly in limited spaces or even in a pot, yet still produces plenty of fruit.
  • 🍒 Can a tropical cherry really handle freezing temps? Once mature, Cherry of the Rio Grande can handle surprising cold snaps down into the 20s. A tough little tree that gives you a taste of the tropics right in your own backyard!


🛒 From Rio Grande to your garden

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Moringa vs spinach: which one wins for nutrition? A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Moringa oleifera, Horseradish tree

🌳 Moringa vs spinach: which one wins for nutrition?
  • ✔️Moringa is sometimes called the Tree of Life, and for good reason. Almost every part is edible - leaves, pods, seeds, even the flowers. It isn't just a tree, it's like a whole pantry and medicine cabinet rolled into one.
  • ✔️ The leaves pack vitamins, minerals, and protein.
  • ✔️ The pods look like drumsticks and end up in curries.
  • ✔️ Even the seeds are handy - pressed for oil or used to clean water.
  • ✔️ And here's the bonus: it grows fast, covers itself in fragrant white flowers, and looks beautiful right in your garden.
  • ✔️ A tree that feeds you, heals you, and makes the yard smell good.


🛒 Want more energy? Grow Tree of Life - Moringa - at home

📚 Learn more:

#Food_Forest #Remedies #Discover #Trees

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Avocado pineapple salsa: quick n fun exotic recipes. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Avocado pineapple salsa

Avocado pineapple salsa

🍴 Avocado pineapple salsa: quick n fun exotic recipes
  • 🟢Dice avocado, pineapple, and red onion.
  • 🟢Toss with lime juice and cilantro.
  • 🟢Sweet, creamy, tangy, and perfect on fish or just with chips.


🛒 For home-grown ingredients you will need:
Home grown Avocado
Home grown Pineapple

#Food_Forest #Recipes #Avocado

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It's a miracle: Miracle Fruit messes with your tongue, makes lemon sweet! A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Synsepalum dulcificum - Miracle Fruit

🍭 It's a miracle: Miracle Fruit messes with your tongue, makes lemon sweet!
  • 🍋🍬Miracle Fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum) Miracle Fruit - is a tidy, productive pot plant with a magical surprise.
  • 🍋🍬 Ever wish lemons tasted like candy? This little berry makes sour foods taste sweet - lemon turns into a lemon candy, vinegar into syrup, and the effect can last for hours. The secret is a natural compound that masks the sour taste buds on your tongue.
  • 🍋🍬 Miracle fruit isn’t just a fun trick - it’s also a perfect plant for your garden. A compact, slow-growing shrub, it actually prefers pots since it likes acidic soil. Indoors or out, it can fruit almost year-round, staying a neat 3-5 ft tall in a container.
  • 🍋🍬 Best part? You can surprise your friends with a slice of lemon before and after trying it - and just wait for their reaction!
  • 🍋🍬 What foods did you try with Miracle fruit? How did it change the taste?


🛒 Plant your own Miracle Fruit

📚 Learn more:

#Food_Forest #Nature_Wonders #Remedies

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Papaya lime smoothie: quick n fun exotic. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Papaya lime smoothie: quick n fun exotic
🍴 Papaya lime smoothie: quick n fun exotic recipes

  • 🟢Blend ripe papaya with fresh lime juice, a splash of coconut water, and ice.
  • 🟢Super refreshing and naturally creamy, no dairy needed.


🛒 Pick a perfect Papaya variety for your yard

#Food_Forest #Recipes #Papaya

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Before eating ice cream, try this fruit from a house plant. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Swiss Cheese Plant - Monstera deliciosa

🍨 Before eating ice cream, try this fruit growing on a house plant!
  • 🍨 Most people know Swiss Cheese Plant - Monstera deliciosa - for its big holey leaves, but here’s the wild part: this jungle climber also makes fruit. Real fruit. And it tastes like pineapple mixed with ice cream.
  • 🍨 Have you tried Monstera fruit? Will you eat it again?
  • 🍨 This plant grows in the rainforests of Mexico and Guatemala, where young seedlings crawl toward the shade until they find a tree to climb. Yes, they grow in the direction of the darkest area, not just merely away from light. Interesting, ah?
  • 🍨 In time, it sends out a green, cone-like fruit nearly a foot long. It takes a while to ripen - about a year - and only when the scales start to lift can you peel them back and find the creamy pulp inside. Ice-cream sweet and tropical.
  • 🍨 One catch though: never eat the fruit unripe. The pulp contains oxalic acid that is generally harmless but will burn your mouth. Best trick is to let it wrinkle a little, wrap it up, and wait until the scales loosen on their own. Then it's ready.
  • 🍨 And for collectors? The Thai Constellation, with its cream-splashed leaves, is the crown jewel. Some specimens sell for thousands. Not bad for a "Swiss Cheese Plant"!


🛒 Shop Monstera plants

📚 Learn more:
How to harvest and eat Monstera Ice Cream

#Food_Forest #Container_Garden #Shade_Garden

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Katuk egg stir-fry: quick n fun exotic recipes. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Katuk egg stir-fry: quick n fun exotic recipes
🍴 Katuk egg stir-fry: quick n fun exotic recipes

  • 🟢Saute chopped Katuk leaves (Sauropus androgynus) with garlic and a touch of soy sauce
  • 🟢Shen scramble in eggs.
  • 🟢Fast, simple, healthy, and full of flavor!


🛒 Add healthy Katuk to your perennial vegetable garden

#Food_Forest #Recipes

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