📖 Fun Facts: Cacao beans (Theobroma cacao) were used to make chocolate, and the ancient Maya and Aztec civilizations valued cacao beans as currency 💰 Can we use chocolate as money?

• 🍫 Chocolate tree has large dark green leaves that shade the fruit pods which grow directly from the trunk and branches.
• 🍫 The flesh of the fruit is eaten as a dessert, and the seeds are the raw material of chocolate. Hot chocolate can be made by drying the seeds, roasting, grinding, and adding milk.
• 
  🍫 This exotic rare tree makes a gem of a houseplant collection.

🛒Get your own Chocolate Tree

#Fun_Facts #Food_Forest

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What is the bluest flower of the Tropics?

Eranthemum pulchellum - Blue Sage, or Lead Flower is brightest gentian blue - very unusual color in the tropics!

• 
  💙 Winter heavy bloomer
• 
  💙 Attracts butterflies and bees 🐝
• 
  💙 Compact shrub, responds well to pruning.
• 
  💙 Shade lover. Will happily bloom in the shade!

🛒 Order oline

#Fun_Facts #Hedges_with_benefits #Shade_Garden #Butterfly_Plants

TopTropicals.com
We Grow Happiness

What is the bluest flower of the Tropics?

Eranthemum pulchellum - Blue Sage, or Lead Flower is brightest gentian blue - very unusual color in the tropics!

• 
  💙 Winter heavy bloomer
• 
  💙 Attracts butterflies and bees 🐝
• 
  💙 Compact shrub, responds well to pruning.
• 
  💙 Shade lover. Will happily bloom in the shade!

🛒 Order oline

#Fun_Facts #Hedges_with_benefits #Shade_Garden #Butterfly_Plants

TopTropicals.com
We Grow Happiness

📖 Fun Fact: Tamarind is used as a souring agent in many cuisines around the world, adding a tangy flavor to dishes. How to use Tamarind in cooking?

🍲 Tamarind Chutney Recipe

Ingredients:

• 
  · 1 cup tamarind pulp
• · 1 cup water
• · 3/4 cup brown sugar or jaggery
• · 1 tsp each of ground cumin, ginger, and coriander
• · 1/2 tsp red chili powder
• · Salt to taste


Instructions:
• 
  · Simmer tamarind pulp and water.
• · Strain, return to heat, and add sugar.
• · Stir in spices and salt.
• · Simmer until thickened.
• · Cool and store in the refrigerator.

🛒Grow your own Tamarind Tree

#Edible_Forest #Fun_Facts #Recipes

🏵 TopTropicals

📖 Fun Fact: Tamarind is used as a souring agent in many cuisines around the world, adding a tangy flavor to dishes. How to use Tamarind in cooking?

🍲 Tamarind Chutney Recipe

Ingredients:

• 
  · 1 cup tamarind pulp
• · 1 cup water
• · 3/4 cup brown sugar or jaggery
• · 1 tsp each of ground cumin, ginger, and coriander
• · 1/2 tsp red chili powder
• · Salt to taste


Instructions:
• 
  · Simmer tamarind pulp and water.
• · Strain, return to heat, and add sugar.
• · Stir in spices and salt.
• · Simmer until thickened.
• · Cool and store in the refrigerator.

🛒Grow your own Tamarind Tree

#Edible_Forest #Fun_Facts #Recipes

🏵 TopTropicals

🥘 Why this Akee taste of deliciousness always follows me? Definitely the favorite fruit (it's actually a vegetable).

Can't wait for the next crop this year 😼

📖 Fun Fact: Ackee is the national fruit of Jamaica and is a key ingredient in the traditional Jamaican dish, ackee and saltfish. However, it must be properly ripened and cooked due to its toxic properties when unripe.

‼️ Check out our previous post about Akee.

📚 More about Akee

🎥 YouTube Recipe: How to cook perfect Akee?

🛒 Grow your own Akee tree

#Food_Forest #Nature_Wonders #Recipes #Fun_Facts

🏵 TopTropicals

🍒 What fruit contains 65 times more of vitamin C than an orange? Now you know - it's Barbados Cherry

Barbados Cherry (Malpighia glabra) fruit has a vitamin C content up to 65 times that of an orange! A single fruit contains the minimum daily recommended vitamin C requirements, as well as vitamins A, B1, B2, and B3, carotenoids and bioflavonoids - great antioxidants.

If you are looing for a compact, but fast growing tree with colorful fruit that starts fruiting right away - plant Barbados Cherry. It will also happily fruit in containers.

📚 Learn more about Barbados Cherry

🛒 Order Barbados Cherry Tree Online

#Food_Forest #Fun_Facts #Container_Garden

🏵 TopTropicals

🥑 New Complete Guide to Avocado Varieties. How to choose the right type of Avocado.
How many varieties of Avocado are there in cultivation? Did you know that there are hundreds of them? You probably thought there were only 2 kinds - black and green?

You may not realize is that this basic (but practical!) classification doesn't encompass all the wonderful qualities avocados have to offer.

There are numerous hybrids in cultivation, and once you plant your first tree and taste the REAL fruit (not from the grocery store), you'll be eager to explore other varieties. It's a guarantee! While it's true that avocado fruit can vary in "butter" content, most superior varieties are equally delicious.

This Avocado Variety Guide helps to choose the right variety for you. With its interactive tool, you can sort cultivars by fruit shape and quality, cold hardiness, origin, crop season, flower type A or B, tree habit and more.

🛒 Shop Avocado Varieties

#Food_Forest #Fun_Facts #How_to

🏵 TopTropicals