⚡️ #Fun_Facts: Cucumber Tree

• 🥒 Cucumber Tree (Averrhoa bilimbi) - these curious fruits are incredibly sour and often used as a natural cleaning agent due to their high acidity.
• 🥒 In some cultures, bilimbi fruits are used to remove rust and stains from metal and clothes, making them a versatile household item beyond their culinary uses.
• 🥒 These fruits make a great lemonade too!

🛒 Shop rare fruit trees

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🥢 Where does Blackberry Jam come from? It comes from Gardenia!

Randia formosa - Blackberry Jam Fruit, Jasmin de Rosa is a curious small evergreen tree from South America that combines features of a fragrant flower and delicious dessert fruit which tastes like fresh Blackberry jam. Fragrant white flowers are similar to Gardenia.

This relatively hardy tropical can be grown in a container as well as in the ground. It's very сompact (4-5 ft), perfect for container culture, will fruit in a container.

Kids love the fruit! Many claim that it is even better than Blackberry preserves.

Large tubular white flowers attract nocturnal moths. Since the plant is closely related to the gardenia (Rubiaceae plant family), its flowers are sweetly fragrant.

Produces as many as 25-30 fruits at a time. Since it blooms for a few months from Summer through Winter, fruiting and flowering can be enjoyed even when other plants are dormant.

Article about Blackberry Jam Fruit formosa

Order Blackberry Jam tree

#Food_Forest #Container_Garden

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🥑 Five most popular Avocado varieties

❓ "What is the best variety of Avocado?"
"Do you have the one with small black fruit and bumpy skin?"
"I have avocado with very large green fruit, what variety is it?"

These are frequently asked questions we get from our customers. This basic "classification" by black/green 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. While it's true that avocado fruit can vary in "butter" content, most superior varieties are equally delicious.

✅ We will guide you through Avocado varieties like we did with Mango varieties in earlier posts. First comes first -

🏆 The most popular Avocado varieties:

1. Brogdon - red-purple pear-shaped fruit, 7-15 oz. Skin is very thin, yellow buttery flesh. Fruit ripens in late summer-fall. Very cold hardy.
2. Hass - probably the most popular, but this tree prefers drier climate (Florida is humid, so we plant adaptable Florida Hass here). The fruit is dark-colored with a rough and bumpy skin, turns black when ripe.
3. Fuerte - a dwarf and a very cold hardy variety. Everybody's favorite "Condo Avocado": perfect for container culture and small yards. The mature tree in the ground is under 15 ft; 6-7 ft in containers.
4. Oro Negro - Oro Negro means "black gold" in Spanish, which is an incredibly appropriate name for this fruit. This Monroe hybrid (with big size fruit) is crossed with a Mexican type which would explain the black skin. The flesh is rich and buttery with a creamy texture.
5. Winter Mexican - one of most cold hardy varieties, Guatemalan x Mexican origin. Mature trees may withstand temperatures in the mid 20s. Oblong fruit, 12-18 oz, thick green skin. Very vigorous tree, bears heavily and regularly in December-January.


📚 Learn more: Avocado Variety Guide - check this out for interactive chart of Avocado varieties and sort them by flower type A or B, tree habit, fruit shape and quality, cold hardiness, origin, season and more!

🛒 Shop Avocado Trees

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💋 What is lipstick made of? Lipstick plant!

• 
  💄Bixa orellana - Lipstick Tree, Annatto or Achiote - is a bushy shrub or a small tree South America with large, impressive leaves, charming pink flowers and amazing... seeds! It is used in various industries, including cosmetics and culinary arts.
• 
  💄Natural Pigment: The seeds of the Bixa plant contain a natural pigment called annatto, which ranges in color from yellow to deep orange-red.
• 
  💄Cosmetic Use: Annatto is commonly used in cosmetics, including lipstick, due to its vibrant coloration. It adds shades of red and orange to cosmetic products. Extract derived from the Bixa seeds is mixed with other ingredients to achieve desired shades. It provides a natural alternative to synthetic dyes.
• 
  💄Famous spice Annatto is widely used as a spice in cooking, particularly in Latin American, Caribbean, and Filipino cuisines.
• 
  💄Flavor and color: It imparts a mild, slightly peppery flavor and is prized for its ability to add a rich, yellow-orange color to dishes such as rice, stews, and sauces.
• 
  💄Health benefits: Beyond its culinary use, annatto seeds have medicinal properties, including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
• 
  💄Flower arrangements: The dried seed pods add a unique touch to flower arrangements, enhancing their visual appeal.
• 
  💄Hedge or screen: Ideal for use as a hedge or screen, Bixa requires frequent pruning to encourage bushy growth at the base.

🛒 Grow your own Annatto

#Hedges_with_benefits #Food_Forest

🏵 TopTropicals

💋 What is lipstick made of? Lipstick plant!

• 
  💄Bixa orellana - Lipstick Tree, Annatto or Achiote - is a bushy shrub or a small tree South America with large, impressive leaves, charming pink flowers and amazing... seeds! It is used in various industries, including cosmetics and culinary arts.
• 
  💄Natural Pigment: The seeds of the Bixa plant contain a natural pigment called annatto, which ranges in color from yellow to deep orange-red.
• 
  💄Cosmetic Use: Annatto is commonly used in cosmetics, including lipstick, due to its vibrant coloration. It adds shades of red and orange to cosmetic products. Extract derived from the Bixa seeds is mixed with other ingredients to achieve desired shades. It provides a natural alternative to synthetic dyes.
• 
  💄Famous spice Annatto is widely used as a spice in cooking, particularly in Latin American, Caribbean, and Filipino cuisines.
• 
  💄Flavor and color: It imparts a mild, slightly peppery flavor and is prized for its ability to add a rich, yellow-orange color to dishes such as rice, stews, and sauces.
• 
  💄Health benefits: Beyond its culinary use, annatto seeds have medicinal properties, including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
• 
  💄Flower arrangements: The dried seed pods add a unique touch to flower arrangements, enhancing their visual appeal.
• 
  💄Hedge or screen: Ideal for use as a hedge or screen, Bixa requires frequent pruning to encourage bushy growth at the base.

🛒 Grow your own Annatto

#Hedges_with_benefits #Food_Forest

🏵 TopTropicals

💋 What is lipstick made of? Lipstick plant!

• 💄Bixa orellana - Lipstick Tree, Annatto or Achiote - is a bushy shrub or a small tree South America with large, impressive leaves, charming pink flowers and amazing... seeds! It is used in various industries, including cosmetics and culinary arts.
• 💄Natural Pigment: The seeds of the Bixa plant contain a natural pigment called annatto, which ranges in color from yellow to deep orange-red.
• 💄Cosmetic Use: Annatto is commonly used in cosmetics, including lipstick, due to its vibrant coloration. It adds shades of red and orange to cosmetic products. Extract derived from the Bixa seeds is mixed with other ingredients to achieve desired shades. It provides a natural alternative to synthetic dyes.
• 💄Famous spice Annatto is widely used as a spice in cooking, particularly in Latin American, Caribbean, and Filipino cuisines.
• 💄Flavor and color: It imparts a mild, slightly peppery flavor and is prized for its ability to add a rich, yellow-orange color to dishes such as rice, stews, and sauces.
• 💄Health benefits: Beyond its culinary use, annatto seeds have medicinal properties, including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
• 💄Flower arrangements: The dried seed pods add a unique touch to flower arrangements, enhancing their visual appeal.
• 💄Hedge or screen: Ideal for use as a hedge or screen, Bixa requires frequent pruning to encourage bushy growth at the base.

🛒 Grow your own Annatto

#Hedges_with_benefits #Food_Forest

🏵 TopTropicals

☸️ The truth about Passion flower and Passion fruit.

• 🪷 Passion vines, passion flowers, and passion fruits - these are all Passiflora - fascinating plants with a rich history. These vines come from tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas.
• 🪷 Medicinal: Various parts of the passion vine have been used in traditional medicine to treat ailments such as anxiety, insomnia, and hypertension.
• 🪷 Host for Butterflies: Passion vines serve as host plants for several butterfly species.
• 🪷 Passion of Christ: the passion flower's complex structure with five sepals, five petals often used to symbolize the Passion of Christ in Christian tradition. Spanish Christian missionaries in South America saw the flower's structure as a representation of Christ's crucifixion, which led to the name Passion Flower.
• 🪷 Passion Fruit (Passiflora edulis) - Maracuya - is highly nutritious, rich in vitamins A and C, fiber, and antioxidants.
• 🪷 Delicious pulp: the fruit is popular in many cuisines around the world, used in beverages, desserts.
• 🪷 Two main types of passion fruit: the purple sweeter variety (Passiflora edulis) and the yellow variety larger and more acidic (Passiflora x flavicarpa).
• 🪷 Fast growing vine in no time: known for their rapid growth, Passifloras need strong support as they can quickly cover large areas.

📚 Learn more: The Passion Fruit – Juicy Maracuya

🛒 Shop Passiflora plants

#Food_Forest #Hedges_with_benefits

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🍧 How to eat ice cream every day without feeling guilty

Mango season is here! If you own a big tree, this means - you probably need to eat a lot of fruit within a short period of time 🥢

Here is a tip: make an ice cream!
You can eat this healthy Gelato ice cream every day without feeling guilty.

🍦All you need for mango Gelato:

🥭 Mango fruit
🧊 Ice
🌀 Blender
🥃 A shot of your favorite Rum

🍨 You're welcome. Enjoy!

🛒 Plant a Mango tree today to enjoy your Gelato tomorrow

#Recipes #Food_Forest

🏵 TopTropicals

⚡️ How productive is Tamarind - for previous post 👆

🪵 Tamarind tree (Tamarindus indica) can live for over 200 years and produce both edible fruit and valuable timber.

#Food_Forest #Fun_Facts

🏵 TopTropicals

🌻 Did you know that Tamarind has not only tasty fruit but also pretty flowers?

⚠️ Tamarind Tree that we mentioned earlier is in full bloom now. The flowers are so pretty!

📚 Learn more: Tamarind Chutney Recipe

🛒Grow your own Tamarind Tree

#Food_Forest #Fun_Facts

🏵 TopTropicals