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When you are in the mood for something special - you need a Loquat Liquor

When you are in the mood for something special - you need a Loquat Liquor
🥃 When you are in the mood for something special - you need a Loquat Liquor. This is what you do with so many loquat fruit.

🍑 Loquat tree is an excellent choice for any garden, as it is quite cold hardy, drought-, poor soil- and salt tolerant. The delicious fruit look and taste similar to apricots, but there is only one problem: there are too many of them! Make Loquat the perfect fruit for an easy home winery...

🍹 Loquat Liquor recipe

Wash loquat fruit and slit in 4-5 places. You may leave seeds in for Apricot-nutty flavor similar to Amaretto. Combine fruit with vodka and sugar in a wide mouth jar and cover. Stir fruit once a day until sugar is dissolved. Then stir once a week for 4 weeks. Drain liquid and strain through fine cheesecloth. Enjoy!

You can dispose the used fruit but we usually give it a second life: add water, bring to boil, let sit, chill, and it will make another (almost non-alcoholic) drink!

  • ✔️ 3 quarts of loquat fruit
  • ✔️ 1 quart vodka
  • ✔️ 3 cups sugar
  • ✔️ vanilla to taste (optional)


📚 From previous posts:
🎥 YouTube video about Loquat
📁 Overlooked fruit: tasty Loquat recipes (PDF)

🛒 Shop Loquat varieties

#Recipes #Food_Forest

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Edible Landscape

Four must-have herbal edibles for your instant Food Forest

Kitten with veggies in a basket

Q: What attractive and useful edibles or herbs can I grow in my yard landscape without needing dedicated garden beds?

A: When we think of an "herb garden," parsley and chives often come to mind -plants that aren't particularly showy and typically require a dedicated vegetable garden, space, and regular maintenance. However, creating a food forest in your yard doesn't have to be a complex project. Useful edibles and medicinal herbs can also be exotic and beautiful, enhancing the charm of your landscape. Here are some examples of unusual tropical edibles that are not only stunning ornamentals but also bring delicious goodness to your kitchen.

1. For drinks: Jamaica Tea flower - Karkade Hibiscus

Hibiscus sabdariffa - Flor de Jamaica, Karkade Sorrel, Roselle

Hibiscus sabdariffa - Flor de Jamaica, Karkade Sorrel, Roselle, or Jamaica Tea flower (Karkade Tea) - yes, many hibiscus species are edible!
- Flowers of Roselle hibiscus are used to make a tea "Agua de Flor de Jamaica". To be exact, those are flower bracts around flowers and seed pods.
- Medical studies show that it lowers blood pressure and has diuretic effects.
- The pleasant flavor is similar to a cranberry juice and it's so good, you may not even want to add any sugar. We make this cold tea every day - perfect for hot summer.
- Karkade Hibiscus grows into a large bush within just one season from seed! Lots of flowers to harvest will last you the whole winter. It can be treated as annual in cooler areas due to its fast growth and same-year harvest. Thrives in full sun.
- Short video: how to make hibiscus tea

2. For medicine: Aztec Sweetleaf - Lippia

Lippia dulcis - Aztec Sweet Herb, Sweetleaf

Lippia dulcis - Aztec Sweet Herb, Sweetleaf is a wonderful fragrant groundcover.
- Fragrant Mexican herb with incredibly sweet and aromatic leaves.
- The fresh leaves can be eaten from the plant like candy or tossed into fruit salads for an unusual addition, or used for making a healing tea.
- It has been used since the time of the Aztecs for coughs and colds.
- The sweetness tastes great, and can be used by diabetic patients. We add this herb to Karkade or Mint tea as a sweetener, instead of sugar or honey.
- Grows like a ground cover, in shade or semi-shade, great perennial container plant.

3. For salads and stews: Longevity Spinach, or Cholesterol spinach

Gynura procubens - Longevity Spinach, or Cholesterol spinach

Gynura procubens - Longevity Spinach, or Cholesterol spinach is a perennial spinach, and once you plant it, you have it for many years, and can grow many more easily from cuttings!
- Longevity Spinach is one of the Superfoods, and there are many claims that it lowers cholesterol.
- We use Longevity Spinach in our cooking all the time and so far we are all alive, so it works! :)
- Longevity spinach can be eaten raw in salads or cooked wherever you would use a regular spinach.
- Grows as a large spreading herbal bush, in full sun. - See some recipes with more pictures

4. For meat wraps: Vietnamese Pepper or Wild Betel Leaf

 Piper sarmentosum - Vietnamese Pepper, Lalot, Wild Betel Leaf, 
Chaa-plu

Piper sarmentosum - Vietnamese Pepper, Lalot, Wild Betel Leaf, Chaa-plu adds wonderful peppery flavor to meats and is great for wrapping meats and cooking in the oven, on a stove or grill. We use it all the time, wrapping ground beef of turkey and putting wraps on a grill or on a frying pan, very easy!
- Vietnamese Pepper leaves are eaten raw in salads or cooked with other greens or dishes.
- The leaves are used as food wraps in Vietnam. It is used medicinally in India and SE Asia.
- It is also chewed with Betel Nut as a tonic and medicine, very similar to Betel Leaf (Piper Betel) which is very popular tonic in Indian culture.
- Vietnamese Pepper grows as a vining herbaceous shrub or ground cover, in both sun or shade, and spreads with runners so you can have plenty if you want to have more. Can be grown in container and indoors, too. - Check out recipes of meat wraps for grilling

Date:

How to make a jam with Surinam Cherry

How to make a jam with Surinam Cherry
🍒 How to make a jam with Surinam Cherry

Surinam Cherry (Eugenia uniflora), often used as a hedge in Southern landscapes, also has a tasty fruit with a unique flavore. The black-fruit variety Lolita is especially valuable - the fruit is large, dark red to almost black, very juicy and sweet. It fruits profusely and there will be enough fruit for preserves too!

🎀 Surinam Cherry Jam

  • ✔️ 4 cups seeded Surinam Cherries
  • ✔️ 2 cups sugar
  • ✔️ 1 cup water


🍷Combine the sugar and water, bring to boil and add cherries. Cook slowly for 20 to 25 min until the mixture thickens slightly. Pour into sterilized jars and seal.

🛒 Plant your own Surinam Cherry

#Recipes #Food_Forest

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

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How to make an exotic treat: Barbados Cherry Jelly

How to make an exotic treat: Barbados Cherry Jelly
🍒 How to make an exotic treat: Barbados Cherry Jelly

Barbados Cherry is a vigorous grower that starts producing right away, and by the second year you have so much fruit that you don't know what to do with it - you can eat only so much fruit out of hand! Earlier we shared a recipe of delicious Barbados Cherry Juice drink. The juice tastes very similar to Guava juice: it is very aromatic and tasty, and has a beautiful Baby-pink color. The Jelly recipe is even more exotic teat!

🎀 Barbados Cherry Jelly

  • ✔️ 4 cups cherry juice
  • ✔️ 5 cups sugar
  • ✔️ 1 package dry pectin
  • ✔️ 2 tbsp lemon juice

  • 🍷To fully ripen cherries, place them in plastic container, cover and leave overnight. Cherries will be dark, rich red color the next day.

  • 🍷To make juice: Place cherries in a pan, cover with water, bring to boil. Crush cherries and simmer for a few minutes. Strain.

  • 🍷Add pectin and bring to a boil again. Add sugar and lemon juice and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and skim off foam. Pour into sterilized glass and seal.


📚 From previous posts:

🛒 Order Barbados Cherry Tree

#Recipes #Food_Forest

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

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How to make an improved Avocado sandwich

How to make an improved Avocado sandwich
🥑 How to make an improved Avocado sandwich.

  • 💚 Ingredients
    :

  • · 1 ripe avocado
  • · 2 slices of your favorite bread (whole grain, sourdough, etc.)
  • · 1 small tomato, sliced
  • · 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
  • · A handful of fresh spinach or arugula
  • · 1-2 tablespoons of hummus or mayonnaise
  • · Salt and pepper to taste
  • · Optional: A squeeze of lemon juice, red pepper flakes, or a fried egg


💚 Instructions:

  • · Toast the slices of bread until they're golden and crispy.
  • · Cut the avocado in half, remove the pit, and scoop the flesh into a bowl. You can either slice it or mash it with a fork until smooth, then season with salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon juice if desired.
  • · Spread hummus or mayonnaise on one slice of the toasted bread.
  • · Layer the avocado, sliced tomato, red onion, and fresh spinach or arugula.
  • · Top with the second slice of bread (optional).
  • · Cut the sandwich in half and serve immediately.


🍿 Enjoy!

🛒 Grow your own Avocado

#Food_Forest #Recipes

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

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What to do when you have too much of Jackfruit: make Jackfruit Apple Marmalade!

 What to do when you have too much of Jackfruit: make Jackfruit Apple Marmalade!
🍈 What to do when you have too much of Jackfruit: make Jackfruit Apple Marmalade!

🍴 Jackfruit is delicious exotic treat, we are waiting so many months for it to ripen, but when when we finally have it - it's more than we can eat! Jackfruit is the biggest fruit grown on a tree, and even with one fruit crop you will have enough for both eating fresh and cooking!

🍎 Jackfruit Apple Marmalade

  • ✔️ Ripe jackfruit - 2 cups sliced arils
  • ✔️ Apple pulp - 1 cup
  • ✔️ Sugar - 3 cups


🍐 Cut the Jackfruit arils and remove the seeds. Finely slice the arils. Mix with apple pulp and cook until mixture thickens and marmalade sets. Pour into sterilized jars and seal.

📚 From previous posts:

🛒 Grow your own Jackfruit

#Recipes #Food_Forest

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date:

Healthy breakfast, lunch or snack: Avocado sandwich

Avocado toast

Avocado toast

🥑 Healthy breakfast, lunch or snack: Avocado sandwich

Avocado toast is creamy, crisp and so satisfying. It’s a delicious and simple breakfast, snack or light meal!

🥪 Ingredients (makes 1 toast):
  • ◾️ 1 slice of bread (thick-sliced whole-grain or rye bread is the best)
  • ◾️ ½ ripe avocado
  • ◾️ Pinch of salt and black pepper


📝 Instructions:
  • • Toast your slice of bread until golden and firm.
  • • Remove the pit from your avocado. Use a big spoon to scoop out the flesh.
  • • Spread avocado on top of your toast.
  • • Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper.


🍿 Enjoy!

🛒 Grow your own Avocado

#Food_Forest #Recipes

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

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How to make exotic Passion Fruit Champagne Slush

Passion Fruit Champagne Slush

Passion Fruit Champagne Slush

🍾 How to make exotic Passion Fruit Champagne Slush
  • 🥂 Halve passion fruits crosswise and scoop out pulp with seeds into a bowl.
  • 🥂 Sprinkle sugar over the pulp. Let sit at room temperature for an hour.
  • 🥂 Stir in lime juice and boiling-hot water. Stir until sugar is dissolved.
  • 🥂 Pour through a fine sieve, pressing on solids, then discard the seeds.
  • 🥂 Freeze in ice cube tray.
  • 🥂 Once frozen, add 1 cube per champagne flute, then slowly add the champagne.


🥝 Makes 6 cocktails:
  • ✔️ 10 passion fruits
  • ✔️ 1/2 cup sugar
  • ✔️ 1 tbsp lime juice
  • ✔️ 1/4 cup boiling hot water
  • ✔️ 1 chilled bottle of Champagne or sparkling wine


📚 From previous posts:
The truth about Passion flower and Passion fruit

🛒 Grow your own Passion fruit

#Recipes #Food_Forest

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date:

How to make a zippy Papaya-Citrus Marinade

 How to make a zippy Papaya-Citrus Marinade
🍲 How to make a zippy Papaya-Citrus Marinade

🍗 🍖 The Papaya enzyme papain makes this fruit especially suitable for tenderizing meat in marinades. Use this zippy marinade for beef or poultry.

  • ✔️ 1 cup papaya puree
  • ✔️ 1 tbsp lime zest
  • ✔️ 1/3 cup grapefruit juice
  • ✔️ 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
  • ✔️ 1 tbsp honey
  • ✔️ 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
  • ✔️ 1 tbsp coarse black pepper
  • ✔️ 1/2 tsp basil leaves
  • ✔️ 2 tbsp olive oil


🍊 Combine and mix all ingredients except olive oil, then gradually mix in olive oil. Marinade meat for 2-8 hrs and cook over grill.

📚 From previous posts:

🛒 Get your own Papaya tree

#Recipes #Food_Forest

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date:

How to make tasty Carambola Banana Whip

How to make tasty Carambola Banana Whip
🍹 How to make tasty Carambola Banana Whip

  • ✔️ 1 ripe Carambola
  • ✔️ 3 ripe Bananas
  • ✔️ 1 tbsp Honey
  • ✔️ 1/2 tsp Cocoa (optional)


Blend ingredients until smooth. Scoop into frosted mugs. Garnish with Carambola and Banana slices.

🍷 Enjoy while cold ❄️

📚 From previous posts:

🛒 Order Carambola and Banana trees

#Recipes #Food_Forest

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals