Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 16 Jul 2024 Top Tropicals Telegram channel & chat

How to make healthy food taste delicious? Longevity Spinach Super-food Recipes

Longevity Spinach recipe

Gynura procubens (Longevity Spinach, Okinawa Spinach)

How to make healthy food taste delicious? Longevity Spinach Super-food Recipes.

☘️ Gynura procubens (Longevity Spinach, Okinawa Spinach) is one of the Superfoods, known for its longevity-promoting properties in traditional medicine.
☘️ Native to Indonesia, commercially grown in China. It is a relatively hardy perennial that once planted, you will have these healthy greens for many years!
☘️ Both the stems and the leaves are edible and nutritious, can be eaten raw or cooked. They have a unique flavor with a faint hint of pine, and will add a beautiful aesthetic element to cuisine.
☘️ This green is also known as cholesterol spinach, and there are many claims that it lowers can cholesterol.
☘️ Perfect for hot and humid climates unlike traditional Spinach that only grown in cooler areas. It will thrive in any type of soil, any type of light other than dark shade, and is pest-free.
☘️ Very adaptable to container gardening and even grows well on a windowsill.
☘️ The leaves and young shoot tips can be steamed, used in stir fry, tempura, stews, and soups. Just add them at the very end.

Check out the recipes⬇️⬇️⬇️

📚 Gynura: Longevity Spinach Superfood Recipes

🎥 Best Hot Weather Spinach Crops - Longevity and Okinawa Spinach

🛒 Plant Longevity Spinach and live long

#Food_Forest #Recipes #Remedies

🏵 TopTropicals

Date: 27 Apr 2024 Top Tropicals Telegram channel & chat

Longevity Spinach Superfood Recipes: how to make healthy food delicious

👨 Longevity Spinach Superfood Recipes: how to make healthy food delicious.

Can healthy food taste delicious?

Healthy Longevity Spinach... It tastes like... spinach? You can add it to your salads, but let's face it, you can only eat so much of a salad. So try it cooked - you will be so surprised and want to eat it every day!

🍳 Eggs with Longevity Spinach

You will need:

🌿 Longevity Spinach or Okinawa Spinach: 2 handfuls

1 cup Bacon (optional), sliced or chopped, or: 2 tbsp Olive or vegetable oil

1 large Onion, sliced in semi-rings
1 sweet pepper, red or yellow, sliced
3-5 cloves garlic, chopped (optional, to taste)
5-6 eggs
1 cup ground beef or turkey/chicken (optional), or mushrooms
½ cup shredded cheese (regular or Parmesan)
salt and pepper to taste
🌶 Sweet Chile Sauce (optional. Tastes great with this dish!)

🍷 a glass of your favorite wine or cocktail to enjoy your dinner 🍷

Preparation time: 10 min
Makes dinner for 2

Open detailed recipe

🛒 Order Longevity Spinach

#Edible_Forest #Recipes

TopTropicals.com
We Grow Happiness

Date: 14 Jul 2019 Top Tropicals Newsletter

A Cup of Tea Plant

By Onika Amell, tropical plant specialist

A: I live in Ave Maria, Florida. I want to try my hand at growing my own tea. Which plant do I need?

A: Most people do not realize they are actually enjoying camellias when they sip their cup of tea. True tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant, an evergreen shrub or small tree.
In the fall and winter, the plant will produce small white flowers with a lovely fragrance. The foliage is shiny and dark green with a very nice informal and open look. Camellia sinensis (or tea plant, as it is commonly known) prefers a temperature between 65 and 86 degrees, which makes Florida an ideal area to grow them. However, if you live in colder zones, you can certainly succeed growing your own tea plants using a greenhouse. Alternatively, you can use containers which can be brought inside when temperatures start falling. Tea plants will usually survive a very slight freeze, though the leaves may be damaged or killed. It will not tolerate a hard freeze. They prefer full sun or light shade in the garden.
Tea plants will become small trees or large bushes if not pruned. Hardcore tea growers trim back the shoots repeatedly to a height of around 4 feet to encourage new growth and to contain the size.
Make sure to pick an area of your landscape where it does not flood or remain wet during our rainy season. Camellia sinensis does not like wet feet at all. They prefer well-drained, sandy and slightly acidic soil. If grown in a container, add some sphagnum moss to the potting mix. They will benefit from frequent applications of small amounts of fertilizer.
You will need some patience, too. Your plant should be around 3 years old before you start harvesting leaves.

Recommended fertilizers:

Tropical Greenhouse Plus - Plant Booster
Tropical Allure - Smart-Release Booster

Harvesting recipes

Now that you know how to grow the Tea, you need to check this out: the Harvesting recipes how to harvest and make different kinds of real tea: Green Tea, Japanese Style Green Tea, Oolong Tea, Black Tea, Orthodox Indian Tea... Continue reading...

Date: 9 Jun 2024 Top Tropicals Telegram channel & chat

Where does the tea come from?

Camellia sinensis - Tea Leaf

☕️ Where does the tea come from? Tea Leaf Plant!

🍃 Camellia sinensis - Tea Leaf. Yes, tea comes from a camellia!
🍃 Tea Leaf is a small evergreen tree, usually pruned back to shrubs in cultivation.
🍃 In the fall and winter, the plant will produce small white flowers with a lovely fragrance.
🍃 Tea is the second most commonly drank liquid on earth after water. It has numerous medicinal benefits mainly due to its antibacterial and antioxidant properties.
🍃 To grow Tea Leaf Plant, make sure to pick an area of your landscape where it does not flood or remain wet during our rainy season. Camellia sinensis do not like wet feet at all. They prefer well-drained, sandy and slightly acidic soil.

📚 Learn more: Tea Leaf Plant and Tea Harvesting Recipes

🛒 Shop Tea Leaf Plant

#Food_Forest #Recipes

🏵 TopTropicals

Edible Landscape

Four must-have herbal edibles for your instant Food Forest

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, 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: &feature=youtu.be">how to make hibiscus tea

Shop Flor de Jamaica

2. For medicine: Aztec Sweetleaf - Lippia

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.

Shop Sweetleaf

3. For salads and stews: 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

Shop Longevity Spinach

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

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

Shop Wild Betel Leaf

Kristi's Loquat Tropical BBQ sauce

Loquat trees are famous for their abundant fruit production. Many customers who purchased this tree from us, soon end up with some serious crops and start asking if we have any special recipes for loquat fruit - because you can only eat so much out of hand! Here is our manager Kristi's favorite Loquat recipe - not only delicious and tropically-aromatic, but also good for you. Happy Tropical Meal!

Ingredients

2 lbs loquat fruit

cup soft brown sugar

cups malt vinegar
1 onion chopped

cloves garlic

Instructions

Wash the fruit, cut them in half and remove stones. The loquats will lose about a third of their weight once stoned (3 lbs of whole fruit = 2 lbs of fruit, stones removed). Add loquats and all remaining ingredients to a large saucepan. Bring to a low boil, then simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally. The liquid will have reduced quite a bit and the fruit will be collapsed and very soft. Allow to cool slightly, then liquidize the sauce in a blender or a food processor. Be careful, hot sauce really burns!
This delicious tropical sauce is great for any BBQ - with meats or fish. Enjoy!