Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

☕️ How to make Nescafe from Mucuna beans.

• 😼 Looking for a caffeine-free coffee substitute with health-boosting benefits?

Mucuna pruriens, also known as Velvet Bean, or Purple Jade Vine, offers a rich and satisfying alternative to traditional coffee.
• 😼 With its natural L-Dopa content, it supports brain function, calms the mind, and nourishes the body. Paired with ingredients like chicory root, this blend not only tastes great but also promotes digestion and overall well-being.

💬 Simple guide to making your own Mucuna "Nescafe" at home

• Prepare the Beans: Collect Mucuna beans carefully, wearing gloves to avoid contact with the irritating hairs on the pods.
• Roast the Beans: Roast the beans until they turn dark and aromatic, similar to how coffee beans are roasted.
• Grind the Beans: Once roasted, grind the beans into a fine powder using a coffee grinder or blender.
• Brew: Use the ground beans just like instant coffee. Add hot water, mix, and enjoy. You can add milk or sweetener if desired.

Benefits of Mucuna Nescafe:

• 🟡 Natural source of L-Dopa, which supports brain and nervous system health.
• 🟡 May calm the mind, nourish tissues, and support kidney function.
• 🟡 Aids digestion and acts as a prebiotic.
• 🟡 A caffeine-free alternative that provides sustained energy and balance.

📚 Learn more from previous post:
What is Nescafe Coffee made from?

🛒 Plant your own Nescafe Vine

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🕺 "Take life with a pinch of salt, a shot of tequila, and a wedge of lime so nothing at all but take your time." - John Walter Bratton

🍾 How to make a Classic Margarita:

2 oz tequila

1. oz lime juice
   1 oz triple sec

Salt for rimming the glass
Lime wedge for garnish
Shake the tequila, lime juice, and triple sec with ice, then strain into a salt-rimmed glass filled with ice. Garnish with a lime wedge and enjoy!

Do you have a favorite drink or a go-to way to unwind?

Share in comments!
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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:

• • Golden Loquat – the Symbol of Prosperity
• • Learn more about Loquats

🎥 YouTube video about Loquat
📁 Overlooked fruit: tasty Loquat recipes (PDF)

🛒 Shop Loquat varieties

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🍒 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

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🍒 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:

• • Cherry juice recipe
• • 65 times more of vitamin C than an orange - in Barbados Cherry
• • Barbados Cherry Mini Version
• • Learn more about Barbados Cherry

🛒 Order Barbados Cherry Tree

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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

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🍈 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:

• • What is the largest tree-borne fruit in the world?
• • How to grow the biggest fruit on Earth.

🛒 Grow your own Jackfruit

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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

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🍾 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

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