Okay, maybe not hot, but merely an epiphytic cactus hitching a ride on a large opuntia. Pretty cool though. I’ve never seen this before!
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Gardening for the People
You Grow Girl was launched in February 2000, as a community for gardeners not unlike myself; people who want to grow but whose garden space is less than ideal. And for those of us with shallow pockets but a big, crazy love for tending plants and making a meal from homegrown fare, wherever home may be. – Read on…
Books by Gayla Trail
Broadleaf Thyme: The Confusion Continues
Way back when, I wrote about Broadleaf Thyme and Cuban Oregano (Coleus amboinicus) and (Plectranthus amboinicus) and wondered about the proper identification for the different plants. At the time I concluded that Broadleaf thyme was the one with smaller leaves, and Cuban Oregano is the one with bigger leaves. And within that there is also the variegated variety. Well, this botanical garden here in the Caribbean is identifying the big leaved type as Broad-leaved Thyme, blowing my identification.
Yesterday, I also saw the small-leaved type in person for the first time but it did not have any identifying marks. It smelled heavenly, by-the-way. Deliciously sweet and pungent. I think I prefer it.
I also saw this interesting variety, that I would really like to have.
Euphorbia lactea
Here’s a plant I would love to grow at home. It’s fairly common here in Barbados. I have seen it in the ground and in white pots. I never thought I’d say this, but it really works in a white pot.
Leave a commentPapaya Flowers
A little while back I wrote about trying North American paw paw fruit for the first time. Many of you chimed in to say, That’s not the paw paw I know!
Well, here it is. The flowers, anyway.
Leave a commentEating Golden Apple
Day one of our big trip has just passed and I’ve already managed to try a new fruit. I expected to eat a lot of my favourite fruit on this trip, but I didn’t anticipate finding anything, besides breadfruit, that I haven’t tried already.
We half walked, half bussed our way to the nearest town today. I made a b-line for a sidewalk fruit stand the second we got off the bus as I am on a mission to eat my weight in custard apples. The vendor didn’t have any of those, but while perusing the table I spotted something I had never seen before. At first I thought it was a mango, but I had heard that mango season is over. Did you know there are lots and lots of varieties of mango that come in all colours and sizes? No bother to me since I’m allergic.
Good thing I made a double take and realized that the golden fruit on the table were not mangos.
“What are these?”
“Golden apple.” Pointing to apples, “These are your apples.” Pointing to the new fruit, “And these are our apples. They are also called June apple.”
“Oh, I know them by that name. I tried one at home but it was green. Obviously not ripe. I didn’t like it. What do they taste like ripe?”
“Sweet.”
For a dollar she sold us one golden apple (Spondias dulcis), and peeled it so we could eat it right away.
I’d say it tastes sweet and slightly sour, exactly like a cross between a mango and an orange, but less intensely flavoured. The texture was a bit crunchy and got a bit stringy nearer to the pit, a lot like a mango. Thankfully, unlike a mango, my lips did not swell on contact.
Later that day we returned to the same stand and bought another for the returning customer fee of 50 cents.
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