Spent a few minutes walking around the farm today.
Two banana plants are putting out the precursor (the infloresence, I have seen it called) to a stalk of banana fruit. In 8-9 months we'll have probably a hundred plus pounds of bananas to deal with. I love bananas, but 50 lb stalks - and this time there will be two at one time - can get overwhelming. I do let them get really ripe and then freeze them for smoothies and for baking banana bread, but our freezer space is limited.
The lilikoi is recovering from the sheep and chicken depredations; I am not sure how long a vine has to grow before it produces fruit, but hopefully, some time in the next year, we'll have lilikoi. (Oops, that reminds me, a coworker traded me juice for eggs, and I left the frozen juice in the freezer at work - definitely need to recover that, if it is still there).
The pipnola is starting to climb up the waiawi clump - that should be a nice addition to stir fry at some point.
The sweet potatoes are spreading like crazy. A bit worried the compost I planted them in is too nitrogen rich and it will be all leaves - the leaves are good in stir fry, but I am crazy about the local purple sweet potatoes, so I hope they grow, too.
There are just about enough lemons to make marmalade, so that is a project to do soon, but the rest of the citrus are resting. I went out and gave the tangerine, grapefruit, orange, and calamansi lime trees a pep talk. Probably a good dose of compost would do a better job of motivating everyone.
It is a lovely, sunny, just-warm-enough day here in upslope Puna. Everything smells heavenly; the ginger flowers are blooming, the spider lily just put out a big stalk of flowers, and there are even some roses blooming. The anthuriums I have planted in a little bed in front of the house have put out a lot of flowers (in spite of my broad neglect). They have no smell, but they are pretty. We're heading out to church and then to a church picnic, and I am actually regretting it, because I would like to stay home and putter a bit and not have to putter in the near constant drizzle that is a regular part of living up in a rainforest.
2 comments:
Sweet Potatoes, that would be great if I could grow them here. Between those potatoes and the bananas your sweet tooth will be covered in a healthy way.
My vine is a volunteer Nancy. Sprouted in early spring and fruited from late July until January, maybe. I see a few more volunteers have sprouted in another part of the yard. For sure they weren't there last year and they have green fruit hanging on them now. Only a few but they picked a pretty shady spot to sprout.
About those bananas...here on Maui there is a non-profit organization called Waste Not, Want Not. You give them a call, they come and pick your fruit. The pickings are distributed to low income seniors. Great program. Or you could just feed them to your chickens ; )
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