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Fruit


liuzhou

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10 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Here's a new one to me.

 

紫手指 (zǐ shǒu zhǐ), literally purple fingers. They are finger grapes aka witches' finger grapes.

 

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A grower in Ojai,CA used to raise them to sell to high end restaurants, hotels, and cruise ships.

There is also a red variety.  They were called Lady Finger grapes, Black or Blue, Red or Scarlet.

I met the grower when I visited an herb farm in Ojai in the early 2000s and he gave me a couple of bunches of each.

The black ones had a flavor reminiscent of Concord grapes.  The red ones were sweet and reminded me of the "Roger's Red" grapes on the vine I planted when I moved here in 1988.  It began bearing two years later and did fine until 2005 when the neighbor back there poured oil into a pit next to the fence. He was working on cars illegally -  and dumping the oil instead of paying to have it recycled.  He got a stiff fine and I got dead grape vines.

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"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

We picked the last of our Afghan mulberries, they will be missed until next year. But fear not, as we were gifted almost 3 kg pounds of short mulberries, of tow varieties, which are now in peak season. Our white mulberry fruits is also starting to ripen.

There's also loquats, though I'm not their biggest fan.

And lovely pitanga (Suriname cherries).

 

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The anonas are close to ready. There are plenty of tiny mangoes which are getting bigger every day.

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~ Shai N.

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Fruits in progress.

 

White mulberries.

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Mango 

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I don't recall ever having the mango still in bloom when some fruits are already at this size. Hopefully, we'll have a long fruit season.

 

Avocado.

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Pomegranate. 

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~ Shai N.

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@shain, I grew up in an area where many houses had "pet" pomegranate trees. Despite that, I don't think I ever noticed the blossoms, until they were at the end of a fruit. Thank you for that picture.

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
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9 hours ago, Smithy said:

@shain, I grew up in an area where many houses had "pet" pomegranate trees. Despite that, I don't think I ever noticed the blossoms, until they were at the end of a fruit. Thank you for that picture.

 

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Just to share some info, this is actually not the flower, but rather the "base" that held it (Google tells me that it's called receptacle). It will become the crown of the fruit. The flower looks like that.

 

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~ Shai N.

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  • 1 month later...

Fruit splurge, lychee. Lots of peeling, lots of refuse (not pictured here). Here's the final product in a container. (I like to eat unimpeded by the peeling process, as with crab.) After all that peeling, IMO, canned lychees are a decent product.

 

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12 minutes ago, MokaPot said:

Fruit splurge, lychee. Lots of peeling, lots of refuse (not pictured here). Here's the final product in a container. (I like to eat unimpeded by the peeling process, as with crab.) After all that peeling, IMO, canned lychees are a decent product.

 

 

Oh no no no - you have not experienced the "full lychee" until you sit on the patio with friends, laughing and peeling lychee that have been sitting in a big bowl of ice water. Or on a ferry coming back from Granville and ignoring the people who raise their eyebrows when you lick the juice off your arm (TMI - sorry) But based on your crab statement I get it  - we're all different.

Edited by heidih (log)
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  • 4 weeks later...

I thought I was done with bing cherries for this year, but got some "Nature's Candy" (Costco) cherries. So good! Really big, juicy, and flavorful. Not cheap, but only available once per year. These are grown in Washington state.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Panama berries!?  Unreal - never even heard of them - yet another reason I love this forum.  And I love exotic fruit.

 

Speaking of semi-exotic (especially for Canadian's!) - ground cherries!

 

This beast of a twin plant is pumping out about 1cup of berries per day:

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Uprising Organic Seeds Ground Cherry 'Aunt Molly's' - Tomatillos ...

 

(stock photo for those unaware of what the actual fruit looks like)

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10 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

Look like cape gooseberries to me. Same thing; different name?

Yup.

 

ETA: Planted a row of them in my garden this year, but got zero germination. It was a difficult spring here, on the garden front, for many reasons.

Edited by chromedome (log)

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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35 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

Look like cape gooseberries to me. Same thing; different name?

Indeed!

 

26 minutes ago, chromedome said:

Yup.

 

ETA: Planted a row of them in my garden this year, but got zero germination. It was a difficult spring here, on the garden front, for many reasons.

 

It has been a very strange year.  My zucchini (all 3, different lineage) all pumped out about 4-6 big zucc's a piece, tons of flours, then just wilted and died.

 

My mothers ground cherry did very little - though it did germinate. 

 

Though I did see a lot of bee's this season (perhaps more than last) - I think we are starting to see the impacts of a lower bee population on our food production.

 

 

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They are working on the marketing of these beauties - I am sure one day they will be the next local 'Acai' berry.

 

One of the more nutritious berries that grow in this climate; they are an excellent source of vitamin's A, C and B-1, B-2 and B-3.

 

Also a great source of Withanolides. 

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  • 1 month later...

A friend of mine just shipped me about 25 pounds of mangoes to me in NYC from LA. But not just any mango - he said they were the best he ever had since he left India as a young man.

 

I have to say, they are excellent mangoes. Definitely the best I've had in the US. I've only had 2 so far, but the center of the mango near the pit is like pure pulp - you eat it with a spoon. The pulp is sweet and sour and there is not a hint of fibers anywhere. The area closer to the skin has the texture I'm used to in SE Asia - soft and no need to chew - it just squishes in your mouth. I hope I can eat them fast enough so they don't go bad!

 

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Beautiful looking mango. I've not made it to the markets. I may have to pester my friend Sheila who is South Asian and a mango fiend to see if she will share a few from the crate(s) sure fragrant in her kitchen.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Mangoes came late this year. They are huge (this one is 1.8kg).

And a tiny pineapple. Most of our pineapple plants are in their first year of growing, so next year we should hopefully have plenty of fruit.

 

 

 

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~ Shai N.

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50 minutes ago, shain said:

Mangoes came late this year. They are huge (this one is 1.8kg).

And a tiny pineapple. Most of our pineapple plants are in their first year of growing, so next year we should hopefully have plenty of fruit.

 

 

 

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Very nice - I love those really small pineapples that are picked ripe - I get them every time I go to Asia (I don't think they exist in the US).. so much flavor!  What variety of mango is that?

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3 minutes ago, KennethT said:

Very nice - I love those really small pineapples that are picked ripe - I get them every time I go to Asia (I don't think they exist in the US).. so much flavor!  What variety of mango is that?

 

Thanks. Not sure of the variety I think it is Kent or Keitt, possibly an hybrid.

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~ Shai N.

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