Visit to a neighbor and October seedlings

Today Miguel was not feeling well and stayed home, the children decided to stay home with him

and surprised me with a very creative Halloween creation when I returned.

 I will share this project tomorrow.

I went to visit a neighbor, a mexican woman who used to be a dancer in Las Vegas, 

and who is lovingly called the papaya lady by the children.
I mention the dancing bit because I find it so interesting;
all the different walks of life found in just this little part of the jungle.

From the outside, and from the inside too really, her garden looks a bit confusing.

Everything is randomly planted in between the cracks of the rocks, but how healthy and happy all the plants look. And the variety was just amazing,
she must have a good 50 different kinds of fruits, perennial greens, nuts and herbs. 

I took many photos of trees but I cannot as of yet identify them all, far from it, many of the fruits I had never even heard of. She even has two apple trees, one pear tree and a couple of peach trees growing, 

I think they are all young trees and not yet fruiting, but she is convinced that they will, and they look healthy. I will be very excited if we can indeed grow apples and pears here.
Visiting this garden was very inspirational for me, to have such an abundance of food growing with absolutely minimal effort is amazing, it baffles me that just down the road a local family lives and they have not a single fruit tree growing, not one.
In a place such as here, meaning the tropics, it seems everyone should have all their basic fruits growing right outside their door. Some do, but far from everyone. 

 Since arriving here in Mexico I, and the children especially, have enjoyed a red drink which we make from dried red flowers boiled in water, it is called flor de Jamica, and here in this garden I saw the flowering plant, and was even  gifted a few babies to plant on the land.

Beautiful and useful too, love that!!

 These are the flowers once they fall, they are then left to dry before cooking.

(most likely they can be used fresh as well, though I imagine they rot quickly 

if not used or laid out to dry immediately.

 Here is another perennial green, I already forgot the name even though I was told several times.

I must write it down and look it up.

But it is I suspect similar to the Chaya in terms of nutrients, it does however have a very
distinct licorice scent when the leaves are rubbed between the fingers, and I was told that it is most delicious in foods, I am looking forward to try it.
We were also gifted two large seedlings of this tree/bush.

Below is a Noni fruit, I brought home several fruits to try, 

Miguel knows them but I have never had them.

I will take the seeds from the fruits and hope to start little trees from them. 

And here is an old favorite. I had two growing in my garden in North Carolina.

A beautiful Fig tree, I was so happy to actually recognize one of the many fruit trees in this garden, yes well besides the obvious ones.

And we were also gifted three seedlings from this lovely Fig.

mmmmmm, so grateful

Back at home it is becoming obvious that the seedlings are not nearly as pleased with all the rain we are having (it is still raining on and of). All of the pak choy has rotted, the tomatoes look like they are going the same route, and the salad greens the same. The only ones still looking healthy and strong are the cucumbers and zucchini.

A friend told me the other day, that each year he promises himself not to start anything tender, really any annual vegetable, between september and end of november as that is the heaviest rainy season in these parts. He told me that each year the same thing happens; 

because of the humidity with all this rain, the seedlings simply all rot. 

He even spoke of healthy arugula already in his beds about 10 cm tall, gone.

It sounds to me like good advise, 

besides this is an excellent time to focus on all the fruit trees, the trees that love all this water, 

and can really benefit from being planted now.

This spinach was so healthy a couple of days ago, and now one by one they are keeling over,

frustrating really!

~Blessings~

Chaya, a perennial green

Chaya, a new found love!

I am just starting to get familiar with the local food sources, 

and the first that really has me excited is the Chaya bush.

It is sometimes called  tree spinach and is native to this part of Mexico.

It is superior to spinach and other leafy vegetables in its nutritional value, here is a brief list of nutrients;

Percentages are of minimum daily requirement

%	Chaya	Alfalfa	Spinach
Protein	8.25	3.66	2.00
Crude Fibre	1.94	3.12	2.07
Calcium	421.00	12.00	49.00
Phosphorus	63.00	15.00	30.00
Iron	11.61	5.30	5.70
Vitamin A	8.52	0.74	2.48
Vitamin B1	0.23	0.13	0.03
Ascorbic Acid	0.35	0.14	0.10

My research is still very limited and I plan to get to know this plant much better.

For now I am happy to have found a perennial 

(I think it would perhaps be a tender perennial in other parts of the world) 

leafy green plant with such high nutritional value.

 Also chlorophyll amount is supposed to be very high, just like my beloved nettles, and I plan to make myself a jar daily of these greens soaked in boiled water for a cleansing water treat.

 We already have a few bushes on the land, I just planted a few more sticks the other day.

(Simply cut a few branches and stick in the ground to root.)

I harvest them with gloves as they do have little pesky hairs that really bother in the skin, 

more so than the sting of the nettle, in my opinion.

What I love best besides the nutritional value is that from a permaculture perspective they are perfect too.

I hope to fill this land with as many perennial foods as possible so that our intensive gardens might be minimized. Why struggle to grow spinach and leafy greens in this heat when these grow so happily, 

and I do not need to disturb the earth each growing season, or plant seeds again and again. 

Also the chickens love them, these bushes need to grow all around 

where the chickens roam to help feed them as well.

 So far I have tried them in two dishes, one a bean salad the other a spanish omelet.

For the bean salad I cooked them lightly with some green beans, 

(anywhere you read about Chaya it will tell you to cook before eating as they can release a toxin when raw, I have also spoken to some here who eat them raw, 

so far I do not have enough information to eat them raw and will 

stick to the cooked kind until better informed)

 Once lightly cooked with the green beans I added some chick peas and some brown beans, and tossed it all in a dressing of olive oil, lime, mustard and a bit of honey and salt.

It was very yummy, even the children ate it happily.

I also tried the leafs in my spanish omelet, and it was not a success, 

but only because I put too many and did not chop them finely enough.

~Blessings~