Imagine a swarm of locust about to descend on a field of grain, this was similar to my recent trip to Puerto Rico. Instead of locust, it was fruit nuts, a gathering of new and old friends. A small group of us went to PR recently and tried every single fruit that came our way, for me, every single fruit I tried was new. Thankfully it was a small group, this allowed us easy movement and access to places that a large group could not go (plus more fruit!).
Our first day we traveled to a large farm for rambutan, mangosteen, pulasan, avocado, abiu and many other fruits picked fresh from the trees. After that we went to another gentleman's home where we toured his collection and visited his beautiful home. This gentleman had some of the rarest most unique plants in his collection huerenia, garcinias and many other unique fruit trees, including an amazing durian.
The next day we visited two other farms, each different in their collections. The first stop was an amazing lush spot that besides giant fruit trees (that included matisia) also had many beautiful ornamentals, rainbow eucalyptus, sealing wax palms, malay apple, plus tons of heliconias. Our second stop was another farm, this one worked almost entirely by one man, a tremendous feat. Despite being there on a fruit mission, we spent 1/2 our time in awe at his heliconia collection. When we got back to fruit, he allowed us to try a seedling pulasan that was incredible and a nice ripe marang that was quickly gobbled up.
The final day we tried to stop and visit one particular farm but missed the owner so we spent the rest of the day touring our final farm. Absolutely amazing places, all of them, the last stop butted up against the national forest and had a beautiful creek running through it. Besides the other stuff this place had giant mamey sapote and mamey apple trees, cannon ball trees, plus nutmeg, durian, jak, etc, etc. Outstanding!
All in all the trip was a great time, with great friends. We did visit a nursery in addition to everything else and had some pretty amazing food too. The island of PR is absolutely beautiful and most the people we met were very kind. I definitely want to go back.
the new fruits for me:
quenip, rambutan, pulasan, mangsteen, abiu, woolly abiu, 2xdurian, guarana, sour sop, huerenia umbricata, another huerenia, madrono, acharachu, langstat, rollinia deliciosa, marang, kwai muk, eugenia victoriana and a few others.
marang,
durian
rambutan
Puerto Rico
Flowering ginger in front of rambutan trees
can't wait to go back,
-Ethan
mango_kush
ohiojay
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