Category Archives: Gardening

Miracle Fruit Taste Tripping

As part of the tropical fruit video series we’ve been doing, I decided miracle fruit should be next on the docket. We have three small trees and recently two of them started fruiting!

Miracle fruit
Miracle fruit berries growing on the tree

Miracle fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum) is a little different from most of the other fruits of the tropics because the fruit itself is not really so much a food as a food enhancer or transformer. It makes nearly anything sour taste sweet after eating just one berry! The effect on the taste buds lasts a little less than an hour depending on the person.

When Britton and I first tried it, we were amazed and astounded that foods like lemons and limes tasted like lemon merengue and limeade. So we brought a couple of berries to a party and everyone who tried it was also wowed by the powers of this fruit. We did learn that not everything sour should be changed however! At the party wine changed to a flat Dr. Pepper taste and Medalla tasted watered down. The reactions people had to this amazing fruit gave me the idea to get a few friends together to try miracle fruit for themselves. This video is the result. Not only does the video demonstrate the magic of miracle fruit, but it also showcases some of the wonderful and adventurous people who live in/near Rincon. Enjoy.

 

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Beginning the Deck

This last week we began the process of building a deck. This first entailed taking down the scaffolding from inside the house and using the materials to build more batter boards.

Inside of house without scaffolding
Inside the house without scaffolding

Batter boards for deck
Building the deck batterboards

Next was to mark and dig the footers and then to pour them.

Down below waldemar and jorgeHello down below! Getting ready to dig the footers for the posts

And then they worked to fill the footers and then the mini-columns that will hold the deck posts.

Deck footers
Footers/mini columns

Next up will be to put up the actual posts, headers and ledgers and then the supports.

In the meantime, the gardens are growing really good. Check out these pitangas we have been gathering!

Pitanga
Pitanga aka Surinam cherry

And these interesting ornamental ginger flowers on curving spiral stalks.

Ginger flower
Unique ginger flower

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Start of Summer in our PR Yard

It’s that time of year again. Early May when the whole town of Rincón seems to clear out. The seasonal folks go back to the (mostly) Northeast of the US, and even people who live here permanently start planning summer vacations. That leaves us die-hards with the whole place to ourselves!  Even the most popular beaches are completely empty! The weather can start to get a little hotter, but at our place under the cool shade of the mango tree, we still have to put on a light blanket at night.

Baby mangoes
Mango flowers and fruitlets

The other transition is in all the plants. Everything comes alive in the summer. The avocados are beginning to form again and mangoes have been dropping like crazy hitting our cabana roof.

The robles (tabebuia) have bloomed a couple of times. They have these dainty trumpeted purple flowers that the hummingbirds and bees love and when they are finished they slowly spiral to the ground and form a flower petal carpet.

Purple roble flowers
Pink/purple robles

We also have lots of different food growing. We recently saw that our Surinam Cherries were fruiting. These are interesting little fruits that are in the shape of a pumpkin. Sweet but also tart with a distinct, hard-to-describe flavor. Britton and I munched on a bunch of them though.

Surnam cherries
Surinam cherry AKA pitanga

And we were super excited to see one of our pineapple plants forming a pineapple! We have had some difficulties in growing citrus as well as pineapple. The citrus has all sorts of diseases here in Puerto Rico, and it seems that pineapple often succumbs to root rot. This one, however, is doing great!

Pineapple forming
Pineapple growing

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Roof Paneling is On

Work on the roof has been slow and steady. For just three guys to basically build this entire house (plus me, when I can) it’s a pretty amazing feat. For these roof panels, Britton and I spent about 2 full days painting them. The grooves were super difficult to paint and we needed to use 10 gallons of paint plus 5 gallons of primer (thanks John and Fran!).

Painting panels
Painting during the heat wave we had last week: The Saraha not only brought us its dust, but also heat!

Once they were painted the guys brought the panels down to the staging area and then carried them by hand the rest of the way there.

Waving the flag
Puerto Rican Parade? Nope, just bringing materials down

The pitch of the roof is fairly steep, so once the panels were over there, Waldemar took the lead on the top since he had the most experience  (and least fear of heights).

Putting up roofing panels
The amazing Waldemar in action!

As the roof became covered it is starting looking more and more like a complete house.

Back of cabin

Some of the panels got scuffed up in the process of sliding them around and some of the grooves still need touched up with paint, but overall, it is looking really good and the high ceilings make it feel more spacious than it is.

They finished placing all the underside paneling as well as tar-paper. Next week will be the purlins and the actual metal roofing. In the meantime, the finca has been exploding with growth. I will have to post more pictures from the gardens, but here’s a start. Lots of cool stuff going on lately.

Double hibiscus
Double hibiscus bloom

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