The garden has become pretty prolific this year. It's just about the end of the season for the Carambola (star fruit) but have had lots and the neighbors got their share.
The papaya is really taking it's time, both trees. The one in the foto is tied to the wall due to being top heavy and heavy rain.
Two banana plants and they both have about as many bananas as in the foto. They too are taking their time. They grow in such a large clump I can't remember if they are the small super sweet ones or the regular ones
The lime trees are also very slow and produced very little this summer. The first year I couldn't eat them all soo neighbors got some. Fingers crossed this year because one tree is full of flowers.
The Hoja Santa is huge and new plants are popping up around it. The roots send out runners. Asked my Canadian neighbor if she wanted one and she said "No Way" ..... they will take over your garden. Still haven't tried cooking with the leaves. You can wrap just about anything in them and then grill or bake them. Supposed to have an almost root beer flavor. Wiki gives these as possible flavors - eucalyptus, licorice, sassafras, anise, nutmeg, mint, tarragon and black pepper.
Despite the heat today I got a lot done. Finished the last remaining section of the roof with sealer and reduced my lime trees by almost half in height. All the tree energy was going to suckers shooting straight up and not enough to the fruit. One tree had very little fruit this year and the other was slowing way down.
The Hoja Santa was not doing very well and I can only assume they don't like lots to sun. It's now on the shady side of the bed. The Albahaca which I want to call Albaca (Basil) is coming along best. The chard, peas, onions and tomatoes are really slow.
I ran out of brown rice last week so time to buy some more. Only problem is Parisani no longer has their prepackaged brand, Herradura may never carry it, even Super Hawaii had none. Yesterday the last option was Chely's and they had it in bulk in about 1/2 kilo bags. They also had "Saran Wrap" which I wasn't finding elsewhere. The plastic wrap was to cover a bowl of rising bread dough sitting for 12+ hours.
The bread dough I may get started this afternoon but I wanted Curried Fried Rice with Shrimp so I headed off to the local store to see what they had I could add. For sure the cilantro, celery, tomatoes and maybe an egg. I have broccoli and onions in the fridge. The cucumbers (pepinos) are for snacks later with lime and salt. Nahima's favorite.
I've seen it around before but didn't think much of it until Lorena pointed one out as a medicinal herb and also one for cooking. My neighbor across the street has some and it tasted a little like mint to me and neighbors think it tastes like Vicks Vapor Rub (Va-pa-roo) which is eucalyptus.
For some reason all the neighbors know it as Palo Santo so my Internet searches turned up empty until today. There is an amazing amount of recipe pages, fotos and videos for it's many uses. Mostly wraps for cooking but but just cut up for flavoring as well. Not sure if I can take cuttings or if it spreads in the roots. I will go to a vivero (plant nursery) if I have to. Don't know what is in that wrap below but it sure looks good.
The video is the only one I found in English (many in Spanish) ... and the info below is from Wikipedia to fill in a bit.
Hoja santa (Piper auritum) is an aromatic herb with a heart-shaped, velvety leaf which grows in tropic Mesoamerica. The name hoja santa means "sacred leaf" in Spanish. It is also known as yerba santa, hierba santa, Mexican pepperleaf, acuyo, tlanepa, anisillo, root beer plant, and sacred pepper.
The leaves can reach up to 30 centimeters (12 in) or more in size. The complex flavor of hoja santa is not so easily described; it has been compared to eucalyptus, licorice, sassafras, anise, nutmeg, mint, tarragon, and black pepper. The flavor is stronger in the young stems and veins.
It is native to the Americas, from northern South America to Mexico, and is also cultivated in southeast Florida.
It is often used in Mexican cuisine for tamales, the fish or meat wrapped in fragrant leaves for cooking, and as an essential ingredient in mole verde, the green sauce originated in the Oaxaca region of Mexico. It is also chopped to flavor soups, such as pozole, and eggs. In Central Mexico, it is used to flavor chocolate drinks. In southeastern Mexico, a green liquor called Verdín is made from hoja santa. It is also used for tea. American cheesemaker Paula Lambert created "Hoja santa cheese", goat cheese wrapped with the hoja santa leaves and imbued with its flavor. While typically used fresh, it is also used in dried form, although drying removes much of the flavor and makes the leaf too brittle to be used as a wrapper.
The essential oils within the leaf are rich in safrole, a substance also found in sassafras, which has been shown to be carcinogenic in animals. In 1960, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned sassafras bark along with sassafras oil and safrole as flavoring agents because of their carcinogenic properties and the Council of Europe imposed the same ban in 1974, although toxicological studies show that humans do not process safrole into its carcinogenic metabolite.
The construction of the house finished in April 2011 and I'm pretty much settled in. As of March 2014 I'm in preparation for rain mode for this coming summer. That includes sealing and painting things and dealing with drainage issues from last year.
