Finds in the Yard...the Good and Bad

I've been painting and taking the kitten to the vet and checking up on our CD (which is mature on Sunday) so I hadn't been touring the yard as usual. Last I checked this plant had a couple little zucchini starting and now look at them! Something has eaten ALL the leaves and there is not a nub of a zucchini in sight. Damn. Didn't eat the neighboring plants - basil, cucumber (I'm surprised) and aji dulce peppers.


I've got 2 eggplant and have to decide to pick them now or leave them until later. The risk is...they may be nibbled or be gone tomorrow morning. Thing is I don't have a meal planned for them yet so I hate to pick them.

The plants on the left are zocata. It supposedly is a long orange squash of some sort like a zucchini. Someone gave me seeds so I'm trying it out. The vine on the right shows up a couple times a year and my neighbor says you can eat the roots - maybe mameya or name or something.

Guineos - 500 or nothing!

The plant looks pretty terrible but this is a little cantaloupe. Will it make it to maturity? I hope so.

These are the seed pods on the achiote tree - the annato seeds are in the pods and are used for coloring rice so everything isn't white!

On the left is the Achiote tree. This tree grows super fast! I planted a couple seeds and now have a 6 foot tall and 4 foot wide tree in under 6 months.

Here's the days harvest. I discovered a couple platano trees bent over with clusters of plump plantanos. The wind dropped a couple coconuts. The achiote tree is covered with pods and I shook some out and put them in the bowl above the tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes are a little tough right now but they are better than store bought. I dug a couple yucca. I'll leave the rest in the ground since I only got 2 from the plant (should get 5 or 6). When I first got here I thought yucca was wild poinsettia. Little did I know there was food underground! Our first full size carambola - pick it today or tomorrow it may have dropped and the bugs 'll get it. And a couple calabazas discovered in the tall (4 foot) grass. Now the trouble is what to do with all this?

Plant Progress

These are mini carambolas (star fruit). I'm anxious to try a fresh one since all I know is the shriveled supermarket ones in the states.


Our grove of papayas have grown from seed to splendid trees that already have a whole lot of fruit on them (we are eating our second one). The seeds were from 3 or 4 different types of papayas so it is interesting to see the different shapes and flesh colors. We've got more than 20 trees. I figured some would die and 1/3 would be male and then I would be left with a reasonable amount. Nope. Most were female, all lived and it is a good thing we have the dehydrator!

The dragon fruit has gotten all kinds of new growth on it (light green parts). I wonder if I'll ever get fruit from it?

Our coconuts are producing way more than we can drink as coco frios! We've got probably 5 or 6 trees all full of coconuts - the kind you drink, not the meat ones. Of the meat type we have only one tree and we keep getting gifts from above. Coconut is evil though - totally saturated fat and lots of it! (that's why it tastes so good - sugar and fat hold the world together!)

Coconut Mishap Numero Dos...Only Really This Time

Katrina's revenge...this is one coconut that will never sprout. I'm draining it of all juices which I intend to enjoy as I lay low tending my injury. What injury you ask? Well I will be sure to photograph the post injury BRUISE I am sure I will have for a long time after being struck on the inner thigh by a four pound (yes I weighed it) coconut that fell 15 feet off the lovely palm I was sitting close to while on a beach excursion.
Jeff and I had a nice dive Tuesday evening (98 minutes) after a week of not diving due to 30 foot waves. We heard that another low pressure system was coming in on Thursday but we didn't know that that meant more big waves. We gathered the dive gear and headed out to CrashBoat which is in Aquadilla near El Natural (where we dove Tuesday night with 3 turtles and all the usual players). Jeff is headed to the states so he wanted to get a dive in before having to endure 47 degree water. When we got there it was not like we had ever seen it...8 foot waves crashing ("Crash" boat could have given us a clue) on shore and surfers out. No way diving would be good so we pulled out the beach chairs, floaty rafts and snack cooler and decided on a beach day. Jeff doesn't like sun so we plopped down near (not exactly under) a coconut palm like all the other beach goers on spring break. I sat in the sun while Jeff took the raft out into the very big waves for some rough and tumble fun. With surfers around you have to watch your head and be prepared to dive down or get hit...but that was not the mishap! So I had enough sun and sat in the chair in the dappled shade. I had a nice daydreaming thing going when I felt a really odd sustained pain on my inner right thigh accompanied by a loud slapping sound. Man it hurt! I was confused and stunned to find this heavy and hard coconut in my lap. Other beach goers heard it hit me too. Ouch. I don't know what force it hit me with but can tell you that I might as well have had a sledge hammer blow. Humorous huh? What are the chances? I used to think I would die by getting taken away by a six gill shark but I now know it will be death by coconut.

I hobbled into the water to cool it off since it was swelling and hurt more than a little bit. I had some rough and tumble and decided we have to buy boogie boards at least and then learn to surf. I floated around body surfing for a while and then we finished our day and went home. It really hurts - so much that I couldn't shut the gate and walk the 180 steps up to the house or even take on the slope to check for more green beans. I guess I won't be making trails on the hillside for a few days at least and won't be stepping on a shovel or doing anything on a slope. So yes - I now believe it is possible to crack your skull and get a concussion at least from a coconut. I am just hoping the swelling goes down and I am not this sore tomorrow...I have a big couple gardening weeks ahead of me and planned on cement work and diving when the waves go down. A coconut injury was not part of the plan...but I got my revenge (yum).

Katrina Escapes Certain Death by Mere Inches!

Katrina escaped certain death by mere inches! I was on the ladder pruning an avocado tree and as usual Katrina was supervising me and telling me I was doing it wrong. Then I saw a coconut whiz by her head. It hits the ground, THUD! She turns around and is stunned to see a coconut at her feet. We start laughing and she steps aside.

The tree is very tall as you can see and the old coconut is very hard. Hurray, another tasty coconut for us to eat! We can't reach the coconuts in the tree so we have to wait for them to fall so we can eat them. The meat is very good from these. We have plenty of coconuts that provide us with good coconut water but the meat in those coconuts are not as tasty.

Katrina needs to watch where she stands.