I have written about the plums before. These are only two of many fruits we have growing here. Some were planted many years ago by previous generations!
There are plums (5 varieties), grapes, loquats (currently in season), peaches, bananas, red and yellow guavas, China pears, avocadoes, nectarines, Custard apples, feijoas, persimmon, bush lemons and Meyer lemons, a rather tart mandarin, 2 kinds of grapefruit, 2 kinds of passionfruit, macadamias, and figs. We also have two very old orange trees that we did not know were there in the eleven years we have been back in this old family home. They have been hidden by bush, and only started bearing again last year, perhaps because some clearing enabled the light to get to them. What a bonus!
This page shows the Jamaican passionfruit, complemented by a beautiful bright orange hibiscus which grows beside Devon Cottage. I am quite proud of this passionfruit, because the plant was grown from tinned passionfruit pulp! Some years ago, I put some leftover fruit salad from Bounty Day into my worm farm. Then I used the worm compost in my pot plants. Next thing I had hundreds of little passionfruit plants coming up. It is a little tart, but has plenty of fruit in the shell, and seems to bear prolifically when the other kinds are out of season.
We recently planted another Mandarin, and I have an Egyptian lime in a pot nearly ready to plant out.
People coming to this island really miss the aisles of colourful, evenly sized and unblemished fruit that you see in the supermarkets of Australia and New Zealand. We do not import any of it. Everything here is seasonal and locally grown. Much of it never reaches the shops, because it is only being grown on a domestic scale. You may have to go searching for your fruit, but at least you know it is probably organically grown, fresh, and ripened by the sun!!!
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