Thursday, November 18, 2010

Inside Citrus Time

Winter is fast approaching and the time has come to bring all of the tropical plants inside. This includes the plumeria, kaffir lime tree, which has outgrown the plant hutch, and the lemon tree which is becoming a real tree and, don't be too harsh, still needs a new pot.
I plan to section off an area for the plants soon, bigger than the hutch, to keep the cats from eating all the leaves. They don't really eat the leaves but the chew them up and spit them out in gooey messes on the floor.

Not a Touch of Citrus

Among the wide variety of citrus taste in the non-citrus world one surprising source was chocolate. I'm not talking about the chocolate orange which has flavors added to it but just the natural flavor that can be brought out of certain cocoa beans.
The variety of flavors that can come from the bean itself can be quite amazing depending on where the plant is grown and what variety it is.
I went on a cruise earlier this month where my wife lectured on a number of topics including chocolate and we were able to go to a farm that raised cacao plants as well as coffee, bananas, sugar and citrus.
The samples we tasted there were wonderful. My new favorite taste is the white pulp from the cacao pod that surrounds the beans. It's like a sweet pineapple flavor.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Kaffir Lime Tree Update

So far the little tree hasn't gotten a whole lot bigger but it's still growing. It's hiding between the plumeria and the lantana.
This winter it's coming inside and sitting in the study unil the last frost. Then I'm going to get it a brand new pot, wither 5 or 10 gallon, for it to spread it's roots and have a chance to really thrive.
The next plant I want to get is a couple buddah's hands. Since seeds from these are rare I'm going to have to find a way to get them live. Living in Texas that's going to be hard because of the import ban on many plants from other states. The Triffid Ranch is my first place to look. They did a post about cooking it once, I think recently, but I havn't had a chance to call them up and ask.