Of Cherries and Berries!

The last two weeks has been very busy, clearing my potted garden. Most of my plants are not growing well, have to get rid of them and start anew.  My belimbing tree has not been spared too. It has gone from lush to 'botak'! Not to worry, it will grow soon enough, maybe  in six months time, it will be lush again with new branches and leaves. It is getting too high, almost touching the telephone cable lines at the top, and also almost touching my neighbour's roof!  

This tree has given me lots of belimbing fruits these few months! The grounds were covered with fallen fruits, when I came back from my short holiday.  Harvested all of the fruits last week and gave away to several people. The makcik selling nasi lemak in the market was very happy! 

These are all that's left! Picture was taken this morning. This little bunch is enough for my sambal tumis. Got to wait for at least 8 to 10 months for next batch of fruits!

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Went to Sg. Buloh two weeks ago, and bought a few plants. If you have read my post on Acerola Cherry, you might remember that I cut some stems from a tree in Ipoh and took them back to propagate. The roots did not sprout. Well, I bought a small plant from Sg. Buloh and it only cost RM5.00!! I have no idea it is that cheap!

There are even a few cherries on the plant, but they are all green. Now one has ripen.

The flower of acerola

Beautiful, striking ripe red acerola cherry. I'm waiting for it to turn a slightly darker red, which will taste sweeter!

Waiting patiently for it to ripen!

Spotted some new flowers today! Not many, but quite a few scattered here and there! I was thinking that I should have bought 2 or 3 plants instead! Maybe on my next visit ...

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This is another plant which I bought from Sg. Buloh. The miracle berry plant. Bangchik from My Little Vegetable Garden has mentioned about this berry in his blog.  I bought this for RM8.00. According to the seller from the nursery, there has been quite a huge demand for this plant. 

Interesting info on miracle berry, excerpt taken from http://www.miraclefruitusa.com/ :

Miracle Fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum), sometimes known as the Miracle Berry, is a plant native to West Africa. The berry has a mildly sweet flavor; however, the fruit is treasured not for its own taste, but for the fruit’s unique effect on the taste buds.

Miracle Fruit contains a glycoprotein called miraculin, which binds to the tongue’s taste buds when the fruit is consumed. Miraculin acts as a sweetness inducer when it comes in contact with acids, causing bitter and sour foods to taste sweet, temporarily. This effect usually lasts between 30 minutes and 2 hours.

Miracle Fruit is available in three forms: The actual berries (which are usually frozen due to their high perishability), freeze-dried fruit granules, and miracle fruit tablets.


Experiencing Miracle Fruit

• Berries : Put one berry in your mouth and gently scrape the fleshy part off the seed. Swirl this around your mouth for 2 minutes before swallowing.
• Freeze-Dried Granules : Place approximately 1 gram of the granules in your mouth and let them slowly dissolve on and around your tongue. Wait at least one minute before swallowing.
• Tablets : Place one tablet in your mouth and gently swirl it around with your tongue until dissolved.

Once you have consumed your Miracle Fruit, the tasting can begin!

Miracle Berry is suitable for growing in a pot! This is great, seeing that I do not have ground space! Waiting patiently (well, almost!) for it to flower. According to the info from the web, it will start to flower when it reaches 1-1/2 feet in height and will start to fruit when it reaches 2 feet. This is a great plant to have in the garden, as this is recommended to be grown in a pot. I should have bought one more! Have to wait for next visit to Sg. Buloh!  Are you planning to get one (or two) for your garden?

Happy Gardening !

Am I called Acerola???

Can anyone tell me please, what is the name of this fruit?  I saw this fruit tree at a roadside coffee shop in Ipoh. The cute, pretty fruit caught my eye! It looks like a miniature apple. The fruit is green when young, and change to red when ripen and then very dark maroon when mature.  According to an Indian uncle who sells food at this coffee shop, this fruit can be eaten but he does not know its name, nobody does!  

To prove that it  can be eaten and is not poisonous, he ate one. He says that nobody likes the fruit as it is sour, he is the only one consuming it. Sometimes, he wife uses this fruit for cooking replacing the asam jawa. My sisters and myself tried this fruit, and find that it is quite nice with a sour taste but definitely not as sour as my belimbing! We cut off some stems, courtesy from the kind uncle, and took them home to try our luck at propagating these.

I did a search on the web, and found that it is called Acerola or Barbados Cherry. Do any of you have this plant? Is it  Acerola Cherry? If it is, then the good news is, it is loaded with Vitamin C. 

On the way back from Ipoh, at the Sg Buloh resthouse, we saw about five of these plants growing by the side of the road with some fruits! They are however much smaller that the one above. I guess that some of you probably know and familiar about this fruit plant. If you do, please enlighten me! Thank you!

Happy Gardening !