Still yet, Tropical Herbs & Spice!

Here is a view of the new chocolate orchard!

The new orchard will contain 21 'Criollo' trees (Theobroma cacao subsp. cacao); the chocolate with the richest flavor!

What's Chocolate without Vanilla!

This is a newly opened flower of Vanilla planifolia.

Vanilla flowers only last one day. When they open in the morning and are receptive, it is time to fertilize / pollinate them. This is done by pinching off a grass culm (stem) and using it to go into the flower, grab the pollen sack, and put it behind into the receptacle.
If fertilization is successful, the ovary will become pendulous and begin to enlarge.

Next to go in the ground will be Cinnamon, Cinnamomum verum!

Macadamia nuts are finally producing!

Mysore Raspberries, a Tropical black raspberry from India, are heavy producers, and a good reason to make breakfast everyday!

Here are Kea and Ku studying up for our next field trip to collect plants for the farm!

Aloha, Dave

Very impressive. Where is the ice cream tree?
LOL

I'll bet Dave has ice cream banana!

Looks great Dave and very interesting about polinating the vanilla - do we not have the insect needed, or do you polinate to make sure you are going to get beans? What a smorgasbord of yummy things you are growing - do you have huge acreage like Carol does?

This is the Ice Cream bean, Inga feuillei. It is widely cultivated in South America for the sweet pulp in it's bean-pods.
This tree is just going into flowering stage; I'll post a photo when it is in full bloom.

Here is the Ice Cream Banana!

Vanilla does not have it's pollinator moth in Hawai'i, so the flowers must be hand pollinated. If one does not fertilize the flowers they can still get some Vanilla beans, but my production increased ten-fold when I began to do so.
I have just three acres; Carol must have managed to get several lots side by side.

Is that 3 acres of vanilla, or of icecream banana?

I've got an Inga but it's never shown signs of wanting to flower.

Two acres in cultivation; several hundred species.

Wow - two acres - I have enough trouble with my small patch! What a delicious garden you have!

I am thinking about chocolate covered mac nuts and a little vanilla always makes the chocolate flavor pop. Yum

I bought some mac nuts from some folks along side the road on the BI. They had set up some tables at a scenic overlook a bit below South Point and were selling local jewelery, baskets, etc.. The mac nuts were the best I have ever eaten and when I called to order some more (there was a name and re-order # on the bag) I found the number was disconnected. What a bummer.

Truly, what an interesting garden with such delicious plants.

I acquired and planted vanilla orchids last November but they didn't take. I may try again if I ever see them for sale.

HHMMM, Macademia nuts... (drooling 'a la Homer). We went to visit the Mauna Loa plantation on the BI. In the store, there were smiling ladies in Aloha dresses offering samples. We tasted those nuts with every conceivable covering on them: dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, wasabi powder, tamari, sea salt and vinegar, etc. etc. etc. We bought about 15 pounds of candy while we were there. Of course, I'm about talking the sugarfree stuff. But, we did see the groves, the harvesting, the mangooses and had a great day. Such memories...

Aloha,
Sylvain.

What a "yummy" orchard.

Enjoyed.

Wonderful, Dave! I'm waiting for the chocolate now! Definitely a yummy garden!

WHATT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rasbberries, and black at that! Did you mail order them?

The Mysore Raspberry, Rubus niveus, has been getting spread from garden to garden here by shared cuttings. The plant grows very easy in tropical conditions, but needs to be managed as it can become invasive.

Thanks! I think that's a variety that I found for sale in one Miami, Florida nursery, but they wrote back saying it's too much trouble to get the export papers. Scrouges!

They could take me over, I've never had my fill of raspberries!

Now off to google...

Magnolia grandiflora has got to be the best smelling flower in the garden!

This one is just opening.

Here is the Ice Cream Bean, blooming!

Here are Cloves ready to harvest.

These are the freshly harvested Cloves!

The scent is captivating! Much sweeter than store-bought Cloves.

How cool! What is an ice cream bean plant?

Love your Magnolia bloom's! Thank's for sharing.

Rachel

That MAGnolia is MAGnificent! Lovely crop of cloves - I can almost smell them from here!

Dave, does your magnolia bloom year round in HI? I noticed the azaleas and camellias were blooming in May and was told they bloom year round there. Now I am vurious about the magnolias.

The Ice Cream Bean is Inga feuillei a South American tree with bean-like pods that have a sweet pulp, similar to Tamarind, but it grows in a wet climate.

Magnolias and many other flowers have sporadic flowering times in Hawai'i, but it is generally sometime in spring.

Thanks Dave, it looks like that Ice Cream Bean tree might grow here. Do you think it might be found growing wild around Waimea on Kauai? I remember picking up some seed pods from a plant that had feathery white flowers. Hoping, hoping hoping......

Ice Cream Bean can be invasive and can be hard to get rid of. But that comment "sweet pulp, similar to Tamarind"? Surely you mean the 'pulp is like tamarind', not 'sweet like tamarind'.

Hi Tropicbreeze, the Ice Cream Bean has a sweet white pulp. I was using Tamarind as an example as many folks are familiar with it, and unfamiliar Ice Cream Bean. Ice Cream Bean has no record of being invasive in Hawai'i, but I could imagine it's potential to become a weed.

Dave, I'm echoing everyone here: the magnoila is so graceful and gorgeous! You have to keep us posted with pics of the Ice Cream Beans beans! Are the cloves the unopened blooms? I had to go in my spice rack and sniff them a bit!... though I know it doesn't do justice to the real thing. I love cloves!

Hi Alexandra, the cloves are the unopened blooms! They seem to get more pungent as they dry. I'm going to let a few of the buds develop into flowers and show them here. Hopefully they will make seed. They could be a nice houseplant in your area! The leaves have a great scent too, and are a suitable substitute for Bay Leaves in any recipe!

Hey Ardesia, the Ice Cream Bean is not naturalized in Hawai'i, and is a fairly modern introduction to gardens here. I don't think you would find a wild stand of it in the State of Hawai'i (Can you show a photo of the seed pods that you collected?). It is a tropical plant and does not do well in the upland cooler parts of this Island. But I think that if you give the young plants winter protection you might try to grow several and see if you can get one of the trees to adapt to your area (Zone 9a).
If my tree sets seed this year, I'll be glad to send some seed to who ever wishes. I'll keep a photographic update on it here

Oh, how I wish I had been smart enough to photograph the seeds but I was so anxious to get them into pots and now I have mystery plants coming up.

Dave, that's so nice of you! I will patiently wait for the bloom pics, I love pics! I hope they set seed for you. I'd love such a houseplant, he-he-he! How do you use them? Did you grow yours from seed?

Hugs,
Alexandra

Here Icecream Bean is controlled by our dry season, the seedlings don't seem to be able to survive if they don't get watered. There are apparently some varieties of "sweet tamarind". When I bought my place I was told that about 30 of my tamarinds were of a sweet variety from Vietnam. Since then they've started to fruit and they taste just as sour as all the others. Not that I mind, I like the look of the trees anyway. Now Icecream Bean fruit would be good, but I think the tree's too crowded out by some other larger ones. Plus a few weeks back it had a black wattle fall on it. Hasn't had a good life really.