New entrants

A few things have aligned in recent weeks to allow some new entrants into our food chain here at Barefoot Cottage.  We've been working hard to clear and new areas of the food forest and we've been to two markets, one being the local market where they are a few store holders who breed local natives and the other being the Brisbane Organic Growers Inc (or BOGI) fair.  So we've been able to pick up a few additions and plant them out in our new areas of the food forest.
The first new face is a wonderful native elderberry or a honey bush.  After having seen many episodes of River Cottage, we are wondering if we'll be able to make elderberry wine or something similarly alcoholic from the flowers.

The next one is a tree sapote tree though strangely unrelated to our other sapotes.  We already have two black sapotes (or chocolate pudding fruit) trees as well as a small green sapote.  This is a rare tree that we picked up at the BOGI fair called a mamey sapote.  Its a tall, relatively fast growing tree that produces large fruit that has pink flesh when ripe and is creamy to taste. The fruit can be eaten raw or made into smoothies or jams and some say it has the properties of an aphrodisiac.  I'll let you know on that one.

 Behind the mamey sapote is a second custard apple, but its hard to see.  I put in a second one as my first one wasn't doing so crash hot until recently.  But, surprise, surprise, now that I've given it lots of manure, some mulch and some more water, the first one is springing back to life.  So plenty of custard apples for us in future.

The tamarillo is fruiting, as is the pepino, so I thought you might like to see how these two very different plants actually produce similar fruit. Tamarillo or tree tomato on the left and pepino (which taste like a rock melon) on the left.  The tamarillo isn't ripe but something has taken it off the tree and dropped it on the ground.  When its ripe it will be an orange-red colour.

And in case you haven't seen the tamarillos on the tree, they are gorgeous and when they are ripe, look like little Christmas decorations hanging down.

And lastly, here is the path we finished mulching on the weekend.  One day it will be a cool walkway through a forest....but not yet.  And Toby doesn't even have the decency to stay on the path at all.