I took a trip to sunny Florida to visit my relatives. My aunt and uncle like fruit A LOT. There must have been at least 50 fruit trees on their property. They live in Kissimmee where temperatures are in the 80’s right now. They insist this isn’t normal for this time of the year to be this hot. It isn’t in the warmest part. In fact, at times during the winter, temperatures can drop below freezing. This can damage some of their trees, but they rebound just fine. There isn’t much going on right now, because most of the fruit is out of season. Anyway, I’ll get to the pictures.
A row of custard apples. This is the most numerous tree she has in her yard. She has perhaps 30 of them! Every fall, she malls me a box full of the fruit. It’s a no name type that she started from seed and then propagated via suckers. Despite being a chance seedling, the fruit is excellent and has very few seeds compared to what’s available at the grocery stores in Philadelphia and New York City.
I think that’s possible. My parents say the variety came from Thailand a long time ago. Other fruit grown in Vietnam are said to have come by way of Thailand like soursop. Vietnamese call it Mãng cầu xiêm. Xiêm referring to Siam.
Florida does seem like an attractive place. Nice weather and cheaper than California! We wouldn’t be able to grow some varieties of higher chill fruits though.
Today, I got to visit other relatives. They’ve been on their property for longer and have more established trees. There were more fruiting trees, and some fruit snacks for me to sample.
Im glad so many of your relatives “get it”
People tend to spend too much time, energy, and money on ornamentals and lawn when edibles can fill the same role while also providing more. Thank you for sharing
Yes! They do have some ornamentals, but devote most of their space to edibles. Perhaps they grow too much, since they end up giving a lot away to friends, charity, and ship some up my way. Most of the nearby houses have very few if any fruit trees. I sometimes will see a mango tree or an orange tree, but nowhere near what my folks have.
