When we went on our official tour of the compound here we were told that we would "enjoy many fine fruits in Nigeria." Well, so far that is very true! One afternoon we took a walk around the entire perimeter. We chose the absolute peak heat of the day, you know, in order to sweat the maximum amount. While we walked we saw lots of different fruit trees. We thought we'd take some pictures for you to see them too.
We think that these are breadfruit:
We have tons of citrus trees. Grapefruit, lemons, limes and of course, Oranges!
If you click on the picture you will see that the tree is simply loaded with mangoes!
Our favorite kind of tree here? The avocado!!
We are permitted to glean a limited amount per person per day. You may not pick them off the trees but you may pick from the ground. Here is Matt with our avocado harvest!
Seemed such a shame to abandon them to the ants. Matt is standing on the perimeter road, here is another view:
Some people walk, ride bikes or run around the perimeter road for exercise. On the other side is just jungle for miles. There are actually little "farms" carved out of the jungle but they look like jungle to us too!
We also have a fruit called star fruit here but I haven't tried it yet. It's hard to find them on the ground and still good, you kinda have to look at one that looks like its close to dropping and give it a kinda handshake, not picking it mind you, but after a friendly greeting or two it might decide to go home with you! At least, that's what they tell me. And now for a fruit I'd never heard of before:
Recognize this? No? Look at the brown shape at the bottom of the fruit. Hint, it's a familiar nut......Cashew! That's right, Cashew FRUIT! And the nut at the bottom of each fruit is what costs so much money when we buy them at the store at home. Here you can get like 3 cups of cashews for around 90 cents. Not that I'm bragging, but, we get fresh roasted ones at dinner every couple weeks too. Having looked at the price of organic cashews in the states and almost fainting, (9-10 dollars at the health food store for like 2 cups of unsalted organic cashews, I'm not even joking), I realize the value of the cashews we get here. Oh yeah!
We are really enjoying living in the middle of the jungle with such beautiful trees that we can "glean" from. Nigeria's Branch is absolutely the most beautiful place we have seen for a long time. It's peaceful and we are loving being able to pick our own fruit.
Star fruit goes bad super quick. There's such a short time frame when you can eat it but hopefully you've gotten a chance by now because I think it is super delicioso!
ReplyDelete