Now what do health, squirrels, fruits and humans have in common?
Hang on, as I will show you it all below.
We call them "Heaven's apples", but they are in fact the fruit of a Strawberry Guava tree. (Psidium cattleyanum).
These small fruit seeds are very healthy, as you will see in the link below.
Products made from P. cattleyanum are not commercially available because of a lack of market and the heavy presence of fruit flies. This renders the fruits inedible soon after they are picked. Its seeds have many health benefits, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties, in addition to a high amount of vitamin C.
This is what the tree looks like in our front garden.
Okay, now let me show you some granadillas close by the strawberry tree.
Strawberry tree at the left, and granadilla fence on the right. We don't pick the granadillas, as when they are ripe, the strong winds blow them off for us.
Live, and let live. We place the smaller ripe granadilla fruits and some acorns here in the flower bed for hungry little visitors.
Here you can see one visitor below.
And this one was its mate.
Finally, we stash the ripe granadillas in our kitchen to wait for the strawberry tree's fruits to ripen, as then my wife makes a most delicious juice that tastes like strawberries, guavas, and granadillas.
No, don't ask me, as we haven't given the juice a name yet, but let me tell you that it's a very healthy mix, and a bonus is that it's all organic, as we use no pesticides in our gardens. I think that my wife will also make some tarts with the seeds this time round, as an extra healthy bonus.
I often joke that when the seeds grow in my stomach, she mustn't be surprised if I awake one morning to find a tree growing out of my ear :)
Another issue about this live and let live action, is that we have a team of naughty youngsters that insist on raiding the granadilla fence when they think that we are not around. I did the same in my younger days, but the difference is that we stole ripe fruits. The youngsters here pick green granadillas, and they run away eating them. I just hope that they have cast iron stomachs, or maybe they eat the unripe/green fruit to get booked off from school with upset stomachs:))
Such is life.
I hope you have enjoyed the pictures and the story.
Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
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