Due to circumstances beyond my control, I haven’t been able to visit The Great South Florida Food Forest Project for over a year.

My last pictures were taken way back in February of 2014 and posted here.

I was finally able to visit last week and see how the ecosystem is evolving. Rachel took a bunch of pictures which I’ll be sharing with you over the next few days.

There have been some exciting developments and some disappointing failures.

One notable success is the acerola cherry tree my dad and I planted back in March of 2013.

Here’s what it looked like then (it’s the little tree beneath the red shutter in the middle of the frame):

Here’s what it looks like now:

Unlike a true cherry, the acerola cherry produces prodigious quantities of delicious sweet/tart fruit year-round.

Another great success is the tropical almond tree.

Here it is back in July of 2013:

And here it is now:

Less than 2 years – from seed! Pretty amazing.

Another success story is the tamarind tree we planted near the driveway.

Here’s what it looked like back in July 2013:

And here it is now:

Look at the caliper on the trunk:

Beautiful trees and delicious.

Another success is the chocolate pudding fruit tree. Though it’s not gotten a lot bigger, it’s filled out… and it’s blooming!

Chocolate pudding fruit, also known as black sapote, are incredibly delicious members of the persimmon family.

Here’s what the fruit looks like:

Amazing. Hopefully we’ll have some soon.

A final great success is the starfruit tree.

Here it is in a shot from March 2013:

It’s the tree on the bottom left – just about 4′ tall back then.

Here it is now:

It’s about 12′ tall and has been bearing BUCKETLOADS of fruit twice a year.

Very encouraging.

Tomorrow I’ll take a look at some of the failures in the south Florida food forest project – stay tuned!

 

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