Poppin' PINK!

One of the first trees we planted is commonly called a "firecracker tree" and even after asking around, we have yet to find it's botanical name. (do YOU know?)


 It usually blooms just in time for New Years and here are the baby PINK buds, just waiting to burst.  I'll include another photo after the explosion.

Next are some PINK orchids that we found hidden under piles of overgrown vines and ferns.  Last year we divided them, and it looks like they too like to bloom in January.  We placed a few at the feet of our Frank Lloyd Wright statue -- our front door greeter.





Finally, is our Double-D size passion fruit, now sporting a PINK make-shift support bra.  The fruit is now over 9" long, and if it fell off the vine at this point, it might just splatter and we'd never see it ripen.

Aren't we just Pretty N Pink!!

Lilikoi (Passion Fruit)

One of Hawaii’s most popular exotic fruits is the lilikoi, or passion fruit. Lilikoi fruits are extremely tart yet incredibly sweet, and so while only the bold tongue will eat them raw, when added to your favorite drink, jam or dessert, lilikoi make everything better.  We have two varieties that we planted early in the year.   They can easily grow out of control, so we built a fence for them attached to a dead ohia tree.

With only a few available, we simply cut them in half, scoop out a couple tablespoons of the innards along with the seeds.   After straining out the seeds, we simply freeze the potent nectar and add it to juice.  When we have a bigger crop, we can experiment with making lilikoi jam, or lilikoi butter (which is a little like lemon curd – tart and sweet).

Anniversary Guava Passion!

Today is our 27th anniversary and we are celebrating with "guava passion" - and what does that mean?

One of the many ubiquitous plants growing in the Puna district are wild guava trees that grow so thick you can't even walk through a patch.  We decided to make good use of them as raw materials for projects.

Here's Phil with some guava trees from our property that he has striped bark from and sanded.  Some we will be using along the front of the new addition -- as a railing.

Since we have two passion vines of Liliqois, we have built a fence for them to grow on using a dead ohia tree at one end (that also serves as our clothesline.)  Phil is attaching a stripped guava tree for the top railing.

Also, see that BIG tree in the background?  That is one of the invasive albezia trees that have invested Puna.  One of our first project on the property was to have several of them removed due to their tendency to fall over in heavy rains and wind.

It is not uncommon to have 2-3 brief power outages during the week because a tree -- somewhere along the lines -- has fallen across the road.  The one you see here is growing on the acre next to us (no threat to us.)  We enjoy it because it reminds us of the beautiful large acacia tree that grew in our yard in Eureka.

Liliquoi is one of the most loved favors in Hawaii and is used in desserts of all kinds as well as juices.  This is a picture showing the two kinds we have -- one of which has blossoms just in time for our anniversary!  Yum! -- liliquoi cheese cake!!