More foods from Mother Nature…

There seem to be countless varieties of palm trees in the jungle. We have several coconut palms in our yard and have also added an unusual looking “traveler palm” – photos to come as it grows. One palm that has caught our interest over the past 6 months is a 65 foot tall, very straight, very skinny tree that is just on the other side of our property line. Right under the palm fronds there appeared to be a circle of “frisbee” looking discs with clusters of some type of berry or fruit under them – definitely not coconuts. Well, yesterday its secret was revealed! We noticed the next-door neighbor precariously perched in a tree next to the palm with a home made harvesting stick that had to be a good 40 feet long. He hung onto the branches of his perch while skillfully manipulating the “stick” to knock the fruits off the palm. A short while later he showed up at our gate with a bag full of the “goodies.” They are called “peach palms.” They are easy to prepare – simply boil and open, then scoop out the flesh. The taste reminds me of a sweet potato. The locals recommend you eat them with mayonnaise – surprisingly they recommend eating many things – including tacos – with mayonnaise.