Fruit and Spice Park, Homestead, Florida

I used to find it somewhat  amusing  but very puzzling, how  Jamaican city slickers who often accompanied us on our country hikes or rides, could never recognize the everyday fruit trees that proliferate in the island and which we country people are so accustomed to seeing.                                                

These city slickers (adults and children) can tell you

Fearless leader Jennifer 2nd left front row.

everything about the fruits, what they taste like, what they are good for etc but seem to think that they really come from a supermarket shelf, as they could not recognize the tree if it fell on them!  
                                                                      
I was looking back with amusement today as I visited
Redlands Fruit Festival, which was being held at the Spice and Fruit Park in Homestead, Miami.

This was part of one of our regular "Meet Up" treks, organized by the energetic and knowledgeable Floridian Jennifer Weise. (I mention that she is a Floridian, as I thought no modern residents were actually born in that state and  we were all in fact migrants! lol)

Anyway it was at that festival that I fell in love with the concept and usefulness of a fruit park, for at this park they have acres of fruit trees so visitors can learn what the trees of the fruits, nuts etc that they love to eat, look like.

I certainly learnt a lot. For example, I had no idea that there were 70 kinds of bananas or so many varieties of mangoes.  
                                                                        
I was especially impressed by the Jackfruits for I have never seen jackfruit trees so laden before, anywhere. Unfortunately, the policy of the park is that you can take anything on the ground but are not allowed to pick. And you know Jackfruits rarely fall off trees!

Naturally I was familiar with most of the trees although we have different names for them.

Do you recognize this tree?

There is one tree which I just could not figure out. Have never seen it before. Did not recognize the name on the plaque. Never saw any green leaves or fruits.

But it was quite majestic in its own right.

Would you believe though that the only fruit tree I saw with a warning label that said it was poisonous was our own national dish Ackee!

The Fruit and Spice Park sits on 35 acres of farm land in real Florida farm country.

It has 500 varieties of fruits, vegetables, spices, herbs nuts and other plants. It was the brainchild of a Mary Calkins who started it  in 1944. She was apparently a "snowbird"  with a green thumb who migrated to Florida where she fell in love with tropical plants. It is reported that

Mary's childhood home

many of the plants you now see in the park     came from her nursery.

Since it was a festival when we visited, naturally there were lots of stalls with fruits, and byproducts for sale and I found a typical straw booth quite beautiful.

Beautiful straw proucts

After a leisurely walk through the park, our fearless leader figured we did not yet work up a sweat, so off we went to the nearby Hummingbird and Butterfly Garden  for a mile  and half hike through their nature trail.

Unfortunately we never saw any hummingbirds as the helpful park Interpreter Laura informed us that while they have 4  speciess of hummingbirds, they do not visit until between November and December when they build their homes in the nearby small rain forest .

We saw no shortage of mosquitoes though for the days before there were heavy rains and they seemed to have gone on a breeding spree.
And they were most disrespectful of the natural repellent which I first used, only keeping their distance when a friend gave me some chemical repellent to up the ante.

Today was really a new and interesting experience for me. Actually, most of the "Meet Up" treks that have been organized by the native,  Jennifer, tend to be interesting and well planned.