Choko

 

This is one super productive plant.

It's around 15 years old now and the vines reached around 10 meters long after I harvested heaps for mulch on top of collecting tips for greens. How's that for biomass? I gathered the vines today for a final mulching session before they die back with the frost.

We have been eating the fruit for over a month now and add them to lots of curries and stews. They are also great fried, roasted, pickled, with rhubarb in a crumble and you can eat them raw.

As a plant they create the most wonderful deep shade over summer and then die down with the first frost. Dropping all of their fruit for collection.

My sheep love to eat leaves and vines and the chooks and pigs eat any surplus fruit. This year we had half a trailer load!!

Rasins?

 

Raisin trees are a great easy care tree.

The raisins are the very sweet swollen base of the flower stalks. Sweet and crunchy.

These trees self prune, are an amazing bee tree (buzzingly so), creates beautiful shade, fast growing, deciduous and can cope with dry.

Am propagating more this year to spread amongst my chestnut and avocado orchards.

Winter tea

 Lemon verbena is an amazing addition to a cold or how brew. 

Before the frosts I harvest, bunch and hang. All winter long a few leaves can be added to teas.

I grow lemon verbena with citrus, other deciduous trees and with rhubarb, comfrey, mallow, berries....