Garden update

We are enjoying more variety of harvests as new fruits come into production.

Bushels of star fruits are almost ready to share with the summer conferences.

 This Ma'afala breadfruit tree came from the Breadfruit Institute almost 3 years ago, Aug. '11 as a 2 or 3 inch tall plant.

First harvest June '14. A few other people we shared trees with have also reported fruit set.

 Starfruit and a small Ma'afala breadfruit

 Guajilote, year old tree fruiting in a gallon pot. Looking forward to trying this.

 Bamboo sprouts.

Jackfruit. Supposed to be 'Super Thai' but can't tell the difference from our 'Black Gold' so not sure of the variety.

They are productive now for small 5 year old trees. Sweet aromatic fruit.

Looking forward to first pitaya/dragon fruit harvest now that one of the self fertile varieties has a flower bud.

Vanilla pods

The best for last... Due to a drier than usual year we enjoyed a great mango season April through June. Mangos rotted on the ground even along the main road just miles from Cap Haitian and the main road less than a mile from Port Margot. 

Many people nearly live on mangos while they are in season. Cory tried to limit them to about half of daily diet. 

The campus mango production ended abruptly in July, except for a few of the new varieties that are just coming into production.

 The photo is Okrung, Van Dyke, and probably Florigon, photo taken today. We also enjoyed Valencia Pride, Fairchild, and Choc Annon, along with all the Fransic and Fil blank we could eat, from huge campus trees.

May 2, Eli's SAT test and plants.

Today Cory and Eli will drive to Port-au-Prince so that Eli can take his SAT test tomorrow at Union school.

Please pray for this trip and that Eli can do his best on the test tomorrow.

 New location, new people, new test...

Cory filled up the truck with health books and trees/plants for 4 different groups working in Haiti.

They hope to be home tomorrow night.

This week I did not accomplish much studying, much studying of medicine.

 I did learn with my children as we worked hard on school items which had lagged behind.

 Many papers, tests and assignments thankfully corrected.

Next years curriculum list started and researched.

In less than 3 weeks we will again take a school break and travel to missionary retreat.

Cory's Haitian peach palms bloomed this week so he could collect pollen.

 Thankful it did not occur last week while we were away from home.

The first dragon fruit reached the top of the arbor.

Vanilla pods filling out.

Word on Facebook about Haitian adoptions: No referrals will be given until the parent interview / relinquishment system details get worked out.

 I understand why it would be best to have this done before matching but feel for the families waiting to match with abandoned children.

Praying for the new system to work out the problem areas…FAST!

Cory named this peach palm 'Sydney'

Anna and I plan to turn 'Friday family night' into a girl's night.

Not sure everything she has planned but I know we will laugh and have some fun.

She's cooking a surprise supper! Do not know if I get to help or not.

Vanilla vine, egg fruit and black sapote.

This week Cory finally found time to work on some of his plants with Gener and Yvon.

With wet warm weather and a busy schedule some of the plants got a bit out of hand.

This spring when Cory needed to climb a ladder to attempt to pollinate the blossoms on his very tall vanilla bean vine he remarked that he should take down the vine, cut it into pieces and replant so that the flowers and eventually beans would be easier to reach.

One flower successfully pollinated and set a bean which fell off the vine while we visited the USA.

This two year old vine climbed 35 feet into the tree before Cory removed it.

He divided the vine into 4 foot sections to be replanted around posts or trees.

A second vine climbs up the back shed but so far no bean pods produced.

Not easy to produce your own vanilla pods but having processed chocolate our first year in the north Cory needed a new challenge.

We like vanilla so easy to support him on this project !

Some facts about vanilla:

• Comes from the orchids of the genus Vanilla.
• Second most expensive spice after saffron because of the labor-intensive process.
• Indonesia and Madagascar leads the world in production of vanilla.
• Up to 95% of 'vanilla' products are artificially flavored.
• Hand pollination needed as natural pollinators are rare.
• Vanilla beans take 6 months to ripen on the vine. Needs to be picked when end starts to split.  

Egg Fruit.

Black Sapote

Soon to be harvested:

Pollination in early April