Florida Lychee Grower Continues Direct Public Sales

Run to Loxahatchee to get your fresh lychees before they're gone. Kenari Groves Inc is continuing to sell their pesticide-free lychees direct to the south Florida public.

Last year they made the switch from wholesale to retail. A late growing season put their crop in direct competition with Mexican and Chinese fruit causing the wholesale lychee price to hit rock bottom.

Rose and U (pronounced 'oo') Khin have owned Kenari Groves since 1997. Mr. Khin tells me many people get confused by his name and call him Ken. But his Burmese name is U Khin, which literally translates to Uncle Khin.

Driving in a golf cart, a short while later, through the back grove with Rose, she points to a large tree covered in bright red Brewster lychees and says, "The bumpy skin shows it is not ready."

She goes on to tell me about ripeness. Sometimes the skins are green from lack of exposure to the sun but this does not mean they are not ready. It all depends on how they feel. Stepping from the gulf-cart, she walks up to a bunch of fresh fruit hanging low on a Mauritius lychee tree and pulls one off. Handing it to me she says, "It is ready when it feels like a balloon filled with water."

I roll the fruit around in my hand and it feels exactly like that. I bite into its red, slightly brittle skin, squirting sweet sticky juice into my mouth. I peel off the remaining skin using both my teeth and my fingers. There is nothing like fresh lychee.

"We are in this business and we want people to try the best," Rose says snipping a bunch of fresh lychees and putting them in the front of our golf cart.

We ride back to the main house via mango trees that line the perimeter of the 20-acre grove. "They are green right now and won't be ready for another few weeks," she tells me.

Back at the house I take a seat next to U Khin and he tells me about Brewster lychees."They have deceptively bright red skin but they are not ready. It will be about the 15th or 16th of July when they are ready."

The Khins are getting selling help from Darrin Swank of Swank Specialty Produce, a hydroponic farm in the Loxahatchee area. Swank includes lychees in orders to his chef clients around south Florida.

Before I leave, I buy 10 lbs of Mauritius lychees at $3 a pound. I'll have to return next month to try the Brewsters.

Kenari Groves will be open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. until they run out of fruit. They only take cash.

Their address is listed as being on "D" Road but the entrance to the grove is located at 14404 Trip Raod, Loxahatchee, FL  33470
You can call 561-313-7202 for more details or directions.

You can also see info on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/KenariGroves

Florida Weeds: Pests or Culinary Treat

Recently I attended a weed trial workshop put on by professors from University of Florida/Belle Glade Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) office.

There were several farmers at the event and we all got to talking about the biggest weed pests here in south Florida. Surprisingly all the weeds we talked about turned out to be edible.

Purslane (pictured below): is a succulent plant with yellow flowers. It can be eaten fresh in salads or cooked and used as a thickener like Okra.

 

Lambs Quarters, a leafy green used fresh in salads, it is sometimes confused with wild Amaranth

Amaranth, also known as Callaloo, is similar to wild spinach and is best cooked. It has a red stem and different shaped leaves from Lambs Quarters.

Nutsedge Grass (related to Chufa), is gathered for it tubers or nuts which are roasted before eating.

Many of the farmers have had people from Central and South America and from the Islands pick these weeds out of their fields.

I tried some Purslane and found it surprisingly good tasting. And suggested to the farmers they get a big time chef to cook a famous dish with one of these weeds to put it on the culinary map. Then instead of using herbicides to get rid of the weeds, the farmers could grow them and make a profit. Many laughed.

Later, I saw Jodi Swank of Swank Specialty Produce selling cultivated Purslane at the West Palm Beach Green Market for $4 a bunch. She said it was a favorite with her CSA members.

Then, just the other day, I found some Purslane growing in a slightly shaded are of my yard. Salad anyone?

Bug Splatter Solution: A Florida Road Trip Story

On Saturday, my husband noticed an increase of flying Love-Bugs in the air. I thought nothing of it until Monday when I drove from Palm Beach Gardens to a farm just North of Indiantown, Florida.

As I left the security of industrial bug sprays and lawn maintenance programs the number of bug hits went on the windscreen went from just a dozen to thousands. It was like a Hitchcock movie except this time the lead characters had six legs instead of two.

I learned long ago using windshield wipers and water alone did little to clear off insect carcasses. It just liquidated the bug guts and smeared them across the windscreen in a milky paste making it even harder to see through.

Rubbing alcohol and Windex, two other suggested solvents for this problem, did no better. The best solution is soap, water, and a large scrubbing brush. But I don't often carry these items for short road trips.

I was about to pull over to clean my window when the air cleared. I was half way to Indiantown. I realized by shifting my butt slightly to the left I could see through a section of clean glass and continue.

No sooner had I made this decision than BLAM! I drove through a cloud of bugs so thick I thought I was in an insect blizzard. Their carcasses piled up so fast that I had no choice but to use my wipers.

Panic screamed in my ear as the gooey white mess of a million Love-Bug guts spread across the windscreen. I searched for a clean spot to look through and found none.

What was I going to do? Slow down. Calm my mind. Panic would only kill me.

When I calmed down an odd factoid entered my mind: Coca-Cola is so corrosive it can polish copper pennies. Well if it can do that, I thought, it can certainly dissolve bug guts. The decision was made: get to Indiantown, buy some Coke, pour in on the windscreen and see what happens.

Patiently I drove, and 20 minutes later pulled into a Circle-K gas station and parked. I bought a quart sized bottle of Coca-Cola with water chaser; I had run out of wiper fluid.

I poured the Coke on the passenger-side windscreen, in case it did more damage than good. I watched the liquid fizz at it hit the bug juice. I rubbed the surface with my hand to help the cleaning process and finished with a water rinse.

My experiment worked better than expected! The windscreen had never been so sparkly.  The rest of the bottle went to cleaning the driver-side. The only negative detail was the increase of honey Bee attention.

I made it to the farm with ease.

On the way home, I bought some more Coca-Cola and water, used it again and arrived back into civilization unscathed by my Love-Bug ordeal.