Tropical Edibles

 Regular readers will know that 'Matron doesn't do flowers!'.. so relax because this is a young pomegranate growing in the Jardim Botanico in Madeira.  There is a whole section devoted to agricultural tropical fruit and veggies.

 You can see that when the flower is pollinated...

 It gradually grows into something I would recognize as a baby pomegranate.

 And coffee beans on bushes here can be recognized too.

 One of the big surprises to me was seeing how Macademia Nuts grow.  An ENORMOUS evergreen tree towering above us with clusters of these little green fruit.

 The green outer skin hardens to brown then splits.  Inside the brown skin is a hard brown nut. Inside the hard, round nut is the macademia nut.  You have to be a most determined squirrel to get into one of these, but still there were plenty of empty nut shells on the ground with tell tale holes nibbled in them!

And these delicious 'Custard Apples' are growing everywhere on the Island of Madeira. Known and sold locally as Anonas, the texture is a bit like a very soft, white mango, but tastes like a cross between an apple and vanilla custard! If you've never tried one, go to a specialist shop and buy one. Just make sure they are nice and ripe first!