I would like to ship weed mat to Belize next year and it would be a lot easier if there is a source in Tampa or Miami that could deliver to the port.  Does anyone know of a place that sells it by the roll, like 300m x 4m I think is a standard roll.

Here is all I can find out from Google searching:

It is from Kalimantan, Borneo and is named Gitaan.  The species name is Leuconotis corpidae and it is in the Apocynaceae family.

Does anyone know anything more about this fruit?  Is is from a shrub, tree or vine?  Is it acidic and or sweet?

Here is a user-friendly way to eat from this nutritious, legume.   The link has nice photos and a full description, but basically you bash up a ripe pod, boil and stir in water, strain, mix with milk and sugar, chill and then serve with ice.

http://rightsideguide.com/fresco-of-the-year-carao-aka-stinking-toe/

I plan to plant craboo (Byrsonima crassifolia) near my house because I can cut off all the limbs up to 7 feet and that will have no negative effect on my harvest.  In fact, all the head room will allow me to easily rake the ground clean under the tree just before the fruits start dropping. 
What other good fruits are always taken from the ground?

How many years before a maprang (Bouea macrophylla and/or B. oppositifolia) seedling and/or clone bears fruit? 

Also, is there another common name for B. oppositifolia? 

This is one of my wife's favourite foods and it uses a poisonous fruit from a tree that grows in a swamp. 





The fresh fruit and seeds contain hydrogen cyanide and are deadly poisonous if consumed without prior preparation. The seeds are first boiled and then buried in ash, banana leaves and earth for forty days, during which time, they turn from a creamy white colour to dark brown or black.[9] The method relies on the fact that the hydrogen cyanide released by the boiling and fermentation is water soluble and easily washed out.  (from wikipedia)

After the fermentation:

Open the seed, clean off the kernel and taste it.  If it is bitter, throw it away and try another.  Once you have 3 with no bitterness, soak them in hot water for 10 minutes.  Now you are ready to begin.
Boil 500g of beef in 2 L of water, remove from cooking water and then chop it up into bite sized pieces.  (Retain cooking water)
Grind the Pangium edule seed kernels with some water, 2 candle nuts, 4 shallots, 3 garlic cloves, turmeric, sweet pepper, coriander seed and tamarind flesh in a Javanese spice grinder or equivalent.  Stir fry this mixture for a minute or so.
Add 4 kaffir lime leaf and one stalk of lemon grass and fry for another minute.
Add beef piecess and fry for 2 minutes stirring constantly.
Put everything from the stir fry pan into the water that the beef was cooked in and then boil until the beef is very tender (15 min or so)
Serve with rice, sambal and very short sprouted mung beans.

Klakah Grapes

I have a 7 yr old article written about a durio collector in West Malaysia (pasted below).  I am thinking of doing the long trip up to his farm on my next stopover in a few weeks.  Has anyone been to this place?  Also, has anyone ever heard of a purple durio before?

   Channel NewsAsia 14 Dec 05
Malaysian farmer cultivates colourful durians
By ASEAN News Exchange

JITRA : In many parts of Southeast Asia, the durian is known as the king of the fruits.

In Malaysia, one farmer has spent 20 years experimenting on durians and he has cultivated purple, red and orange durians.

His two-hectare fruit orchard in Jitra, a town in the Malaysian state of Kedah, sees scores of visitors dropping by each day. They are all there to admire the durians grown by Mr Mohd Sofi Ibrahim, a former school teacher turned fruit farmer.

For the past 20 years, he has travelled to the jungles all over East and West Malaysia, as well as Brunei and Indonesia, to gather different types of durians to add to his collection.

Today, his orchard is home to 150 durian trees and boasts 72 varieties.

His favourites are the wild durians, which surprisingly smell more like jackfruits. Mr Mohd Sofi said: "The wild durian is different from the others. Its size is smaller than the normal durians and does not have the distinctive smell of the fruit."

Not only that, Mr Mohd Sofi also managed to cultivate durians of various shades. Apart from the usual rich cream colours, his fruits come in hues of purple, red and orange!

Although he has received many calls to produce his durians for commercial trade, Mr Mohd Sofi has steadfastly refused to do so. Instead, he prefers to donate his durian fruits to orphanages around Kedah and other nearby Malaysian states. - CNA/de

I know some people hate the word "hate", so:  What fruit do you like the least or dislike the most?

I think that among fruits that don't physically hurt my mouth, I dislike velvet apple (Diospyros blancoi) the most.

My wife hates ripe papayas (though she likes to cook them unripe).

The sour ones can most definitely only be used for the famous salt pickle that everyone here loves, but I was curious about the "sweet" type.  Today I found it.  It has an odd taste, is a bit sweet and still quite acidic but really irritates the throat and lips.  I will be using this one in a pickle too.

I think I am doing these plants a dis-service by calling them all the same thing.  Does anyone know better names for these Lecythis species?

Also, does anyone know which one is in the park in Hilo, Hawaii (Oscar?)
Going further out on a limb, does anyone know which Paradise nut is planted in the gov't compound above the Botanical Garden in Roseau, Dominica?

I can't remember eating the one in Hilo, but the one in Dominica is one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted. Unfortunately, finding the seeds on the ground is like picking mushrooms, in that one has a very hard time seeing them amongst fallen leaves if doing it for the first time.

Paradise nut A -  Lecythis zabucajo
Paradise nut B - Lecythis pisonis
Paradise nut C1 - Lecythis elliptica
Paradise nut C2 -  Lecythis ollaria
Paradise nut C3 - Lecythis paraensis

I am only familiar with Couepia polyandra from a single tree in Belize where the fruit is known as baboon cap.   If the fruit is perfectly ripe, it tastes quite nice, like butterscotch.  I don't mind the thin flesh as the tree produces plenty of fruit, but it only loses its astringency just before it is ripe.  It only tastes good for less than a day before it goes over-ripe.  It is not easy to get the fruit at just the right stage, and if it is still astringent, it is extremely astringent.  I wonder if any breeding has improved the tree elsewhere.