Category: Uncategorized
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The Season of Papaya
Last August, I excitedly potted up several papaya seedlings that had taken root in my compost pile. Less than a year later & those “trash trees” are ready to soon offer their versatile fruit🤲🏾 Papaya is at the top of my growing list of trees that fruit in under a year in the subtropics. It’s…
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Summer Wardrobe Upgrade
Summer growing just got a lot more tolerable💁🏾 The net won’t stop mosquitoes from biting me through my clothes😖, but they can no longer have my face & neck😠 I FULLY understand why most people in the South take a break from growing in the Summer, but that’s not something I’m comfortable doing since I…
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Tree Peas
I already knew I was strange. I love harvesting legumes. I love eating them even more😋! Every time someone asks, “🤔If you don’t eat dead animals, how do you get protein?” I know they haven’t even begun to explore the expansive legume family. One of my new favorites- both for taste & ease of cultivation-…
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One Year to Fruit
Last Summer I shared my first season of successful jocote air layering. Less than one year later & that same jocote tree has begun to grow fruit🤲🏾 When you start learning to grow food, one of the first things you’ll hear is that it takes SO long before your first harvest from fruit trees. It’s…
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Edible Groundcover
I professed my appreciation for sweet potato plants a couple years ago (https://mahabafarms.us/2023/10/02/sweet-potato-summers-hero/). Since then, I’ve only become more convinced of the wonders of sweet potato growing. Now that temperatures are warmer, I am aggressively propagating sweet potato plants & spreading them all over the farm. They’re not just excellent ground cover- actively smothering the…
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“You Can’t Grow Figs Here!”
It’s no surprise that my contrarian nature also applies to my style of farming😝 Though it didn’t start out this way, part of Mahaba Farms’s mission has become to reintroduce diversity to my little patch of Earth. When I started the farm mid-2023, I quickly became bored by the local nursery offerings- each with the…
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Local Dragonfruit Cultivation With Indigenous Guidance
Local practice would dictate I grow dragonfruit (a.k.a. pitaya) on a trellis constructed of wood & cemented into the ground. I believe that even if one removes the burden of labor, this cultivation method has several shortcomings, but to each their own. For me, building a structure to RESEMBLE a tree for the naturally epiphytic…
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Chocolate Pudding Fruit
Black sapote (pronounced ‘sa-poe-TAY’) or “chocolate pudding fruit” is (in South Florida) a rare tropical fruit I’m grateful to have been able to enjoy on a few different occasions. Native to Central America, the fruits are variably sweet, but always with hints of cocoa in the custardy flesh. They are high in fiber; a good…
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Portable Pump of My Dreams
Since designing & installing the electrical system in my ambulance to RV conversion this past Summer, I’ve gained the confidence to take on smaller electrical projects in order to create ease or increase efficiency. In the case of designing a portable, rechargeable water pump, both ease & efficiency would be addressed. I make my own…
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Signs of Summer
All around the farm, there are signs that Summer is near. My first Blanket flowers (Gaillardia) are in bloom🙌🏾 Sunflowers aren’t yet blooming, but their sturdy stalks are popping up around the farm now. I’ve been sowing them generously every other week with visions of continuous sunflower bouquets in mind🤩 The avocado trees I planted…
Mahaba Farms 