A few weeks ago my son and I went to Homestead to see the fruit and spice park which is part of the Miami Recreation Dept and had a wonderful meeting with Chris Rollins who runs this fascinating 35 acres. It seems the hurricanes did a lot of damage but thanks to Chris' smart thinking he had his small crew trim back much of the fruit before the storm which saved the trees. They have a great little gift shop there where they sell jams and jellies and I purchased several unusual jams such as Key Lime, Passion fruit, Mango and more. So far the best to me is the Guava jelly which has always been my favorite, my family thinks so too so we are now rationing it around here! They have a tram ride at the park and the young lady who gave the tour was so friendly and I could tell really loves her job. There was a couple from Brazil that I met and they were telling me about all the beautiful fruit in Brazil, many of which we have never seen or heard of in our country. They also have a nice display of fruit in the shop and you can taste some of the exotic varieties most of which I have had, except a fruit from India called Bale and I never saw the spelling so I could be wrong about the spelling, but I really liked it. I also had Longans there which are a cousin to the Lychee, just perhaps smaller and brown instead of red and a bit tart but still very good. I have this exotic in my yard but the top froze out of it last year as I was not able to cover the very top of the plant. It is doing well now though. My son got to taste his first coconut which was a great thing for a father to see. We met my good friend Ron Weeks there and really had the time of our life as we have been friends for over 30 years , Ron is a world plant explorer so we heard of great tales of super trips and we had so much fun that I really want to go back next year as well. Before leaving the park Ron bought a very expensive book that I wanted but didn't want to pay for and gave it to my son for which we were very grateful but at the same time upset as I didn't want Ron to spend so much. But now since we have it is is probably the finest book I own and I am an avid book collector and have all of my books organized on their respective shelves. I have a particular interest in the exotic fruit Jabotacaba and have been intensely studying this plant for years. I have gotten them to fruit right here in Central Florida which is a rare treat for me, and I love sharing them with my friends at a dinner party. All of our fruit trees seem to be doing very well as I continue to follow my methods of feeding organically in small doses quite often.