Its a Miracle!
Our Miracle Fruit Seedling
begins to grow.

On our recent trip to the rainforest Terry and I took a quick tour of Robin’s Organic fruit tree farm, perched precariously on the steep uphill side of the road. After climbing several hundred feet up to his rental eco-cabin and back down to his house, we were rewarded with fresh fruit and some rare treats.

First we sampled sprouted coconut, the light airy “puffed up” insides of a coconut that has recently sprouted. I’m not a big fan of those dry flakey white shavings that are sprinkled on cakes and whatnot, but this stuff was really good. The big surprise was still to come.

Just to set us up, Robin had us try some sour grapefruit, and some limon. They were tasty, but certainly puckered your mouth. Then we each tried a small unremarkable red fruit about the size of a cherry that hadn’t quite reached maturity. It didn’t really taste like much of anything, and hardly had any meat on it. We pretty much sucked on the single seed. After this, we tried the grapefruit and limon again. Unbelievable! I’ve never tasted lemonade sweeter than this unadulterated limon.

The shriveled little berry from Africa turns out to be remarkable after all. Called The Miracle Fruit, it’s filled with molecules that block sour taste receptors. For an hour after eating one, you can taste all the natural sugars in otherwise sour fruits, beverages, or other dishes, but nothing sour.

We smuggled home two magic seeds, taking care to wash off any saliva that might hinder germination, planted them in little pots and waited. Eventually we had to stop holding our breath. After a couple weeks, still nothing. We got worried. Maybe we’d buried our miracle beans too deep. I started slowly escavating the top layers of potting soil. A tiny leafless stem appeared, maybe all was not lost! A few days later now, our miracle fruit tree has a few open leaves and is stretching toward the sun. The second one still hasn’t germinated, but we haven’t given up hope. And hey, Jack only needed one beanstalk, right!