Fruit Trees in Community Patios

Here are some fruits we've seen during our community visits. It's interesting to see their evolution from flower to fruit.

Do you know what this first fruit is?

This is a guanábana! A delicious tropical fruit. The first two pictures are the flower which is quite unique.

What about this fruit? You probably are familiar with this one since you have eaten it many times.

This is cacao which is fermented to make chocolate. The first picture is the first tiny flower and fruit just blooming.

Below is the tiniest banana variety I had ever seen. Inside it had seeds, which I had also never seen in a banana before!

And here are some bats we saw hanging out in a tamarindo tree one morning.

I took these pictures in the patios of families we work with in communities on the coast of Chiapas. Families often share seeds and cuttings to interchange plants. It's part of the culture and makes for colorful, chirping, beautiful patios. We can admire and learn a lot from the natural world when we make space for biodiversity in our homes and surroundings like they do. More diversity like this is also more food security-- always having something growing that can be eaten, sold or shared.