Wow, this week was very yummy! Want to find out why? Just keep on reading.

There is nothing more satisfying in the culinary world than savoring the fruit of your labor, literally! We have found out that although different fruit has different flavors, those flavors get enhanced when you are actually growing the edibles yourself. The extra care, the love placed into the soil, yes, because it all starts with good soil and that is something that takes a while to build up. Then, working on the eco-friendly environment where your plants are--it all comes to full circle when you get to harvest and eat your goods. 

We have been working on our garden for a few years. As far as my understanding goes, it is very hard to grow some things, due to the type of soil in SoCal. I believe it has to do with the salt due to being so close to the ocean, and plus the droughts, which are a pain in the buns, especially during the summer. They have been forecasting rain for three days for the past three days, and lucky us, the desert got it all, whaaaaaaat? I know!

I have been watching my husband work the soil in our garden for a few years, and now, it's so great! It's dark and lovely, and has loads of wormies to help with the composting part. It is also interesting to see how when you grow an organic garden, you get all sorts of insects. The bad of course, but also the good ones that help control the bad ones. I was never much into gardening, mainly because I was always too busy working and did not give myself the time to do it. However, I have learned a lot from my husband's passion of gardening and I truly love it and enjoy it with all my heart. I honestly can't wait for us to move to a lot big enough to create our own fruit forest and organic farm. It will be such a yummy and healthy adventure.


Talking about adventures in the garden, I also got to try the surinam cherry for the first time. I gave this tree to my husband for our 3rd wedding anniversary a few years ago, and finally this year, it gave fruit. I am sure I shared the photos of those flowers in a previous blog, but in case you did not see that post, here they are again. 



It's really interesting to see how the flower starts transforming into something delicious. Ha! My husband was hoping I was not going to like the fruit, but he got lucky, I did and now he has to share, hahaha. Unlike your typical store bought cherry, this one does not have that much meat in it. It has 3 huge seeds that technically divide the inside of the cherry. However, the meat it does have, is tart, and very delicious. We were just afraid that since it was just one fruit at this time, that maybe a bird was going to beat me to it, hehehe. I was really curious about how it tasted, I was patient, I waited for over 3 years to try fruit from this tree. I suppose that the wait is what made the tasting even more exciting. Have you tried this fruit? 


I like fruit that looks different. It gives me the opportunity to share with my family and have a nice gathering of savory discoveries. What has been the most exotic fruit you've tried? I have to confess that because of where I come from, once I moved here to San Diego, with all the diversity both in residents and in the culinary culture, the most exotic fruit I've had has been the Dragon Fruit. I know they have it in Mexico too, but I had never seen it in a grocery store before, less tried it. They don't really sell it in the region where I grew up. They have the Tunas, which are the prickly pears, and a member of that plant family, but not quite the dragon fruit. It's interesting that sometimes we don't pay attention to what we have available at stores, until you actually move and explore. We do have starfruit (carambola) and soursop (chirimoya) in Mexico, but I guess I was just not curious enough and the prices were ridiculous to adventure myself. Yup, it is funny how Mexico grows all of these edibles and yet we, as Mexicans, don't really get to eat them, because they are way expensive over other things like apples and oranges; c'est la vie! At least now I am glad I got to try them, because that way I get to know what I like and what I don't like, and plan ahead on what we want to grow in our future farm too.



Right now, we have a pomegranate tree, two ice-cream bean trees, about 4 different figs, three cherries, including the surinam that I just shared about. We also have a "saturn" peach tree, an apple tree, a cavandish dwarf banana, a chirimoya tree, a mandarin tree, three different types of lime trees, and a whole bunch of other yummies growing too like; blueberries, peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, cucumbers, lemon balm, swiss chard, moringa, and other green goodies growing at the skirts of the rest of the plants. Not bad for a very small garden hu? More like a tiny jungle, lol. 

Something New

As you all know, in our search for happiness, we try doing things that makes us happy. For my husband that is gardening and cooking, and for me, it is my art. While we do these things to disconnect from the daily stressors of society, why not try to make those loving hobbies productive to right? It's all for the ultimate purpose of obtaining our farm, and sharing happiness with everyone.


So for those of you who do not know, I am an artist at society6, and I am very happy to be able to create some beautiful pieces, either by drawing/painting or by photography, which end up in fun useful products that you can take home with you.

This week, I designed some pieces that are leaning more into the inspirational side, having all of you wonderful people in mind.


Not only that, but if you use this link to purchase any of the products in my Society6 shop, you will get free shipping on everything there + 10% off wall decor like prints, framed art, tapestries, and wall-clocks. 

Offer expires on August 7th, 2016 midnight pacific time.
Here is the promo link:
https://society6.com/justhappiling?promo=HYVM3QBG7V2H

Oh and thank you for all your support on this matter. Every sale contributes to keep up this blog, and to share more happy content, plus towards our dream goal. We are even thinking that if this works out, we might be joining the tiny house community. How about that?

Thank you once again for visiting Just Happiling this week. Remember that if you want to follow James to see what he is up to in The Lopez Garden, you can follow via Instagram @thelopezgarden. To see what we are up to at Just Happiling, you can follow us on IG too @justhappiling. Plus if you just want to see our newest products from society6 you can follow @justhappiling.art on IG as well. 

Do you like beautiful photography, and would like to get inspired by some of the wonders of Mexico? Follow one of our dearest friends and guest photographer in his traveling adventures on IG at @ceniza_13. 

 
Have a wonderful and adventurous weekend my friends!
XOXO






Disclaimer: We were not compensated in any way to write this blog post. All images are protected by copyright laws and belong to Just Happiling, unless stated otherwise, like in the case of our guest photographer @Ceniza_13. You do not have the right to use these photos without our written consent and may not use for any purposes. All written content on this post is the property of Just Happiling, and may not be copied, or reposted on another blog without written consent from our team.