Organic 'Papaya' from my Home Garden !!

It is believed that papaya was considered previously as an exotic and rare fruit, but now is available at most of the times in a year. It is also known as 'Papaws' or 'Pawpaws'.

Papaya is native to Mexico, however now it grows in many countries including India. 

It is one of the best breakfast fruit served in many catering establishments. It's sweet taste, vibrant color, and the wide variety of health benefits make them a popular fruit.

➥ It improves eye's health. Zeaxanthin, an antioxidant found in papaya, filters out the harmful blue light rays.

➥ It lowers the risk of asthma due to the nutrients (especially beta-carotene) 

➥ It regulates diabetes and improves bone health.

➥ Papaya is very good food for digestion due to the enzyme called 'papain' present in the fruit.

➥ It prevents heart disease. 

➥ It is good for the skin and it can heal the burn areas as well.

It also has many other indirect health benefits, however papaya has few strong nutrients which triggers to benefit for the health. Papaya is rich in Vitamin A, Vitamin B, Vitamin K, Vitamin E, fiber, copper, magnesium, folate, Calcium, lycopene.

Papaya can be eaten in ripe form as well as raw form. Ripe papaya is eaten as fruit, shake, juice, and other sweet dishes.

We are blessed to have this wonderful fruit in our home garden and it grows throughout the year. Sharing some lovely pictures of papaya plants..

 

Two different species of papaya in our garden

Organic 'Custard Apple' from my home garden !!

 Custard Apple (or, Cherimoya) is round or cone shaped green colored fruit with scaly skin and sweet & creamy flesh. Due to it's creamy texture it is known as 'Custard Apple'. It is often eaten with  a spoon or served chilled like custard. 

In Hindi language it is called as 'Sitafal' and in Bengali, we call it as 'Attaa'. 

Custard Apple has a sweet taste similar to other tropical fruits, like banana and pineapple.

It is very rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals. It has many health benefits...

➥ It is very high in anti-oxidants, which fights free radicals in your body. 

➥ It may boost your mood. Custard Apple is an excellent source of Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine).

➥ It may benefit eye health. Cherimoya is rich in carotenoid  antioxidant lutenin, which is one of the main antioxidants in your eyes that maintain healthy vision. 

➥ It promotes good digestion system, because of the dietary fiber. 

➥ It may fight inflammation due to it's antioxidant properties.

➥ It may boost your immunity system as cherimoya is loaded with Vitamin C.

➥ It also helps to regulate high blood pressure, due to the nutrients such as magnesium, potassium present in it. 

Blessed to have the custard apple trees in my organic home garden. here are few looks of them...

Although, custard apple has many health benefits, however it contains certain amount of toxic compounds. The toxin named, annonacin, can affect the human brain and nervous system. Hence it is advisable to remove the seeds and skins (which contain annonacin) completely to enjoy this lovely fruit. 

Organic Guava Trees from my Garden !!

 GUAVA, one of the tropical fruit widely grown in many tropical and sub-tropical regions. 

There are many varieties of guava grown in countries; in 2019, India was the largest producer of guava with 41% of its total production in the world.  

Guava can be eaten as salad, or as raw mixed with salt and pepper, or sometimes with the mix of spices (red chilly powder, salt, cumin powder) to add the taste. Guava is also used as juice form; mostly used as punch (mocktail/cocktail). 

Guava is known to have many health benefits with it's nutritional values. It is rich in dietary fiber,  potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, vitamin-C, and certain B-complex vitamins as well. 

Because of it's high level of pectin, guavas are extensively used to prepare preserves, jellies, jams, marmalades, and candies. 

With such a high level of usefulness, sharing the guavas from my organic fruits garden. 

Picture Courtesy to Self...

Organic - Chilly Garden !!

 A spice which has no comparison when it comes to use, is Chilly. There is no substitute of Chilly - one of the key ingredient used in almost all types of cooking. It is mainly used to add the spiciness to the dishes. 

Chilies are widely grown in India, Mexico, China, Turkey. Chilies are like pods, technically berries. They can be used as fresh in cooking (like vegetables). Sometimes whole chilly pods are dried and used in cooking as dry chilly. Sometimes the same dried chilies are crushed and used as Chilly powder. 

There are wide varieties of chillies grown in many countries, however today I am going to show you few varieties of chilly grown in my own organic vegetable garden.

We have a special chilly species, called 'Suryamukhi Chilly'. As the name indicates, this species of chilly always faces pointing upwards like sunflower. When it is green it looks white (rather very light green), and when it ripens turns to yellow and then red. The maximum length of 2 centimeters and half centimeter wide. 

Another species of yellow chilly

When it comes to the nutritional value, green chilly has ample amount of Vitamin-C in it, also in another variety of chilly, peppers are rich source of Vitamin - B6.

Picture Courtesy to Self...

Organic 'PLANTAIN' Garden !!

 Banana is one of the very popular and widely available fruit grown in almost all countries. Banana can be eaten ripen as a fruit, or in dessert. It can also be cooked in raw form for many delicious preparations. 

There are many varieties of banana grown across the globe - green, yellow, red, purple, and brown. Some bananas are with seeds whereas most of the species are seedless. 

In every house or hotels you will definitely find this fruit as a part of meal to offer either as whole fruit or as dessert.

In a survey in 2017, it was declared that India and China were the highest banana producers in the world, which was approximately 38% of the total production.

Banana is also well-known for its health benefits - it is rich in fiber, Vitamin B6, and Potassium, Manganese, Magnesium. It also has iron, phosphorus, Vitamin- B1, B2, B3, B5, Vitamin C, Zinc.

Banana helps to keep away the constipation problem and it is very useful for the people who does hit the gym regularly. 

Here I am showing few samples of home grown banana from my own organic garden. 

Picture Courtesy to Self...

White species of Asian Pegionwings !!

 Yet another species of Asian Pegionwings, which we mostly call it as 'Aparajita' flower. In my previous post I have shown the purple flower of this species from my home garden which is purely organic.

Here are some white pegionwings flowers from my own garden. 

Picture courtesy to self...

Asian Pegionwings (Aparajita) - Beautiful Flower !!

 Asian Pegionwings, we mostly call it as 'Aparajita' flower. In India, this flower is widely popular as one of the holi flower and is used in many puja's. 

The shape of this flower is imagined to be the human female genitals, hence the latin name of the flower is called as 'Clitoria Tarnetae'.  

The beautiful purple flower, tiny shaped upto 4 centimeters (approx) length, bloomed in the greener plant. Some species are white colour as well. It is believed to be a very useful herb (flower) in ayurveda. 

It has the medicinal properties such as fever, gastritis, nausea, vomiting, bleeding, skin problem, throat problem, and many more..

The above pictures of Aparajita Flowers are from my own home garden......