On Sunday, we drove up to Emmagen Creek and followed the path back from a huge strangler fig to the swimming hole.  We had read at the Bat House that someone had seen some cassowaries here recently, but still no luck for us.  North of the creek is 4-wheel-drive only, and the route continues north to Cooktown.  In the afternoon, we head to Cape Trib Exotic Fruit Farm for their tasting.  They have orchards of exotic fruit, and their own food forest as well as a vegetable garden.  This self-sufficiency has arisen from the owners’ arrival back in a time when Cape Trib was truly isolated.  They had to build the house from scratch, and the ongoing work to create the Fruit Farm has been a labor of love.  Most of the fruit we tasted was South American, so some we’d had before, but it was great to learn about how and where the fruit grows and matures, and how to pick out and eat it.  We sampled a giant jackfruit, their first of the season, which had the consistency of a slippery bubblegum.  It was super sweet, and had about eight times the calories of a banana…a super energy fruit for sure.  We also had soursop, star apple, white sapote, sapodilla (my favorite, it reminds be of a figgy brown sugar), Tahitian lime, ice cream bean, jaboticaba, abiu and rollinia.  After the tasting we finished up any leftover fruit, each person gravitating toward their personal favorite.  Then there was a walk around the permaculture orchard to see the trees and some of the grounds.

For more crazy fruits