Grosella is an endemic fruit tree which produces a small, yellowish acidic berry, which is sold in bags with salt an pepper as a snack. They can also be pickled, candied, or even turned into a wine.
Jose María is Planet Drum’s contact in the Astillero neighborhood where we are producing large quantities of compost. He has a big Grosella tree in his backyard with fruits overflowing from its branches. Jose María uses the under-ripe Grosella fruits for pickling and the ripe ones for making wine. Planet Drum wanted all of the damaged, over-ripe, and dried up fruits for seeds.
After setting tarps under the tree, we climbed into the branches and shook them vigorously. Then the fruits that had fallen onto the tarps were sorted for the various uses.
Hundreds (thousands?) of seeds were collected for tree production, as well as several 5-gallon buckets of berries for pickling and wine making. Some of the seeds will be planted in the seedbeds at the Astillero, others will be taken to the seedbeds at the greenhouse at the Catholic University.
Reader Interactions