I Hear an ECHO
By Kathleen Walls
ECHO (Educational
Concerns for Hunger Organization) introduces you to some of the strangest plants and
animals you will ever meet.
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The Miracle Fruit Photo Credit Scott Zona |
You can sample
produce like guavas, cassava, Carabola, called the star fruit because of its star shape
when sliced and experience the taste changes caused by the Miracle Fruit. When you chew
this berry first, lemons and other sour or bitter food will taste sweet. Who wouldn't love
the Peanut Butter Fruit?
You will visit a
simulated tropical rainforest, learn to cook with a solar cooker, pet a hairless sheep or
a Nubian Goat, view barnyard animals like chickens, rabbits and ducks, see Blue Talapia
swimming in a pond. You can crush a pod of the
Lipstick Tree which is used for food coloring. Watch the iguanas frolic in a semi-arid
garden environment. [For those of you who are familiar with south Florida, you will know
creating the illusion of a semi-arid anything is miraculous.]
All this is interesting
to visitors but it serves a greater purpose. ECHO believes it is better to give a hand up
rather than a hand out. They are busy developing simple agricultural techniques and
producing better seeds and more profitable livestock for the third world farmers who often
live on a subsistence plot. They provide learning opportunities for missionaries and other
agencies who strive to improve the plight these farmers.
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Lipstick tree Credit Kathleen Walls |
At their test
farm in North Fort Myers ECHO experiments with such plants as the Moringa tree and the
winged bean. The Moringa is known as "mother's best friend." Its leaves provide
a calcium and vitamin rich baby food and supplement for nursing mothers, the young pods
and roots can be eaten. The foliage can feed livestock. Because of its fast growth, the
trees can be planted to provide a living fence to protect the family garden. The winged
bean provides a "supermarket on a stalk." The leaves can be eaten like spinach,
the pods like green beans and blossoms are delicious raw or fried. The dried beans are a
substitute for butter or oil.
Because subsistence
farmers in third world countries have few resources, the farm experiments with simple
techniques such as using an old bicycle to power an irrigation system made with bamboo
stalks. It makes use of empty soft drink cans to cover tomato beds. It demonstrates the
efficiency of a tri-level rabbit cage. The roof covered with old tires used as roof
planters, the cage floor made of a small wire mesh and the ground beneath used as a small
scale fertilizer factory where plant matter is mixed with the rabbit dung is a curiosity
to us but a lifesaver to third world farmers.
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Moringa Photo Credit Xufanc |
In order to pass
the knowledge and seeds to those who need them most requires help from those who have the
most. Volunteer graduate students spend a year
there learning the farm. Then they have the option to spend a three months in Haiti as
missionaries. Other people help with tours,
computer work or any of the dozens of tasks that are needed to run the program. All told,
over one hundred volunteers from all walks of life, participate.
ECHO provides seeds and
information to over 140 countries and has one of the largest collections of tropical food
plants in Florida.. You can purchase some of these unusual seeds as well as books on how
to grow things at their Edible Landscape Nursery and Bookshop.
Whether you have a
green thumb or a black one, you will enjoy this tour. Tours of their demonstration farm
are offered for $10 for adults and $5 children.
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Peanut Butter Fruit Photo credit Asit K. Ghosh |
Times of tourss: April
through November: one guided tour at 10 a.m. Tue., Fri., and Sat.
December through
March: tours at 10 a.m., noon, and 2 p.m. Tue.-Fri. Sat. 10 a.m. &
noon.
Tours take approximately 2 hours. Reservations cannot
be made for the public tour. Please arrive early to fill and sign a registration
form and secure a spot on the tour. Times may change so
call to check. (239) 567-3319.
For more info:
http://www.echonet.org
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