Where can I find a list of fruit trees that grow in the Amazon?
I’m currently eating a mostly raw vegan diet, and I’m trying to transition to fruitarian diet. But I live in Northern Europe, and the fruit options here are very limited. Obviously I’d be better living some place topical, and I’ve been seeing some posts from some sustainable communities in South America.
Specifically, there seems to be many permaculture projects in the Amazon that are able to grow their own fruits in fruit-heavy forest gardens. I’ve learned about a lot of new exotic fruits from some of their videos, but what I really want is a comprehensive list of all the fruits that one can grow in the Amazon.
Does anyone know where I can find a list of fruits that grow in the Amazon (native and non-native)?
Are you referring to a garden like this one?.
A garden like that won’t sustain a massive variety or quantity of fruits, if that’s what you are thinking. You’d need to balance fruit with other plants that support each other, such as nitrogen fixers. I think I’ve seen number of 40-50 varieties of cultivated plants in these gardens at most, and not most of them being fruit.
You didn’t mention where you live in northern europe, but I live in a place that fluctuates between -40C to +40C and am still able to grow using the food forest type principles (not all my garden space uses it, but I have a few tree guilds). I grow berries, cucumbers, squash, apples and tomatoes.
Fruit is not an efficient way to grow calories in terms of space and the inputs it needs, so you are unlikely to be able to find a method of growing enough calories from fruit without intensive industrial agriculture.
There’s a great agroforestry community in Ecuador (Lumicon) that has a list on their website of over 200 plants that they grow.
Many of them are fruit trees, and it also includes many natural and native species to the region, which is in Napo provence – that’s the Ecuadorian Amazon Jungle.
They’re also a frugivorous vegan community, so you may want to check them out :)
