It's a miracle..!

Would you believe me if I told you Clint ate a whole lemon the other day and it actually tasted sweet like sugar?!

Yep, true story!

How is that possible? Lemons are super sour and tart and couldn't possibly taste sweet! Right..?

Well I'll tell you the secret.. first he ate a berry. 
The berry coated his mouth in this thing called Miraculin. 
Then he ate a lemon. 
The lemon tasted sweet. 
Sweet like sugar.

WOW!

Ok so the story started about 3 years ago when we first moved to the Sunshine Coast, mum visited one day and we headed to Isabel Shippard's farm in Nambour for a looky at her famous herb collection.

At the time mum had been told by her holistic doctor to stop eating sugary fruit and only eat things like lemons, grapefruit, green apples, berries etc. While at the farm she spotted a plant called Miracle Fruit and noticed the tag which said that by eating the berry of this plant it would allow you to eat sour foods and they would then taste sweet in the mouth.

Mum was shocked. Could this really be possible?! She spoke to Isabel who confirmed that the plant would in fact have this effect. She thought it'd be perfect for her on her new eating plan.

So mum bought a seedling!

Isabel said the plant would take about 2 years to fruit. Mum wasn't fazed by this. She has a balcony with no yard, so she grew the seedling in a pot. She didn't actually research how to properly care for this plant, so it took a little longer before the plant finally bore fruit. It took about 3 years!

The plant just fruited the other day! Clint and I were visiting mum to help around the house and with cooking while her broken wrist heals and she was showing me her balcony and the progress of her plants as she usually does when I visit. 

Suddenly she spotted a little red berry under the foliage of the Miracle Fruit plant.

Could it be? A berry, finally?!

Yes indeedy!

Mum had been waiting so long to find a berry on the plant but she was a little hesitant about trying it for the intended purpose. 

So Clint took it upon himself to b e the guinea pig and gave it a go!

We researched on the net a bit before he took the plunge and ate the berry and every website we came across said there are no harmful effects or side-effects from consuming this fruit, that all it does it coats your mouth with Miraculin which then turns sour into sweet. 

This was enough info for Clint to try it...

He's eaten the berry and has a wedge of lemon in hand... here goes...

Wow, look at him hoeing into that lemon! He ate the WHOLE thing and easily too! He said it tasted like sugar. Amazing!!

Then he tried a swig of coconut vinegar, which is potent stuff. He said it still burned going down but the vinegar taste was totally replaced with a sweet flavour.

Mum's like "Ok I want another berry to hurry up and grow so I can try this!"!

Next step is to wait for the plant to finish fruiting, repot it with some tips found online, and let it flourish so it'll keep growing and provide more of these amazing little berries.

So this Miracle Fruit really is miraculous! And that's the end of this blog post!

We just had to share this neat little experience with you guys :)

For more info on this plant, what it's useful for and how to grow it visit these pages:

Wikipedia
Instructables
Grow Miracle Fruit

-Aimee

5 Things I'm Grateful For:

1. How amazing nature is
2. Growing my own organic plants and using their health properties
3. Autumn weather
4. Bone broth
5. The meetup group