Cashew nuts with the fruit that is commonly referred to as 'banana'. - photos by Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

Can you imagine my utter disbelief when I went to this year's Denbigh Show and saw Macadamia nuts among fruits I previously thought were only grown in the far corners of the world, on display here, and grown by the folks at the Rural Agricultural Development Agency?

Macadamia nuts are not cheap, but we import them. They are now grown worldwide and sold shelled. So what is stopping their mass production? Since they are relatively unknown, at least local growers would have a head start on the praedial larcenists!

There were cashew fruits and plants on show too and, except for Clarendon and St Elizabeth, I don't see us growing large quantities of this other very high-priced nut either. But there are loads of it on supermarket shelves everywhere!

Delicious passion fruit

Purple passion fruit

Passion fruits were plentiful too and we know how delicious the drink is, whether home-made or commercially manufactured.

We pay too much lip service to all things progressive in Jamaica and we continue to be a country of samples, even in the face of a worldwide food crisis. We spend time criticising good suggestions rather than taking the opportunities they present for earning money. I am willing to bet that, as we speak, someone in some part of the world is putting together a plan to grow yam for export to countries that produce track and field athletes. Meanwhile, we will sit and complain and import more of what we can grow right here.

More exotic and locally grown fruits next week.

barbara.ellington@gleanerjm.com

Macadamia nuts