Reflections on the beauty of pick-your-own fruit

These days, when everything comes conveniently wrapped at the supermarket, it can be really refreshing (and a massive privilege) to get closer to the food we’re eating.

This is particularly true for the kids that visit Wildwood who love to get their hands dirty and learn about how things grow. The chance to pick any ripe fruit in a huge orchard full of dozens of different choices and then munch it can be really exciting!

I’ve written before about the magic of being in the forest as a family, and have been reflecting on the connection to nature that comes with picking ripe, delicious, juicy fruit to eat straight from the tree.

We’ve got so many unusual plants here, from jaboticaba with its fruit growing straight from the trunk to jawdroppingly huge jackfruit, chocolate pudding fruit and loads more.

Jackfruit

We’re so lucky to live in a country where so much grows: we’ve got 15 fruits here on the property which are all native too.

Visiting as a family can help kids to learn about this incredible rainforest and give them the chance to try something truly out of the ordinary!

Bananas

Jaboticaba

We love welcoming guests - and they love it here

Amazing news! We've retained our brilliant review score from Booking.com... we absolutely love welcoming guests to Wildwood and it seems like they quite like it here too!

We recently had this amazing review that I had to share: “We were looking for our first stress-free rainforest experience when we found Wildwood. A wonderfully furnished cabin in the middle of jungle was just what we had in our mind. We did our grocery shopping in Cairns before we arrived in cape Tribulation, as timely advised by our host Sheree. The cabin had all the essentials we needed during our stay. Few cafes and ocean Safari tours office are around the corner (15 min walk).

We enjoyed exploring the inhouse fruit orchard (thanks Jason for showing us around) and tasting few of them. We did the ocean Safari reef snorkeling tour. Highly recommended! We also just took time off doing board walks and the jungle walk which starts right behind the cabin is the best of them all. It is not boarded though but gives a nice jungle feeling.

The nights were also uniquely amazing, sleeping to the rain and jungle noises. All in all, highly recommended. Will do it again if we happen to be around.”

Be inspired - to be inspired!

I’m always very proud of how inspiring our guests find their time at Wildwood - the peace and the beauty really help creativity to flow.

Being off-grid really helps, especially as we only recently started to get mobile reception on the property.

As a result we’ve had a lot of writers visit over the years and also seen many guests create brilliant artworks for us, like this sketch below (so good we made it the main image for our blog section).

One of my favourites was the living sculpture which one guest put together from fruits, nuts and seeds from the forest… such a feast for the senses, which is exactly what a stay in the rainforest can feel like!

Putting a spring in your step!

Springtime is such a fantastic time to visit the Daintree Rainforest!

It's an amazing place for bird lovers - some of which have travelled from Papua New Guinea to make the most of the amazing flowers and wildlife. There's so much bursting into life all around us: my favourites are the black bean flower, the vibrant ginger (pictured below) and the heliconias, which are quirkily known as lobster claws.

Have a listen to this short clip to transport you to the rainforest…

Clean power for the Daintree

We’re celebrating the news that the Daintree Rainforest area, including Cape Tribulation, is going to get its very own renewable energy microgrid in the not-too-distant future.

It’s an amazing opportunity for our little corner of Queensland: work is going to start this year on the Daintree Microgrid Project which will be up and running by 2024, bringing us cheaper and more reliable power!

Though we generate most of our own power from solar here at Wildwood, the region relies heavily on diesel generators. According to this article, Warren Entsch, Member for Leichhardt, says it will save about 6 million litres of diesel.

The first stage of the project will cover the area north of the Alexandra Range up to Cape Trib. Power generated by new and existing solar panels will be fed into the microgrid and turned into hydrogen, which will power about 700 homes. And, to respect and protect the rainforest’s fragile ecosystem, it will all be transported by underground cables along roadways and the generator station is going to built on previously cleared land at Cow Bay.

Such good news for us, the Daintree Rainforest and for the planet.

"Outstanding hospitality in the face of challenges”

We are delighted to have received Booking.com’s Traveller Review Award once again this year for "consistently exceeding travellers’ expectations"!

Their letter to us said: “Your hard work, patience & understanding allowed guests to still be able to enjoy their travel plans in a time of so much uncertainty. This is reflected in the wonderful review scores you earned!”

Thanks to everyone who has stayed in the past 12 months and left glowing reviews to help this small business make it through a global pandemic - it's hugely appreciated.

Our mangosteens are back

After plenty of rainfall and sunshine, our beautiful mangosteens are ripening. We have just eaten the first few and can confirm they are delicious!

Mangosteen season is always a massive draw for guests so if you’re a fan, January is a great time to book a stay at Wildwood to stroll the orchard and eat as many as you can!

Such beautiful flowers

Warning: free-range children crossing

I’ve written about the romance here at Wildwood and also our amazing orchard that’s full of surprises, but I wanted to share with you the magic of being in the forest for the whole family.

One of my favourite things about being in the Daintree is witnessing the beauty of children being surrounded by nature and losing themselves in it.

There’s so much to do around Cape Trib that it’s easy to get immersed in nature without even trying to, whether that’s painting their bare chests with mud after a dip in Emmagen Creek or stopping to check out the stick insects on the pandanus leaves that smell of peppermint (yes really!).

It really IS a magical place for children where their imaginations can come to life – if they like bug hunting, there’s so much to discover, or they can learn to make campfires, run on the sand, create crazy driftwood sculptures or just sit and draw what they see around them.

For us it’s somewhere where I see my kids discovering their wild side and going feral with their friends, with the space to run and jump and shout as much as they like.

Where else can you pick fruit together and eat it with your bare hands while you’re still wet from a swim in the creek? And it’s so fun to hear all the sounds of nature and learn to spot the different bird calls, and recognise some of the incredible plant life we’re surrounded by. Definitely a place where children can be free range!

Ochre painting by the creek

All hail the miracle fruit

Have you heard about miracle fruit? This seemingly innocent evergreen shrub has the magical power of making any sour foods you eat after trying it taste sweet!

I did some internet research and discovered that this is due to a glycoprotein called miraculin, which - though it doesn't taste sweet itself - binds to receptors on the taste buds to trick your brain and make it perceive acidic foods to be sweet. Apparently, it was first recorded in 1725 by French explorer Reynaud Des Marchais in West Africa who realised that the locals would consume the fruit to make bland breads taste sweet.

Fascinating side note: the United States Food and Drug Administration outlawed miracle fruit in the 1960s, apparently under pressure from the sugar industry which wasn't happy with an alternative sweetener hitting the market.

Whether that's true or not, it's a great party trick to eat a berry and then lick a lemon... the effect only lasts about an hour and wears off slowly but it's an odd one and definitely worth a try! They are truly incredible and pack a punch for such a tiny berry.

If you want to find out more, this is a fascinating article about miracle fruit: https://www.botany.one/2019/05/miraculin-the-miracle-in-miracle-fruit/  

Love is in the air – and the trees!

Happy Valentine's Day from the Daintree!

We're feeling the love here - over the years, we've had lots of marriage proposals here at Wildwood and it got me thinking about how it could be our fabulous fruits growing in the orchard which make our guests feel on top of the world!

Did you know that durian is thought to be the most powerful aphrodisiac among all the fruits in the world? Others which are reported to get you feeling fruity are lychees, mangoes, watermelon, figs and of course passion fruit!

Lychee: Called the fruit of love in many Eastern countries - which may be because they're packed with goodies like copper, potassium, phosphorus, iron and suplhur. Either way, we love them!

Mango: Known as the love fruit in India, mangoes also pack a powerful punch: they're loaded with vitamin E, which helps to regulate sex hormones and boosts sex drive, as well as vits A and C.

Watermelon: According to this article, watermelon is a rich source of the non-essential amino acid citrulline which relaxes and dilates blood vessels - though it's concentrated in the rind, and you'd need to eat A LOT of it to get the desired effect.

Figs: They get a mention in the Bible as one of the fruits in the Garden of Eden and, while they're not necessarily an aphrodisiac, they've got lots of healthy antioxidants flavonoids and polyphenols that can make you feel great!

Passion fruit: These purple beauties are in season right now so I couldn't resist adding them to the list purely based on their name. Passion fruits are a great all-rounder, full of key nutrients and fibre and rich in antioxidants which can boost your immune system according to this article.