So, last night I read about the tariffs that Trump placed on Colombia and the retaliatory 50% tariff that Colombia said it would impose on the US. Of course, I bought two coffee plants at 11:30pm. I don’t drink much coffee, but my wife drinks two cups a day. If she doesn’t, she gets cranky. So I figured the cost of a couple of coffee plants was well worth the precaution against future headaches, plus I’ve been looking for useful plants with red berries.
Over the Edge
I had been thinking about buying both coffee and tea plants anyway. The news of the tariffs kind of just pushed me over the edge. This morning I was kind of relieved to find that both sides had backed down from imposing tariffs. So that was a quick international incident. It’s unfortunate that the source of the trade issues was due to Trump deporting some immigrants back to Colombia using military aircraft. Apparently, Colombia would have been fine with accepting deportees on commercial flights. However, Trump felt the need to feel like a strong man while playing with people’s lives.
I bought the plants from Logee’s online store. I also got a Maypop passion fruit and everbearing dwarf black mulberry tree along with the coffee and tea plants. I’ve had my eye on all of these for a while, but yesterday was the day. Maypop is a vigorous tropical-looking flower and fruit that is native to the southeastern U.S. Therefore, it is great for permaculture homesteaders. It’s cold hardy down to zone 6. Additionally, it is a vining plant and has one of the coolest looking flowers I’ve ever seen.
The black mulberry tree should be a great tree for producing blackberry-like fruits with little to no effort. However, it is not a species of mulberry native to the US. That honor goes to the red mulberry tree. So, I intend to keep the dwarf black mulberry inside in a pot for fruit for myself. I will then plant a few red mulberry trees outside in the Spring. It looks like this nursery called Cold Stream Farm in MI has reasonable prices.