By: Danny Berger

So it feels like forever since anything new has been posted on our blog (which it essentially has, 329 days to be exact), so we’re going to make more of an effort to post more consistently about things we find interesting, as well as about local southwest Florida topics.

Anyhow, last Monday’s solar eclipse here in southwest Florida was a little underwhelming to me. If I hadn’t known that there was going to be a solar eclipse, I wouldn’t have noticed any difference outside during the actual eclipse. To me, the sky in southwest Florida during the eclipse looked a little bit hazy for a minute or so. I guess I was expecting the sky to be a little darker and for the temperature to drop a few degrees, like on a cloudy day here. Even though I thought that the solar eclipse was going to bring more of a noticeable change to the sky here in southwest Florida, it was nevertheless cool to see it through the special solar eclipse glasses. But with all the talk about the solar eclipse being able to damage your eyes if you looked at the sun without the proper eye protection, it got me to think about if plants can actually get damaged by the sun, or ever sunburned. I had heard somewhere that citrus trees and other tropical fruit trees can get sunburned, and a few days after the solar eclipse, a video by SciShow coincidentally popped up on my YouTube newsfeed about plants and sunburn. According to SciShow, plants can actually get sunburned (just like I had thought all along), see how in their video below:

By: Danny Berger

​Sangria is one of the ultimate summertime drinks for us, especially when it’s made with tropical ingredients. We find ourselves enjoying this drink recipe more and more because our version is simple to make, fruity, and is especially refreshing when it’s hot outside (it’s pretty hot in southwest Florida for most of the year!).
 
We’ve heard people say that sangria has no rules, and neither does ours, hence the reason we call the following recipe a “base” recipe. Absolutely feel free to deviate from our base recipe and play around with other rums, tropical fruit, and tropical fruit juices/nectars/purees in order to find out what works best for you. We hope that our base recipe provides a good start in finding your favorite homemade tropical sangria, happy sangria making!
 
Ingredients:

• 750ml bottle of white wine (we like sauvignon blanc)
• 4 to 8 ounces of rum (optional)
  • Fruit flavored rums, especially coconut, make a nice addition
• 16 ounces of tropical fruit juice, nectar, puree, etc.
  • We often use 4 oz of guava nectar, 4 oz of mango nectar, 4 oz of passionfruit juice, and 4 oz of pineapple juice
• Tropical fruit
  • Starfruit, mango, and tangerines/oranges are what we typically use

 
Directions:
1) Pour one 750ml bottle of white wine into a pitcher
2) Add 4 to 8 oz of your favorite rum to the pitcher (optional)
3) Pour 16 ounces of your preferred tropical fruit juice, nectar, puree, etc. into the pitcher
4) Slice up your favored tropical fruit and add it to the pitcher
5) Stir and enjoy right away, or let it sit covered in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight
 
Watch how to make:

By: Danny Berger

​This video by SciShow explains how avocado trees have managed to survive into the 21st century against numerous odds, as well as why the seeds in avocados are so large. Checkout the avocado's extreme journey: