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I post on Monday with an occasional random blog thrown in for good measure. I do my best to answer all comments via email and visit around on the days I post.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Summer Fruit - Genips - Part Two


As you may be able to see from the above picture genips are grape-sized fruit. They grow in bunches on large beautiful trees that have a smooth silvery-gray bark. This is a picture of a male tree. It is about 40 feet tall. Males do not bare fruit.

Genips are tart/sweet. Beneath the green shell, which you can easily break open with your teeth, is peach colored meat covering a large seed.

Here are before an after pictures. Open and ready to eat.

And eaten.

Kids without genips in the summer is like Christmas without Santa. My sister and I, along with all the other kids, knew which trees produced the sweetest genips, which trees were the easiest to climb. We had spitting contests to see who could spit the green shells the farthest. To spit a shell, you put one half of it over the tip of your tongue and then propel it off your tongue with a force of air, just as you would propel a good hawker.

Genips are native to South America and have become naturalized throughout the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America. More than likely they made the journey up the Caribbean chain with the Taino Indians. Although I’ve never had them, the seeds after being roasted can be eaten or ground into a meal. Genips also make a very nice jelly.

A little know fact is the original key-lime pie was made with genips, not limes.

11 comments:

  1. Yum. I bet they're delicious. They remind me of some of the fruits in Hawaii.

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  2. I have never even heard of this fruit! Sounds yummy!

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  3. I've never heard of that before. It's pretty...and looks scrumptious!

    hugs,
    Donna

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  4. I've never heard of genips before...they look juicy...

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  5. I've never heard of this before. It sounds and looks yummy. I love hearing about your childhood.

    (p.s. did you get my e-mail?)

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  6. Genips will never make to your local grocery store. They can't be picked green to ripen later because they won't. And they can't be picked ripe and shipped because the skins shrivel up and they go bad. The only good genip is a genip you pick and eat right off the tree.

    You'll all just have to visit the Caribbean in the late summer, August and September is best to try these little treats.

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  7. Genips are one fruit I haven't tasted, but it seems I've missed a treat. I wonder if they're similar to quince. Guess I'll have to find out.

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  8. How can it be that I've never heard of these? Where have they been all my life? I must be hungry/thirsty, because that photograph has gotten me very interested in dinner. Too bad I can't have something with genips...

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  9. I've never heard of these! They're so small and the seed is so big - they must be delicious to go to that trouble. I'll have to ask my husband if he's had them.
    And how about genip juice? Could it come bottled?

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  10. As the child of a military father growing up in Panama, I loved sucking on these! I now live in Austin, Texas, US and can't find them any where. I would LOVE to introduce my kids to these... :-(

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