Blog Schedule

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.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Summer Fruit - Hog Plumbs - Part Five

This is my last entry on summer fruit. Perhaps I have saved the best for last. But didn't I say sugar apples and guavas were my favorite? I wasn't lying

...but...

hog plums are my favorite fruit is too. About the size of a grape tomato, they have a large seed inside. There isn’t a lot of meat, but when you pop one in your mouth and break the skin they burst open with a surprising amount of wonderful sweet citrusy juice. The skin in edible, but doesn’t have much flavor and so I don’t usually eat it.

Hog plums are native to the Caribbean Basin, but I don’t know if they are indigenous to the Virgin Islands or if they were brought here by the Taino Indians. Like mangoes, they are part of the Sumac family which includes mango, pistachio, cashew, and poison ivy. If one is allergic to mangoes, one might be allergic to hog plums, which is too bad because they are so flavorful. On the other hand that just leaves more for me.

I love their color. Eye candy for an artist.


Here’s what one looks like after it’s been eaten (by me of course.)

See the juice? Hmm, hmmm good.

7 comments:

  1. Wow -- that is amazing! I thought I knew all the exotic fruits there were, but clearly I don't. And I never knew mangoes and poison ivy were in the same family either.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your posts leave me hungry, even if I've just eaten. These fruits sound delicious and the nostalgia you express in your descriptions is delightful.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't think I've ever come across this. Sounds refreshing. One thing about travelling that I love is eating all the food.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Huh. I've never had hog plums. They kind of look like persimmons. Fascinating. Thanks for teh post!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have to admit...hog plums didn't sound too tasty, but they look wonderful...grin...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Mary, I think there are a lot of fruits out there that I don't know about either. The world is such a BIG place!

    Thanks MG. It's hard to describe flavors and smells, but it's fun trying.

    I'm with you Vijaya. What's the point of going someplace new and eating a MacBurger? Just this summer while in Puerto Rico I ate a Puerto Rican dish I'd never had before, called mofungo. Delicious, even if the name sounds like it has something to do with a fungus!

    Suzanne, I guess they do kind of look like persimmons, but taste and texture are differnt.

    LOL Brenda! I think they probably got that local name because hogs liked to eat them. Which is understandable because they are so tasty.

    ReplyDelete
  7. These sound great. I can't wait for Nichelle to get home from SE Asia because I'm sure she'll have similar stories of foods I've never heard about.

    ReplyDelete

Your Random Thoughts are most welcome!