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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 27, 2009

Summer Fruit - Sugar Apples - Part Four

Aside from the small thin skinned yellow guavas that grow in the islands, my favorite fruit is the sugar apple. It too comes from the East Indies.

This rather ugly fruit holds within its knobby green skin a white meat with shiny black seeds. I have shown them here next to an orange to give you an idea of their size.

It is ripe when it is absolutely soft and mushy, and like its name implies, is wonderfully sweet, but not too sweet. Each knob is home to a seed that is surrounded by smooth textured meat. Between the skin and the base of seeds, which are loosely attached to the skin, there is a pasty sort of mush. It is kind of gritty, but has the same sweet flavor as the meat surrounding the seeds.

Here’s what a sugar apple looks like on the inside along with a few seeds. They just sort of fall apart when they are ripe.

I learned from my friend Vijaya that in India they are called sitafal, fruit of Sita. She was the wife of Rama, the epitome of wifely and womanly virtues, which might give you a clue as to the fruit's delicate and delectable flavor.

The tree they grow on is rather nondescript. It doesn’t get very big, perhaps 15 to 20 feet at the most and is rather rangy, with long spindly branches.

This is a young one about 3 years old grown from a seed. Maybe one day I will see it bear fruit.

14 comments:

  1. I wonder if they are the same family as sapotes? I love those for their custardy insides. They are green on outside, but smoother.

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  2. I would really like to try one someday! Thank you for educating me about Sugar Apples!

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  3. One of the great things about planting a seed and waiting for the tree to bear is the total appreciation you have when you finally tastes that fruit.

    I know that Sugar Apple when it comes will be the sweetest one you've ever tasted.

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  4. If only I could reach into the computer monitor ... yum.

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  5. That is one odd looking fruit and doesn't look quite as tasty as you describe it. But I believe you!

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  6. I'm getting the feeling my taste buds have not lived at all...I would love to try these...Hugs...

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  7. Tricia, I did a little research and they don't appear to be related.

    They are wonderful TattingChic. Thanks for stopping by!

    Lee, it will be a long time before that little tree bares fruit, in the mean time, at least I can find them being sold on the road-side.

    I wish you could too, Vijaya, because I know that you know what they taste like.

    They are yummy, C.R.!

    MG, It's a case of not juding a book errr, fruit, by its cover! :O

    Brenda, There are so many different things to try, so many different foods to eat. Alas, the world is so big, I'll never get to try them all....

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  8. Great pictures. I never even heard of these. Wow. Another reason to go to "the islands" (like I needed any more)

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  9. Thanks Anne. You don't need a reason to go to the islands. All you need is $$$. :O

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  10. It resembles an avacado plant. Hummmm I'd probably love it.

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  11. Sort of Kim. But an avacado tree can grow into a BIG tree, 60 to 70 feet. The sugar apple doesn't get much more than 20.

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  12. All these exotic fruits - I feel like I'm missing out! I hope to try them some day.
    I asked a friend from Argentina about the genips - I forgot what she called them, but she practically drooled just remembering them!

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  13. Amazıng. We've got a tree like that in our backyard right now; I'll be watching it very closely now.

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Your Random Thoughts are most welcome!