Rare Fruit Council Meeting and Garden Activities

Today I went to a Rare Fruit Council meeting and learned about some fruit trees that grow in Mexico, South America and Africa. Most of the ones discussed do not tolerate Florida soil conditions. However, there were some people there who I know and one of them was selling passion fruit and another fruit called "sorrow" (see photo) because it is so bitter. You can only eat the inside of the passionfruit or use it to make a drink or in cooking. The sorrow is very bitter, and is best prepared by removing the seeds and cooking it in water with a cinnamon stick or two, then straining the juice and adding honey or sugar (Conversation with Sally Lee of the Rare Fruit Council)

. I am going to use honey because I prefer it over sugar and honey contains B vitamins and if it is local, can help with allergies to local pollens. I also bought some starfruit. I also picked up a few seeds for yardlong beans at the seed exchange. I found out that my little peanut butter plant that I planted a couple of months ago with a seed is going to be a tree, but that I can prune it to a large shrub size to avoid conflict with the homeowner's association.

Also, the frog in the photo I added today was still in the rooting jar when I returned hours later. I suspected that perhaps he or she could not get out, so I took out the philadendrons and got him out so that he or she would not be trapped. I suspect that the frog is hiding somewhere in the patio garden now.

Also, I watered a couple of the garden spots today and harvested a handful of tomatillos.

Thursday I worked with begonias at the USF Botanical Garden.

Tags: butter, fruit, honey, or, passionfruit, peanut, plant, roselle, sorrow

4 Comments

Comment by Rachel Kopit Cunha on January 15, 2008 at 1:55pm: Dear Stephanie,

I am a Brazilian psychologyst and translator . Read your comments about passion fruit, of which we have plenty in Brazil. I myself love its juice. There are two types of them, the sweet one is delicious too, but it is not so easy to find and is definetly more expensive. I love the sour one. It tastes delicious in pies and mousses too. As for the sorrow fruit, I have not tasted it yet, although it looks somehow familiar to me.

Best regards,

Rachel Kopit Cunha
raka@pib.com.br

Comment by Stephanie Fischetti on January 15, 2008 at 3:41pm: Hi Rachel,

Make sure that if you see a fruit like the one in the picture that it is the right one before preparing it. I think it might also be known as "rosette". It is usually served as a hot drink like mulled wine or hot apple cider in the Caribbean. Some people spike it, but I do not.

I have had sponge cake with passion fruit filling and buttercream frosting, and it was excellent.

Comment by Stephanie Fischetti on November 11, 2008 at 11:33am: On November 9, 2008 I attended another Rare Fruit Council meeting. The topic of the meeting was protecting fruit trees from frost. Ways to protect trees include watering, using an ongoing misting or drip irrigation system, banking sand around the trunks of trees and removing it after the cold weather, mulching, heating covered areas, using special blankets, and using electric Christmas lights. Also, protected areas such as areas near a heated building or under a tree were discussed. I purchased some more sorrow or roselle fruit, and picked up some tangelos and a cutting for a plant that is not a papaya but has papaya-shaped leaves. I intend to root the plant, because apparently you can cook the leaves of this tree or shrub and eat them like greens. Apparently the leaves have a horseradish flavor to them. I would not recommend eating any plant if there is a question about what type of plant it is. However, two experts told me that this particular plant was edible.

Comment by Stephanie Fischetti on January 6, 2009 at 5:01pm: The tree mentioned above with the edible leaves is known as a chaya plant, or tree spinach.

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