Which fruit did I buy?

[Wulfman]

hi guys,

sounds like a stupid question, but I have actually no idea. I got a bunch of these on the local market in Pemba/Tanzania. they seem to be rare even by local standards, and I couldn't even figure out the local name, nor what you are supposed to do with them. one guy said juice, but they seem to be a bit dry for that.



the outer leaves are apparently the interesting part, red-leathery outside, whitish inside. within is a greenish ball.

any ideas?
w

[Jammrock]

My wife thinks they are some kind of fig.

[degrub]

looks a bit like Rosella - make a tea, jam, wine , or juice them.

http://www.permacultureliving.com.au/2008-03/rosella-season.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roselle_%28plant%29

about a third of the way down

http://www.putriberendam.com/chicken/road-trip-part-2-desaru-fruit-farm/

[Wulfman]

great, thanks for the information - will try one of the recipes.

I'll probably have to use this thread again at some point. there is so much stuff available around here that you don't even hear about in Europe, much less can buy. case in point: "bungo fruit".

mfg
w

[Marshmallowman]

yup rosella , I have had them in the past. The edible part is just the red stuff.
It has nice tart flavour, I just use to chew on bits of it, but jam is the most wide spread use.

[Dr Mordrid]

We love carmbola (star fruit - tastes like a combo of papaya, grapefruit and orange),but you have to be careful eating it as it can reduce the effectiveness of several medications - somewhat like grapefruit does.

[Wulfman]

we have a rather sour variant of them in the garden as well. by accident we discovered a very nice way of eating them: slice & freeze, tastes like a lemon popsicle.

otherwise, I think I can finally beat brian for the most exotic garden: cinnamon tree, passions fruit vines everywhere, orange tree (quite a lot), pomegranate trees, coconut palms, avocado tree, pomelo tree (huge fruits!), banana palms (sadly only the starchy kind),...

mfg
w

[Brian Ellis]

I don't think my garden is really exotic; nothing you can't find in FL or CA.

Last night, we ate the last orange of the season; we have had constant citrus fruit (several pieces per day each plus gifts to friends) since 1 November, starting with clementines and ending with Jaffa and Merlin oranges. We still have plenty of lemons (can't use them all) and grapefruit (in previous years, we juiced/froze them for the rest of the year but this year I'm forbidden them as antagonistic to some of my medication and Margaret does not like them). My guestimate is that we ate 350-400 kg of citrus (clementine, mandarine, oranges, mandores, pomelo) and gave away at least another 100 kg. The average weight for the lemons this year is about 375 g ± 100 g each -- monsters!

The apricots and peaches have now set abundantly and look promising.

[Dr Mordrid]

Just putting in our acorn, zucchini and Waltham butternut squashes, pumpkins, various melons, spinach, broccoli, Swiss chard (red and green), lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes (several varieties) and early/late varieties of a very sweet and tender bi-color sweet corn known locally as "cream & sugar."

[Brian Ellis]

We put in sweet (green and coloured) and hot peppers, 3 types tomatoes and courgettes 3 weeks ago and they are doing well: lost one sweet pepper to a snail! As reduced mobility dictates, about 2/3 of our veggie patch is empty just now but must do something!

[Dr Mordrid]

We also planted peppers: habanero, jalapeno and Thai chilies, multiple colored sweet and the Indian bhut jolokia, which is so hot it's been described as being like eating a red hot piece of coal - 400 times hotter than Tobasco sauce and 4 times hotter than a habanero. Bhut jolokia Scoville rating: 1,100,000+ (jalapeno = 5,000 - 7,000)

[Wulfman]

what did I start?

mfg
w

[degrub]

Chilis are a competitive sport. Didn't you know ? They haven't succeeded in the quest for Qlympic qualification yet.....

[Dr Mordrid]

Not meant to be competitive, just sharing a love of peppers

Gawd, I really do love those flame-throwing little SOB's - especially sauteed in butter and served in 12 grain wheat sandwich for my evening snack.