Quote:
Originally Posted by alpha010
THAT, looks like a banana ball! what kind of flavor to that and how big does that tree/shrub/bush need to be to fruit? I wish I lived in tropics!
|
Hey Shaggy, it tastes like an annona but to me it's more buttery and not too sweet. Nice. It didn't make it as a commercial crop cos of it's short shelf life. It gets to be as big as an American football. The tree gets to be 40ft tall and is supposed to fruit by the 3rd yr after planting. I paid just under $3 for the fruit in the pix. You can see my hand for size comparison.
Harv, thanks for the
Rare Fruits link. I am not a
fruit guy but I grew this out of curiosity. I think it looks real cool! If we were to start a new thread on Tropical Fruits, I think you guys will enjoy it cos together with Thailand we do have heck lots of weird and nice eating stuff. At our nursery before I teamed up with Francis, he has like more than 10 different types of fruits of which I didn't care less. He started with about 300 Nangka aka Jackfruit trees.
Lastly, some notes on Wild Rambutan species,
Nephelium lappaceum ;
There are like about 10 different species of the original jungle plant in M'sia. All of them have small sour tasting fruits with a thin pulp.
The thing I hate about harvesting rambutans is that they are always full of the Kerannga Ants aka Weaver Ants,
Oecophylla smaragdina. When you harvest the fruits, they will be all over you and you will experience pain from every direction. In Thailand, they introduce this ant species to the rambutan cultivars as a natural pesticide. Within the the tree, they make nests out of dried leaves and they are everywhere! They will attack and eat any other insect which comes into its domain. Over there the eggs of these ants is considered a delicacy. I have eaten it, well, so-so in taste except they make a cute
pop-pop in the mouth.
