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| Famous Caribbean Fruits |
) A major income earner in the Caribbean, bananas are also a favourite food in the region. Green bananas are boiled and eaten as a staple food, while the ripe fruit are eaten raw or incorporated into several tasty recipes such as banana cake, and fritters. | )
(Starfruit, five fingers, Coolie Tamarind, Chinese Jimbelin) |
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Described as the 'Tree of Heaven', the coconut is so named because almost every part of the crop, from the roots, to the bark, to the fruit, is of some economic value. Throughout the Caribbean, coconut water is a preferred thirst quencher, while the 'milk' and 'meat' are used in preparing tasty dishes and pastries. | )
June Plum ( Jew Plum, Dew Plum, Golden Apple)
June plum can eaten green or ripe. June plum juice is made by blending the flesh with ginger and sweetening with sugar. |
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(Cachiman, Jamaican Apple, Snat Apple, Tjé-Bef) The fruit of the custard apple is heart-shaped with a thin skin that has a pinkish tinge when ripe. The pulp of the fruit is sweet, with a custard-like consistency, and is either eaten plain or used in making ices or fruit drinks. | )
'Guava' is the authentic Arawak name of this pungently scented fruit which is eaten raw when ripe or used for making the popular Guava Jelly or tinned guava nectar. The leaves of the tree are used in folk medicine with a popular Jamaican folk song claiming 'Guava root a medicine fe go cure di young gal fever'. |
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This fruit has a rough but thin skin with soft jelly-like flesh. The slightly tart guinep grows in bunches and are usually eaten a small bunch a time. The pulp is used, juiced with limes and/or ginger to make a refreshing drink | )
The large, cylindrical shaped jackfruit has a rough skin with which does little to mask the distinctively sweet odour of the succulent pulp inside. It is this pulp that is eaten, although in some countries the large seeds are cooked and eaten. |
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While they are used in much the same way, the small fragrant varieties of limes grown in the Caribbean are not to be confused with lemons. The fruit is used in lemonades while the leaf is popular as 'lime leaf tea'.
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The first mango plants brought to Jamaica arrived in 1782 aboard the HMS Flora - one of Lord Rodney's ships which captured the plant from a French ship on the high seas. There are many varieties of mango, usually distinguishable by shape and the consistency of the flesh. Eaten ripe, the fruit is aromatic, and the flesh is soft and sweet. Mango is also used to make nectar and ice-cream
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