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Jamaican Fruits
Ackee
A tropical evergreen tree that grows about 30 feet tall, with leathery leaves and fragrant white flowers. Its fruit is pear shaped, bright red to yellow-orange, and when ripe, splits open to reveal three large, shiny black seeds, surrounded by soft, creamy or spongy, white to yellow flesh.
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Coconut
This member of the palm family, yields fruit all year long. Coconut is edible in both its green and mature forms. When buying a coconut, pick one that is heavy in the hand, hold it to your ear and shake gently. The water inside should splash about
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Avocado Pear
The only connection with a pear is its shape. The avocado ranges from small and oval to large and pear-shaped, with skin that can be smooth and shiny or leathery and wrinkled, and a colour varying from bright green to deepest purpose. Always, though, the flavour remains the same.
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Bananas
A light sprinkling of brown speckles on the skin is the sign of ripeness to look for, and does not mean that the fruit is going bad!. The More speckled the skin, the better the banana will taste. Always allow bananas to ripen at room temperature.
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Breadfruit
A good source of vitamin C, breadfruit is the size of a large melon. Unripe, they are green and their flesh resembles a potato - hard, white, and starchy. Breadfruit is used in savoury and sweet dishes according to its ripeness.
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Calabaza, West Indian Pumpkin
Terms for a number of large squashes or pumpkins used in island stews and vegetable dishes. Hubbard and butternut squash are similar in flavor and make the best substitutes.
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Cerasse / Chinese Bitter Melon
This fruit is edible when harvested green and cooked. The taste is bitter. Cerasse can also be used to make a tea that is said to be able to cure ailments from indigestion to Cancer.
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Cocoa
All chocolate products come from the cocoa. The fruits are red when young and green when mature. The fruit of the cacao grows directly on the trunk of the tree and main branches. It has very small white flowers and the tree develop fruits after about five years.
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Coolie Plum
The small reddish fruit comes from a small to medium sized tree that can grow up to 40ft. The hard "nut" inside the fruit contains two seeds.
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Chow-Chow / Chayote of Christophene
Pear shaped member of the melon family. Various types smooth and oblong to the deeply-ridged and pear shaped.
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Green Bananas
Hog Plum - The yellowish plum is related to the mango, cashew, and ambarella.
The "real" name is the mombin.
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Guinep
A small, grape-like fruit with a green skin and a large seed surrounded by a thin layer of sweet, fleshy pulp.
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Grapefruit
The grapefruit is a subtropical citrus tree grown for its bitter fruit which was originally named the "forbidden fruit" of Barbados. When buying always buy large, firm fruit with a fine-grained skin that is heavy for its size.
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Guavas
Guavas have yellow or green skin and white, pink or dark-red edible flesh. Shaped like a pear, they are great thirst quenchers and contain a lot of vitamin C. and iron.
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Jackfruit
Jackfruit has a hard “spiky” outside shell and the inside fruit is yellowish with a sweet taste and aroma. It contains anywhere from 100 - 500 oval seeds.
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Jew (June) Plum
These egg-sized fruits are borne in clusters of up to a dozen or more. Fruits are thick-skinned, fibrous, and drop from the tree while green. Before turning yellow, the flesh is crisp and somewhat acidic.
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Limes
Caribbean limes have light yellow skins when ripe, though they are often picked green because they go bad rapidly when ripe. When overripe, they turn yellow and are an excellent source of vitamin C.
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Mammy / Mammy Apple
These are quite large and heavy. It has a thick light brown skin and its taste can be compared to that of a mango. Each tree can grow up to 75 feet and can yield 300 to 400 fruits.
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Mangoes
Most mangoes start off with a dark green skin colour and develop patches of gold, yellow, or red as they mature. The skin is smooth and encloses yellow to orange flesh that is softly moist and richly flavoured. There are hundreds of different varieties of mangoes.
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Naseberry
The flesh varies from yellow to shades of brown and sometimes reddish-brown, and may be smooth or of a granular texture. The flavour is sweet and pleasant, ranging from a pear flavour to crunchy brown sugar. Fruits can be
seedless, but usually have from 3 to 12 hard, black, shiny, flattened seeds.
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Ortanique
A cross between an orange and a tangerine, it has orange-yellow sin and sweet juicy orange coloured skin.
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Otaheite Apple / Malay Apple
The fruit is oblong to pear shaped with a dark red skin and white flesh; sometimes it is seedless.
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Papaya / Paw-Paw
Sometimes known as the ‘tree melon’. The papaya is a short-lived, fast-growing, tree that can grow up to 10 or 12 feet in height. The flesh is bright orange or pinkish, depending on variety, with small black seeds clustered in the centre.
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Passion Fruit
The nearly round or ovoid fruit, has a tough rind that is smooth and waxy and ranging from dark purple with faint, fine white specks, to light yellow or pumpkin-colour.
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Pineapple
A ripe, fresh pineapple, with its spiky leaf crown, will be fragrant and juicy and will ‘give’ slightly under pressure. It should be free of blemishes, when cut open, a long ‘woody’ core can be seen running lengthways through the centre, which should be removed.
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Plantain
Technically a banana-family fruit, but generally regarded as a vegetable. Inedible raw, cooked plantains are served as appetizers or starchy side dishes. The unripe (green), ripe (yellow) and very ripe (dark) plantains are used in Caribbean cooking. They become slightly sweet as they ripen.
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Pomegranate
Pomegranate trees can grow up to 20 feet tall with glossy, evergreen leaves. The sweet-sour fruit has numerous seeds that make up more than 50% of the fruit.
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Rose Apple
The fruits are 1 - 2 inches wide, almost round or a little longer than wide. When ripe they may be greenish or dull-yellow flushed with pink. The skin is smooth and thin, and the firm flesh yellowish, sweet and rose scented.
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Sorrel
An annual plant, it is used in jelly and in juice. The leaves and young stems are edible and used in salads or cooked as a vegetable. Powdered dried red sorrel is added to commercial herb teas such as Red Zinger for flavour and colour.
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Soursop
The pulp of this fruit is creamy and may be eaten as is or used to make ice cream and as a juice. The fruit is large, can weigh as much as six pounds, and take between 20 and 25 weeks to reach maturity. The tree of this fruit may reach a height of about thirty feet.
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| Star-apple
Fruit can be purple or green depending on the variety. When cut in half there is an attractive star pattern. The flesh is sweet and tastes very smooth and aromatic.
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Starfruit
Tart or acidy-sweet star-shaped fruit used in desserts, as a garnish for drinks, tossed into salads or cooked together with seafood.
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Stinking Toe / ‘Tinkin’ Toes
A pod that resembles a human toe, this bizarre fruit possesses an evil-smelling and rough exterior. The sugary power inside can be devoured on the spot or turned into a flavourful custard or beverage. to alleviate headaches and rheumatism.
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Sweetsop / Sugar Apple
This fruit has somewhat of a purple knobby skin. It is very sweet and is eaten fresh. The inside white, juicy and creamy and contains black seeds.
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| Tamarind
Tamarind is a thick, dark brown or reddish-brown pulp surrounding small seeds inside a hard, brittle bean-shaped pod. The flavour of the pulp is both tart and sweet, resembling a combination of apricots, dates, and lemons.
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Ugli / Tangelo / Hoogly
Looks more like a lumpy grapefruit. It tastes delicious, a cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit, but sweeter with yellow-pink flesh that is very juicy
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