Friday, January 26, 2007

The jaca tree

Perhaps the most unusual fruit tree that we have encountered here in Brazil is the jaca tree. They grow very large and make any tree-climbing fan salivate. The leaves provide very nice shade, and the tree itself is nice to look at. The most distinguishing feature of the jaca tree however, is its fruit. A small jaca fruit weighs about ten pounds (4 Kg) when full-grown, and a large one can easily weigh more than 20 lbs. As with a few other things here in Brazil, people tend to either love it or hate it. The fruit is white and very sweet, but it's very difficult to eat since the skin is tough and must be removed and then the fruit is sectioned into little dinner-roll sized balls held together by a sticky substance. Let's just say eating a jaca is messy, and they don't keep well once the skin has been removed. Cary had some once, and liked it, but somebody else did the peeling. When we had one given to us one time, it ended up going rotten because we didn't know how to get at it. The tree grows all over our area of Brazil, so if you're ever in southeast Brazil, give it a try.