Sugar Apples

hi Pamela
we have sugar apples too! They are delicious when ripe. They are ready to eat when the "spaces" between the green globular "shapes" get wider and turn yellowish (now they are probably kind of white) and also the whole fruit gets very soft. You eat them by just kind of picking them apart and eating the custardy fruit inside, or you could spoon the fruit into a bowl. There are big black seeds in side so watch out for them. Enjoy!!!

Thanks! I am looking forward to them. What a strange looking fruit! Pamela

Generally once they are soft they are ready to eat.

RL

Hello Pamela,

Once they are getting ripe you might want to pick them and put them in a brown paper bag to finish ripening inside as the birds & insects like them too. Touch them now so you can see how hard they are... when they start getting softer and fuller they are getting ripe. And when they are quite soft, they are ready to eat. You should be able to tear it in two with your hands when its ripe and then you can eat the inside flesh. Spit out the seeds. Enjoy.

--Islander

Pamela,

I have one too. It is growing beside our sidewalk and we keep having to trim it back. We were almost going to get rid of it until a neighbor told us what it was. The fruit looks like a green pine cone or something. I had never heard of it before. I am going to explore my yard some more. I may have some more hidden treasures! Anyone know how a guava grows? I can't eat mangos so maybe I can grow some guava fruit? I have a lime tree which has produced some great limes, so I am getting better at this gardening thing.

Teresa

Hello Teresa,

Look into buying a young guava tree and planting it. If you like papaya, they grow easily. Passionfruit is good too, it grows on a vine. 🙂

--Islander

Now I am REALLY getting jealous! Sugar Apples, no yet.

I grew up in South Africa and of all the wonderous fruits available they were by far my favorite. As kids, we used to thread the seeds and make necklaces. Here, in New York City, they cost the earth.

Enjoy them. You are very lucky.

Angela

I have a sugar apple, a/k/a custard apple, tree in my parking lot. I'm continuously protecting it from insidious vines which try to strangle both it and the WAPA line above it and I also prune it from time to time to ensure it's health and continued vitality.

I was enchanted by Angela's response about stringing the black pits into necklaces in South Africa. There's a vine which grows here but I haven't seen much of it lately, which produces red and black-speckled "beans" which years back used to be strung into beads and made into purses and other decorative ornaments. Well, and correct me if I'm wrong, Ronnie, but although everyone local knew that they were poisonous if eaten (and who would want to chomp on them anyway?) their use in beaded ornaments became taboo under Federal guidelines and thus another little local marketing thing hit the dust.

I'm almost surprised that the manchineel trees haven't yet been unceremoniously chopped down. There are still many of them on St. John but it seems fewer and fewer on STT and I can't speak for STX.

A discussion on genips will follow! Cheers!

STT Resident,
If you take the seeds out of the Tantan pods, put them in enough water to cover then microwave for about a minute they become soft enough to string. I've done some fun necklaces, bracelets and even garlands for the Xmas palm tree out of them. Do as many as you can string before they get cold because they don't nuke so well as second time.
Pamela

The jumbi beads I have seen growing wild are in Peterborg. Only place I can find them. They are all over the plac! Some folks boil them for medicinal purposes.

RL

Hello Ronnie,

For what medicinal purpose?

I had heard that before and looked them up in a book on poisonous plants and they were listed as poisonous and deadly to some animals.

You are a more reliable source then the prior person that told me about it so now you have me rehashing this and trying to find the photocopies I had made about the jumbi beads being poisonous :).

So what is it used for? When you say boil it - like a tea?

--Islander

I will have to ask the lady I bring them for.

RL