Local Fruits

One thing tropical countries are known for is their fruit. I thought I would share some of them. Unfortunately I discovered I don't have pictures of everything. The main one I am missing is mangoes. Brent loves them and will eat a whole dish full if I let him. Everyone else eats them but they aren't a favorite. Oranges, lemons, and limes are all very common too.

Bananas are always handy to have around for a snack. And even though I don't care for bananas, these are good! Especially frozen with a bit of chocolate drizzled on them!

This is the only picture I have of star fruit. Its just the end of one. Kenny and Kelsey both love star fruit. They aren't super common. Someone told me they can grow them here but they aren't from here. So I take it they aren't a native plant.

The insides of a passion fruit. Another one that is available but not as common.

Papaya is very common. We have a tree at the edge of our yard. Sadly none of us like them very much. They have a very unique flavor.

They have a watermelon season and there will be watermelons stacked along the road for sale. Like huge stacks! One thing I have done with watermelon is ran it through the blender and froze it for slushies. They aren't as sweet as the ones we were used to.

And our hands down favorite fruit is pineapple. And no wonder! They are as sweet as candy! And I finally learned an efficient way to cut them! A lady stops at my door and sells pineapple and oranges. One day there were some men working there and I watched her cut a pineapple for them. Now I actually enjoy cutting pineapple! There is no need to remove the cores here because they are very soft. So the first thing you do is take a slice off the bottom.

Then you sit it upright and using the top for a handle to hold on to it, cut off the peel.

After you have the peel removed you stick your knife through just below the top and cut it in half and then turn it and cut it in half the other way. Now you have it cut in quarters, but still attached to the top.

Then you turn it sideways and slice into cubes! Still using your top for a handle.

And then you enjoy!! We did actually eat so many when we first got here that we got tired of them. But now we have them once or twice a week, usually when 'our fruit lady' comes to sell them.

Last week Kelsey saw a dish of pineapple that Mama Justina had cut. She had just sliced it without quartering it and Kelsey was fascinated that it looked like flowers. So the next time I sliced pineapple I had to try it too. I cut notches in the corners to give it more of a petal look before I sliced it. The children thought they were so much fun to eat! 

This is far from a complete list. But it is some of the ones that are common and that we eat frequently.