Eggfruits, Pouteria campechiana - Sapotaceae, also known as canistel or yellow sapote, are a Mexican / Central American native fruit ("Southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and El Salvador") that grows very well in the warmer parts of Florida. I purchase or trade for them through the winter, their main harvest season, as I did this week. I let them sit indoors until them soften, then I gently cut the slightly sweet, cake-like flesh into pieces and drop them loosely into widemouth mason jars. Cut sections of eggfruit that I will place in my freezer along with a bowl of fresh seeds ready to plant. I peeled these ones as they had some sooty mold (appearing as grayish-black smudges) on the skin. When the fruits are cleaner looking on the tree with no mold, I wash them gently and cut them skin and all. The fruits usually contain between two to four seeds. The wide mouths don't crack, unlike the "regular mouths", which may crack when frozen with fruit inside. This batch, which I purchased for $3 per pound from a Thai gardener that I know at the Mustang Market near St. Pete, equated to $2.50 per jar to fill. Some online shippers charge over $20 per pound... eeks.
Soft and ripe... Florida-grown eggfruits
They are wonderful when eaten raw, made into pies, custards, ice cream, etc. One deeeelicious eggfruit pie.... made by Julia Corbett Smoothies made with frozen eggfruits are cream-a-licious! "In milk shakes they taste like eggnog." I have an old Champion juicer which I have run the frozen pieces through with the juicing cover attachment added. The result is 100% raw creamy eggfruit ice cream that is suberb! Also, I save the seeds for planting within a day or two as they are quite perishable! "Superior varieties must be propagated by grafting (side-veneer or cleft) or budding (patch) onto seedling rootstock. Canistel may also be propagated by marcottage (air-layering), although this is not common." "Trompo" is one of my favorite varieties and may fruit twice a year, from September through October and February through May. A number of other varieties will fruit from fall through winter or spring (September through March). I have been told multiple times that "Fairchild #2" may fruit all year long. "Fairchild" Eggfruit, harvested at the USDA Subtropical Research Station, Coral Gables, FL. Photo by Pete Kanaris "Trees are only moderately cold tolerant, but young trees are damaged or killed at or below 29°F (-1.6°C) and mature trees at 23°F (-5°C)." "Observations suggest that well cared for mature trees produce 100 to 200 lbs (45–90 kgs) per year." "Canistel is high in potassium and vitamins." EGGFRUITS ROCK!
