Harvesting Passon Fruit. When are they ripe? Freezing the pulp #GardenCuizine #JerseyFresh

Harvesting Passion Fruit

Stage 2

Stage 1: Grow Passion Flower vines.  

Stage 2 brings us to yielding and harvesting Passion Fruits.

We allowed our passion fruit vines to take over Mom's tomato raised bed. Their spiral tendrils gripped the San Marzano supports allowing the vines to quickly grow up towards the sky. Throughout the summer we enjoyed a spectacular show of extraordinary purple blooms. Passion flowers last for just a day before developing into fruit.  

The vines grew to the top of each tomato support and formed a huge canopy. We soon discovered abundant, lime-sized, green fruits dangling beneath the vines. Unlike limes, passion fruit skins were smooth.

At first, we weren't sure how to tell when they were ripe. But, it didn't matter once I heard the weather was going to dip to our first frost. I decided to pick all that I could gather before they were ruined. Some fruits were small, but I picked them anyway. Ideally, a longer growing season would have been nice. It would have been best to allow the fruits to ripen on the vines and fall to the ground.

Our passion fruit harvest filled 2 large colanders! The majority of fruits were firm so I left them out on the kitchen counter this past week. As they ripened, the skin color changed from lime green to a paler, yellow-green and the skins got crinkly and soft. And, the flesh around the small, watermelon-like seeds was juicy and translucent when ripe.

Today, I decided to sacrifice a fresh picked firm fruit to see if there was a difference between the pulp of a paler, soft fruit vs a greener firm one. Test for ripeness by pressing the outside of the fruit with a finger - like poking a finger into yeast-risen bread dough to check readiness. Soft, ripe fruit will leave an indent; those are the ones I've been washing and cutting in half first. 

The pulp easily scoops out with a spoon leaving 3 rows of pithy, weird-looking bands along the inside walls of the fruit, which I imagine taste bitter like the pith of a lemon or lime. I tossed the skins in the compost and saved the juicy seeds in a storage container and froze it. I've been adding more to the container as the fruits ripen. 

There are different types of flamboyant passion flowers that yield different tasting fruits. For example, purple, more juicy fruits from Passiflora edulis, known as lilikoʻi in Hawaii, and some yield more banana-like shaped fruits. Ours is commonly known as Maypop - Passiflora incarnata.

Stay tuned for Stage 3 - Passion Fruit Recipes and Nutrition Data! 
Blog post and photos Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.

Passion Flower vines - friend or foe in the veggie garden? #gardenchat #GardenCuizine

Passion Flowers!

Passiflora incarnata

At first I thought we had volunteer cow peas popping up in the garden, until a gardening friend who was visiting early spring said, "Those look like purple Passion Flower vines." Well, sure enough, she was right! I should have realized it was Passion flower too because the seedlings popped up (hence the nickname Maypop) nearby where we had grown a plant in a whiskey barrel last year. What a nice surprise! 

Passion flowers yield edible fruits. I remember making passion fruit sorbet when I worked at The White Dog Cafe; the flavor was well liked. Growing passion fruit would be a first for us since we've never had luck in the past growing plants from seedlings. Last years plant was started from seed and viola! This year the vines are everywhere. 

We decided to let a few vines stay in the raised bed that Mom built. The vigorous vines have climbed to the very top of our tallest tomato supports already. Sunlight still trickles through to our sauce tomatoes below: San Marzano and Goldman's. Will we regret this? 

Passion vines can grow to 20 feet. Ours are traveling along the garden fence with some plants growing alongside the tomatoes. They are casting some shade above the tomatoes; but, for now, we're letting them grow out of curiosity of the flowers and to see if they bear any fruit.

The purple, artistic, blooms and spiral tendrils sure add interest and beautiful color to the garden. Stay tuned for updates and Passion Fruit nutrition data.
 
Related Links
Passion Fruit

Photo and blog post Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.

Pawpaw Fruit #GardenCuizine What is Asimina triloba? #gardenchat Eastern US Native

American Pawpaw Fruit

On a recent South Jersey Wildlife Garden Tour we explored Shoshana's garden, a homeowner in Cumberland County NJ. She greeted us with exotic Pawpaw fruits (Asimina triloba). I had only seen them in a garden catalog years ago and didn't know you could grow the trees in New Jersey.

According to Shoshana, "They sucker beautifully," meaning they can form a grove. Pawpaw trees produce the largest fruits native to North America. Typical to most fruits, pawpaw fruit is an excellent source of Vitamin C. Kentucky State University researchers report that nutritionally, pawpaw fruit has about as much dietary fiber as an apple and is most similar in composition to bananas. Rutgers New Jersey Agriculture Experiment Station reports that it's rare to see pawpaw fruit in markets and come to think of it, I never have.

The fruit Shoshana gave us weren't ripe yet (they ripen in the fall), so I don't know what they taste like; she said they taste good. Writers for Kentucky State University's Pawpaw research project* describe the taste as a blend of tropical fruits such as banana, pineapple and mango. Sounds delicious! I bet they would taste great in a healthy fruit smoothie.

Scientific studies in 1980's and 1990's by researchers at Purdue University discovered compounds from pawpaw bark extracts may have beneficial effects on killing cancer cells. Since then there has not been enough scientific evidence to make claims supporting the effectiveness of pawpaw for any condition.

For those interested in growing native Pawpaw fruit trees: the trees are attractive and small and can be considered "edible landscaping" - they bloom in the spring. The blooms are among my favorite colors, deep, dark, chocolate. 

Related Links

Kentucky State University Paw Paw Program

Jersey Local, Exotic and Native

Growing Pawpaws

Blog post and photo Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.