Harvest to Table

Slice a fresh passion fruit in half, place it in the palm of your hand and enjoy its juicy, slightly musky sweet-tart tropical flavor with a spoon. Both the fruit and juice of the passion fruit combines well with other fruits and juices, especially tropical fruits. In addition to being eaten fresh, passion fruit can [...]

A banana is a banana is a banana, if you know your bananas. There are bananas for eating out of hand, and there are bananas for cooking, and then there bananas for eating out of hand and for cooking. If you think of a banana as simply a long, tapered, yellow fruit then you are [...]

Plantains have a mild squash-like or potato-like or sweet potato-like flavor with a faint sweetness reminiscent of a banana. Well, you’ll have to taste the plantain to decide. Exactly what flavor you ascribe to the plantain will, no doubt, have something to do with how it’s been prepared. The plantain is a fruit–a very close [...]

The flesh of the pineapple is sweet and juicy and is best eaten raw in slices, wedges, or cubes. Cut a fresh pineapple in half lengthwise, leaving on the top leaves. Cut out the core and carefully cut the flesh away from the rind in one piece. Slice the flesh into wedges. Refill the shell. [...]

Fannie Farmer’s cookbook has been around since 1896. It gets to the essence of mango preparation when it suggests: “Cut in half lengthwise and remove the stone. Eat with a spoon.” That pretty much covers it! The mango—many would say–is the world’s most delicious fruit. Its delicate flavor is a cross between a pear and [...]

Serve guava slices on pancakes or waffles in the morning. In the evening, pair guava slices with a mild white cheese for dessert. You can even put guava slices in a baggy and send them to school or work in place of a candy bar. The guava has the sweet flavor of a strawberry or [...]

The peak season for dates is from mid autumn through mid winter, October through January in the northern hemisphere. Select plump, shiny dates. Stay away from dates that are too sticky or covered with crystallized sugar. Most dates will need to be pitted before they can be used for cooking or eating out of hand. [...]

Is there anything tastier than a date oatmeal cookie? Well, perhaps, a Deglet Noor of Khadrawy date eaten out of hand. Or perhaps, a spinach, date, and orange salad with honey dressing. Or perhaps a date stuffed with cream cheese or Brie or with a mix of chopped apple and bacon. You see, there are [...]

Got cherimoya? Got spoon? You are ready for a tasty pineapple-papaya-banana-pear flavored treat that deserves its aliases “custard apple” and “sherbet fruit”. The cherimoya is nothing less than a tropical dessert on the half shell. The cherimoya’s flesh is juicy and creamy custardy. Its sweet flavors will swirl in your mouth. There are only one [...]

Slice the persimmon down to the stem base once and then twice and lay it open like a flower. You can then enjoy its delightful sweet and cool flesh spoonful by spoonful. Some say the persimmon has a pumpkin flavor mixed with allspice and cinnamon. You will surely find it exotically sweet and very juicy. [...]