Kumquats have a sweet rind and zesty tart flesh. You can eat them raw out of hand like a grape or slice them and toss them in a salad. Kumquats look like small oranges. They are seldom larger than 1¼ inches (3 cm) across, about the size of a quail’s egg. The rind is thick […] More
Cranberries are bright red to reddish-orange berries that grow to about ¾ inch in diameter. The cranberry plant is a low-growing trailing vine that grows best in low-lying sandy bogs. Cranberries are native to North America and northern Europe and take their name from the shape of their pale pink blossoms that resemble the heads […] More
The stalks of lemongrass are commonly used in the kitchen. Lemongrass is a subtropical plant. Lemongrass is flavorful fresh rather than dry. It is popular in Southeast Asian cookery. It can be used to season soups, vegetables, curries, poultry, shellfish, fish, and marinades. Use lemongrass to make herbal teas. Lemongrass is a member of the […] More
There are bananas for eating out of hand, and there are bananas for cooking, and then there are 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 missing out on some very colorful and very tasty bananas. Some bananas […] More
There are all different, shapes, sizes, and colors of plums to be tried. Ripe plums can range in texture from firm to slightly soft. They can range in flavor from deliciously sweet to tasty- tart. Plums can be pink, red, scarlet, purple, blue-black, green, yellow, or amber-skinned. Their flesh can be yellow, green, pink, red, […] More
The prickly pear is a cactus fruit that is actually a berry. The pulp of the prickly pear is sweet and moist with an aroma and flavor similar to a combination of the tastiest tropical and subtropical fruits, strawberry, watermelon, honeydew melon, fig, and banana. The salmon or pink to magenta-colored flesh of the prickly […] More
Olives are fruits. They are either cured for table consumption or pressed for cooking oil. Black olives are ripe. Green olives are not. Green olives have a salty, tart taste. Black olives have a smooth, mellow taste. Ways to serve olives Olive fruit is most often served as an appetizer or added to salads, meat, […] More
Olive oil is made by gently crushing and pressing olives until the oil is separated from the fruit pulp. The flesh of a ripe olive is about half oil. When the skin of a just ripe olive is broken, the first oil to flow from the flesh is called “virgin”, “sublime” or “first expressed” oil. […] More
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 combine well with other fruits and juices, especially tropical fruits. In addition to being eaten fresh, passion fruit can […] More
Blackberry, brambleberry, dewberry, boysenberry, loganberry, marionberry, olallieberry: blackberry is the collective name for a large group of fruits in the same genus. Blackberries are also called brambles and brambleberries, particularly in England. The boysenberry, loganberry, marionberry, and ollalieberry are common names for popular blackberry varieties or hybrids ‘Boysen’, ‘Logan’, ‘Marion’, and ‘Olallie’. Dewberries are almost […] More
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 […] More
If you have seen the fingered citron–known as Buddha’s hand, you will have not forgotten. Hanging from the tree, it looks like a bright yellow, multi-tentacled octopus, and sitting on a tabletop it looks like–well, the hand of the Buddha, that is the bright yellow version. Besides the Buddha’s hand, there is also a non-fingered […] More
Stephen Albert